Imagine: You’re scrolling through the forum department of the website, Lost Media Wiki. As you’re scrolling, you discover a piece of lost media related to one of your favorite movies. You don’t recall the lost media itself, but you’re bothered by what you read. Because of how much you love your favorite movie, you want that movie and material connected to that movie (such as merchandise, promotional content, or related media) to be accessible to everyone. This way, more people can discover the movie and may even enjoy it as much as you do. So, the idea of your favorite movie being associated with the world of lost media creates a spark of desire to find that piece of lost media in question. But when you search for that piece of lost media, you learn there is another piece of lost media related to your favorite movie. Instead of becoming discouraged or overwhelmed, you make it your mission to find that other piece of lost media too.

The 1997 film, Anastasia, had one major goal: take “the world by surprise” on November 21^st. With a $140 million worldwide profit, the film not only accomplished that goal, it surpassed expectations. Looking back on our entertainment landscape, Anastasia’s pop cultural footprint seems small compared to other animated movies. But what its success proved was how other studios besides Disney could create animated films that were profitable and memorable for the right reasons. Like most feature presentations, Anastasia had its fair share of advertisements. But there is one teaser trailer believed to have been shown only in movie theaters, its existence neither confirmed or denied. Meanwhile, when Anastasia accomplished its goal of “taking the world by surprise”, an ice-skating show based on the movie debuted in 1998 to capitalize on this feat. However, the show itself has become so lost to time, only a small handful of footage has been archived. In this article, I will be discussing these two Anastasia related mysteries! Through the utilization of research, theories over why these pieces of lost media haven’t been found yet will also be addressed.

Mystery #1: Anastasia’s Lost Theatrical Teaser Trailer

On the Reddit forum titled r/lostmedia, someone named NowheresNomad described a lost teaser trailer advertising Anastasia’s upcoming premiere. According to NowheresNomad, the teaser trailer primarily featured an “animated portrait, or one similar, of Anastasia as a child”. However, “there was no other person in it with her”. Anastasia’s “portrait appeared to be in a dark room as a thunderstorm roared in the background and lightning flashed, occasionally illuminating the painting as if there were a nearby window while slowly zooming in on her face”. This “30-second teaser” also featured the film’s title after the portrait’s presentation. NowheresNomad claims Anastasia’s teaser trailer not only “played in front of multiple family films”, they remember seeing it “in front of 101 Dalmatians (1996)”.

I discovered this specific piece of lost media on Lost Media Wiki’s forum department. A commenter named blipsycat first brought it up there on September 27^th, 2023. The Lost Media Wiki discussion about the teaser trailer ended on February 8^th, 2024, with the last commenter, beastboyrules52, coming up empty-handed. However, a chance visit to Lost Media Wiki led me to discover a theory that could explain why Anastasia’s teaser trailer hasn’t resurfaced yet, if it exists. On Lost Media Wiki, the only article related to Anastasia I could find was about the partially found live-action reference material featured in the 2005 documentary, ‘The Making of Anastasia’. The article itself included a video of the documentary from the Youtube channel, DVDXtras. Within the documentary, two pieces of concept art appeared to fit NowheresNomad’s description of Anastasia’s portrait in the teaser trailer.

In this first portrait, Anastasia not only appears by herself, she also appears as a child.

In this second portrait, Anastasia appears older than NowheresNomad’s description. However, Anastasia is the only character in the portrait and the darker hues suggest the portrait itself is located in a dark room.

NowheresNomad speculated in the comment section of their Reddit post how Anastasia’s teaser trailer could have been “released in theaters for a brief time, tested poorly because it was genuinely creepy, and was pulled until they had some completed animation”. They also speculate the portrait “was a piece resembling the character in the film created specifically for this teaser”. Based on my findings and what NowheresNomad said, my theory is one of the portraits I brought up was featured in the teaser trailer. To create the illusion the portrait was placed in a dark room, lighting and sound effects were added over the piece of concept art. With the concept art not official footage from the movie, the teaser trailer was simply created as a placeholder until Anastasia’s creative team was ready to release official marketing that better reflected the true spirit of the film. If what I’m saying is correct, it would explain why the teaser trailer hasn’t been archived or made available on Anastasia’s DVD/Blu-Ray.

