Rasputin

Grigorij Efimovič Rasputin
Appearance(s)	Anastasia
Age	47
Song(s)	In the Dark of the Night
Voice actor(s)	Christopher Lloyd
Singing voice actor(s)	Jim Cummings

Grigori Efimovic Rasputin, commonly known simply as Rasputin and also known as the Mad Monk, is the main antagonist of Anastasia.

Background

Physical Appearance

Rasputin is a tall, scrawny, scary looking man. He wears a brown robe (however, in the books it has a gold interior) with black shoes, (Which appear to be high heeled). He wears some sort of purple clothing beneath his robe, but the only part of this that is shown is the sleeves. His robe trails along the ground. He has black hair that is tied back into a ponytail and has a black mustache that connects to his long black beard going below his waist. His skin is a rotting, pale green and he has skeletal like long fingers and fingernails. He has somewhat rotten teeth. He has a hood that hangs off of the back of the neck of the robe. Around his waist is a gold rope sash with three beads. The rope is tied around his reliquary which hang at his shins. His sleeves go as long as his waist. Another noticeable feature is that he appears to be wearing nothing under his robe, yet he has a strange purple clothing at the neck and sleeves.

Personality

Since at the beginning of the film, Rasputin was seen as an arrogant and very wicked man, to the point of killing the entire family without any remorse. He's the type of man who is capable of giving everything to fulfill their promises, bequeathing to the point of selling his soul to the devil just to have the power to destroy the Romanov Family. Also, he is seen to be somewhat obsessive and impulsive with his objectives when these are not achieved, such as the case of Anastasia. He's a man of rude nature, due that he constantly hits his assistant, Bartok. Rasputin also has to walk the line between being truly a villain yet play a part in a lot of the comedy of the film.

Role in the film

Rasputin make the deal.

Rasputin is a sinister powerful sorcerer, once believed to be a holy man, who was banished from Russia by Tsar Nicholas II. Eager for revenge, Rasputin plans on destroying the Russian royalty. He sold his soul to the otherworldly forces of darkness in exchange for his amulet and for the power to destroy the czar and his family, in the process becoming a lich (a type of undead creature with magical powers). He then returns to the Russian palace and inflicts on the czar's family with the Romanov curse. All of the royals are killed by Rasputin and the Russian soldiers, except for the czar's mother, Mary Romanov, and his daughter, Anastasia. Rasputin eventually attempts to murder Anastasia while watching her cross a frozen river, trying to stay hidden from the bridge above. He tosses his reliquary aside with fury as his passion to kill the young girl with his bare hands consumes him. He tackles Anastasia face down in the snow making her scream as he is barely able to latch a bony hand to one of her snow-soaked feet. She flips over to face her attacker, making it easier for the evil man to grip onto her right ankle and scraping it along the thin ice. The empress screams for help, desperately trying to save her granddaughter from the murderous Rasputin who is now grimacing with pleasure as he thrashes her by the leg, taunting her precious life. The ice starts to break around them just as her leaves her with a threatening promise: “You will never escape me, child!” He trembles as he feels his robe fill with icy water, partially tugging Anastasia’s small foot in the current with his massive grip. She screams and pleads one last time: “Let me go!” His giant fingers lightly loosen up and she uses the chance to twist her ankle out of his icy cold hand. He plunges in and screams for the help of his sidekick. Her grandmother snatches Her away from the growing hole in the ice before Rasputin swings at her legs in another vain attempt of saving himself. He violently drowns, losing his reliquary in the process and he is unable to die until he completes his curse.

10 years later, Rasputin is trapped in limbo, then his amulet is back in his hands thanks to Bartok. Driven more by his desire for revenge, he wishes to finish off what he started before he rests in peace by killing Anastasia. Putting his demonic minions to work on finding and destroying her but failing, he is accompanied throughout the film by his reluctant minion Bartok - who is an albino bat who constantly tries to sway Rasputin away from his obsession but is largely ignored until Bartok eventually gives up.

Rasputin died.

After two assassination attempts, Rasputin grows tired of his magic constantly failing so he and Bartok return from limbo back to Paris to confront and kill Anastasia there in person. Bartok betrays Rasputin and becomes an entertainer in the cities of Moscow. Meanwhile, Rasputin confronts Anastasia on Pont Alexandre III and in the resulting final battle, he loses hold of his amulet and Anastasia shatters it underfoot, which in turn destroys the magic keeping Rasputin alive. At that very moment, Rasputin screams in terror as his very own minions come to collect his soul, putting a curse on him that causes his skin to fall off and become a puddle of liquid. Rasputin collapses to the floor in pain, he tears up his cloak, revealing that he is now no more than a skeleton. As the curse continues to plague Rasputin, his bones fall apart into dust as his former minions collect his soul and return it to the devil.

Trivia

• In the movie, Rasputin's first death was actually very similar to his real life's death, since both counterparts drowned in icy waters. The exception being that in real life, Rasputin was first shot, poisoned, and tied up (before he was thrown into the river by Prince Felix Yussoupov and his companions).
• Rasputin's relationship with the Romanov family was exactly the opposite compared to his real-life counterpart, who was very close to the children, especially with Alexei. It was also believed in real life, that he had a part in causing the downfall of the Tsar, though not in the malicious way that was portrayed in the film.
• He, along with Tsar Nicholas II, are the most similar compared to their real counterparts, with the exception that Rasputin's beard was much shorter than it's portrayed in the movie.
• Rasputin is the most evil of all the villains created by Don Bluth.
• Rasputin wears high heeled men shoes throughout most of the film, however during "In the Dark of the Night", as he descends the spiral staircase, if one looks closely enough, he will be wearing shoes that look like the ones the dwarves wear in Disney's Snow White.
• Rasputin is the most colorful character in the film:
• During "In the Dark of the Night", the colors of his realm, Limbo go to red, purple, yellow and green. Almost like there is a disco light illuminating the place.
• His robe changes color from time to time, going from brown to purple to yellow to green and even black.
• His home, Limbo has an eerie turquoise glow around it.
• Rasputin is very famous in Anastasia merchandise:
• He has his own book based on the movie called In the Dark of the Night.
• Burger King was selling a lot of Rasputin figures during the peak of the film.
• Rasputin has his own Figure which comes with a minion, Bartok holding a potion and his Reliquary.
• It is unknown if Rasputin lived in the Palace.
• The real Rasputin is suspected to have fallen in love and had an affair with the Tsar wife but none of this was proven.

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