brain disorders movie reviews

Anastasia

1/14/2013

A young Russian princess loses her true identity and gradually regains it as reminders of her past emerge.

The Russian princess Anastasia, loses her family to the revolution then loses her identity after falling from a train and hitting her head while escaping with her grandmother. 10 years later, she leaves the orphanage to embark on a quest to find her identity and family. Although con men and evil characters try to take advantage of her, tokens, songs and memories from her past gradually emerge to jog her memory and reunite her with her grandmother and reveal her true identity.

The movie Anastasia does not label the identity loss of its main character as amnesia. However, it is implied that the head trauma and possibly the emotional trauma that Anastasia went through during the uprising and escape caused her to forget her name and her past. The movie perpetuates the myth that head trauma can lead to loss of identity. What’s different about Anastasia is the way her recovery is portrayed; she regains her memory more gradually than most other amnesiac movie characters. Anastasia is a heartwarming Disney movie that many children will like. It’s educational value is related to identifying what actually happens with head injury and discussing the various incidents in the movie (e.g. tokens, smells, dreams) that may be associated with jogging memory.

11 Comments

Cynthia Escajadillo

11/24/2013 03:03:33 am

Anastasia is a Walt Disney fairy-tale about a Russian princess who loses her identity after trying to escape from a revolution. My first impression when I first saw it as a child was that the reason she forgot her past life was because she was too young to remember after she fell off the train. Now that I came across this review, it seems pretty unrealistic.

I agree that her identity loss is not characterized as amnesia, but it deals more with an emotional trauma. Since she experienced something tragic as a child, it could have forced amnesia to an extent, especially after hitting her head. Her recovery was accurately portrayed throughout the movie with smells and dreams associated with the real life of the Grand Duchess. While this movie was focused on Anastasia finding her way back to her grandmother, the educational aspect of her memory was well portrayed.

Kendall

11/10/2016 02:19:49 pm

Not Disney.

Stephanie Hatala

2/28/2014 12:13:43 am

Anastasia is a movie loosely based on the urban legend that Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia survived the extermination of her family. The film tells the story of an eighteen year old orphan who has no memory of her past besides a locket that says "together in Paris", joining forces with two con men to meet the Grand Duchess and figure out her past. It is never directly stated that Anastasia has amnesia, but it is implied.

I agree that Anastasia does not exhibit amnesia but rather repressed memories from a traumatic childhood event. The main example of this is the fact that certain things (i.e. the music box, the smell of peppermint, dreams) remind Anastasia of her past. If she had retrograde amnesia, she would have absolutely no memory of her past and would not associate key objects and smells with her past. While the injury to her head could have forced post-traumatic amnesia, it is more likely that watching her entire family executed at the age of eight was traumatic enough to cause her to repress the memory of her past. Her recovery through guided imagery and smells is a realistic representation of recovering repressed memories.

Laura Sturzenegger

2/6/2015 07:25:26 am

Amnesia is a memory loss and revolves around unusual forgetfulness. Most people with amnesia also known as the amnestic syndrome have difficulty with learning new information or retaining any memories. In the movie Anastasia, she fell from the train she hit her head hard on the concrete. Amnesia occurs when you damage the limbic part of your brain, which is the vital area that helps retain memories. There are no treatments for this however there is physiological support to help exercise the brain memories. Until the end of the movie, Anastasia finally regains her memory when she see the music box and her grandmothers necklace.

Hannah Koenig

2/12/2015 05:23:22 am

Anastasia is a Disney cartoon movie about a Russian princess who loses her memory of who she is after trying to escape from the russian revolution to over through her monarch family. I Always thought as a kid that she got so badly hurt and scared that she made herself forgot who she is. I definitely agree that her identity loss is not characterized as amnesia, but it deals more with an emotional trauma. Since she experienced a great deal of emotional trauma and stress leading up to the train accident that separated her from her family. it could have forced amnesia since she did hit her head. Her recovery was rather accurately portrayed throughout the movie much to my surprise with smells and her dreams matching those with those of her former life as the Grand Duchess. While this movie was focused on Anastasia finding her way back to her grandmother, the educational aspect of her memory was well portrayed with her gradually remembering more and more until she could remember her childhood.

Tu Trinh Nguyen

3/6/2015 03:36:25 am

In the movie, the Grand Duchess was a small child of maybe 7 or 8 years old when the entire Russian royal family was attacked by a power-hungry sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil for the power to take down the family as revenge for being cast out of the royal family's courts. In reality, she was around 17 years old when her family was attacked. In the movie, Anastasia managed to escape the palace with the help of her beloved grandmother and a servant boy, but Anastasia and her grandmother get separated on the train during their escape and Anastasia suffers a fall resulting in memory loss. After being kicked out of the orphanage she had been residing in as a teenager, she opts out of joining the workforce and instead decides to pursue the answers to her numerous questions about her past; who she is and where she came from. She meets a con artist that convinces her that she might be the princess Anastasia, and begins training her on how to act as a princess and answer questions correctly before they go to meet her grandmother, who has been searching for her for all of these years. Along the way, she must continue to battle the sorcerer, who has been stuck in a purgatorial state for years since he was unable to kill off the entire royal family, and is determined to finish the job he started.

I agree that the fact that she loss her identity is not from amnesia. It must be because of the fact that her kingdom is being attacked and forcing her to escape the tragedy of Russian Revolution. Also being hit by the railway also causes her to experience not to remember anything about her at all. From that point she doesn't know who she was, and living in the orphanage, where you usually sees the unwanted kids, it makes you to believed that you are nobody. That preventing her from remember who she was.

Prasanth Kurup

11/21/2015 04:25:50 pm

I fondly remember the movie Anastasia as it was one of the few animated film DVDs that I had ever owned as a child. I always believed that the trauma that Anastasia underwent as a child made her want to forget the memories that she had. Looking back now, I also believe that she lost her identity, maybe in a way retrograde amnesia, though I want to believe that it had to do more with emotional trauma rather than the physical trauma, though obviously the movie tries to paint a different picture. For someone as young as the movie portrayed, having to deal with emotions such as the loss of family and going through war is most likely a huge mental strain on her. Thankfully, she was able to remember parts of her memory, which is a surprising take on the recovery from amnesia as most similar movies would have the memories flood in right away after some kind of similar hit. Instead in Anastasia, the memories slowly come back to her until the final trigger on her memory is activated which allows her to remember her identity: the music box. Basically, I completely and wholeheartedly agree with this comment and further recommend others to watch Anastasia as it is both a fun and educational experience in the world of an amnesiac Russian princess.

Kallie Dorland

2/16/2016 10:05:30 am

I haven’t seen the movie Anastasia since I was a little kid. Now, having watched it as an adult I’m surprised because the plot is much different than I remembered. It is based on a Russian myth that the Grand Duchess actually escaped the execution of her family during the Bolshevik revolution during July of 1918.
Since it is a kid’s movie her memory loss is not discussed in detail and used to fuel the classic plot where a normal young woman finds out that she is royalty. It is unclear weather her memory loss is physical and due to her hitting her head, or emotional where she might be suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder because of the traumatic events. While the psychology of her memory loss is oversimplified it isn’t completely inaccurate or wrong

Simona

2/23/2016 09:05:25 am

It's been a really long time since I've seen this movie, but re-watching it again, I realize how much I’ve changed. When I was younger, I never understood why Anastasia had lost half of her memory just because she was lost or the inter-workings of the human mind and how things like this could actually happen. (Side note: historically inaccurate, Anastasia did not actually survive her family's execution). After watching the movie again, having had two psychology classes, it is easy to realize that Anastasia has amnesia. The fun part? Figuring out which one. There are two types that could potentially fit her description: Retrograde or Source. Retrograde (as stated by a medical website) is defined as "inability to remember events that occurred before trauma, but remembers things that happened after it normally." The "issue" we have here is that as the movie progresses, Anastasia begins to remember more about her past as she is exposed to different aspects of her past life, which is not a typical aspect of retrograde. This is why source amnesia might be correct. Source amnesia is "remembering certain information, but not knowing how or where they got that information." Anastasia likely has source amnesia. Not remembering her past because of a traumatic experience (subconsciously suppressing these memories as opposed to losing them), but remembering bits and pieces as she is exposed to familiar scenarios. This movie is definitely more interesting now that I am older and I still recommend it to people.

Marie Jung

3/1/2016 09:21:14 pm

I remember watching Anastasia as a young girl, always singing along to the songs and thought that she didn’t remember who she was because she was so young when the she went through all the drama in the beginning. However, watching it again in a psychological perspective, I can see how Anastasia suffered from amnesia, but in a more kid-friendly, Disney way as opposed to the real life amnesia someone may have.
What Anastasia suffers from is actually retrograde amnesia, which is when a person “loses their memories before the development of amnesia… which can be caused by emotional trauma, or physical trauma such as a head injury” (Dhaliwal and Dahia, medical website). When Anastasia fell from the train and hit her head, she suffered a physical trauma; and emotional trauma when separated from her grandmother. The good thing that happened to her is that she wants to find her family, which triggers memories in her brain that allows her to eventually reunite with her grandma. Of course, the way Anastasia’s amnesia works is not realistic, but her recovery in the movie is definitely heartwarming for all children and even adults to see.

Arlene Offemaria

6/9/2017 04:30:02 pm

This film is a fictional story based on the historical rumor (that has since been disproven) that Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia survived the execution of her family during the Russian Revolution. In the movie, while trying to escape the revolution, a young Anastasia falls and hits her head. Ten years later, Anastasia is young woman renamed as Anya and lives in an orphanage. She does not know who she is nor remember anything about her past but wishes to find her family.
Though it is never explicitly stated, the movie implies that Anastasia suffers from retrograde amnesia, which can be caused by physical trauma, such as a head injury, or a psychological trauma due to a distressing event. Throughout the film, Anastasia seems to remember small patches of her old life but, since she has no context for them, she simply dismisses them as silly or does not notice it, such as when she vaguely recalls a boy ‘opening a wall’ to help her escape or casually mentions something specific about an uncle. Anastasia’s recovery of her memories is accurately portrayed through smells and seeing objects from her past, such as the smell of her grandmother, seeing a music box she received as a child, and hearing a song from it.

Anastasia

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