Mystery #2: Anastasia On Ice Full Show Footage

In 1998, Feld Entertainment debuted Anastasia On Ice, an ice-skating show based on the movie from 20^th Century Fox. At the time, adapting animated films for the skating rink was nothing new for Feld Entertainment, as the company created Disney On Ice in 1981. While Anastasia On Ice is mentioned in the historical timeline on Feld Entertainment’s website, no videos or photos of the show are available on this same website. However, some videos on Youtube have kept the memory of Anastasia On Ice alive through archived footage. These videos are the following:

• Anastasia On Ice – 1998 Today Show Feature (from the Youtube channel, Skate Guard Blog)
• Anastasia On Ice – Primeira Parte –  http://www.anastasiabrasil.com (from the Youtube channel, anastasiabrasil)
• Anastasia On Ice Commercial (1998) (from the Youtube channel, Commercial Collections)
• WFSB: Anastasia On Ice –Promo (1998) (from the Youtube channel, Archival WFSB-TV3)
• Anastasia on Ice Ad- Buffalo, New York (1999) (from the Youtube channel, Classic90sfan)
• Anastasia On Ice (from the Youtube channel, The Anastasia Archive) (This video only features photos from the show)

Even though footage of Anastasia On Ice has been archived, the full show has yet to surface. But based on my research, I’ve created three theories to explain why the full footage of Anastasia On Ice has likely not been preserved.

Theory #1: Limited Lifespan

According to the archived commercials for Anastasia On Ice, the show dates were the following:

• September 23^rd to 27^th
• September 29^th to October 4^th
• January 7^th to 10^th
• March 31^st to April 4^th

Anastasia On Ice was primarily held in 1998, according to my research. This greatly differs from a show like Disney On Ice, which premiered over the course of multiple years. While contrasting Anastasia On Ice and Disney On Ice, it should be noted that Anastasia On Ice is based on a singular movie. Meanwhile, Disney has a large collection of animated film titles, allowing Disney On Ice to host a variety of ice-skating shows. With all this said, the demand for repeat performances of Anastasia On Ice was probably low.

Theory #2: Poor Visual Quality

In the video, ‘Anastasia On Ice – Primeira Parte –  http://www.anastasiabrasil.com’, a skater named Emrah Polatoglu performs a solo in what appears to be the number, “A Rumor in St. Petersburg”. When I watched Emrah’s performance for the first time, I immediately took notice of the video’s poor visual quality. This is likely due to film-making technology (especially for sports programs involving a lot of motion) not being as advanced then as today. I noticed how poor visual quality was also a problem for the number, “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart)” in the video ‘Anastasia On Ice – 1998 Today Show Feature’. However, the “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart)” number was captured through medium and close-up shots, giving a television audience specific parts of the performance to focus on. Meanwhile, Emrah’s performance was presented through medium and long shots, emphasizing the scope of the live ice-skating show. Even though there is clearer footage of Anastasia On Ice in the show’s commercials, the intent of showcasing that footage is to entice a television audience to go see the live show, similar to the “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart)” number on Today Show. If Anastasia On Ice was never intended to be shown on television or even home media, recording and archiving the live performance was likely not a top priority.

Theory #3: Licensing Rights

A 2018 article from Playbill explains a lawsuit stating similarities between the Broadway version of Anastasia and the adaptations of the story from 1952 and 1956. The article says the “original play [from 1952] was licensed by Fox for the 1956 film adaptation of Anastasia, the agreement stipulated that the playwright and translator Guy Bolton retained “rights to the production on the spoken stage””. It is also stated in the article how “a retroactive license was obtained in 1998 for Anastasia On Ice”. But ever since Disney purchased 20^th Century Fox, they hold the distribution rights to films from that studio, including Anastasia. However, the 1997 film hasn’t been utilized by Disney in any fashion since purchasing the studio. Therefore, Disney may not prioritize providing an opportunity to broadcast Anastasia On Ice.

Once upon a December (though the movie premiered in November), Anastasia literally and figuratively took “the world by surprise”. Its success showed animation studios besides Disney anything and everything that was possible at the box office. Well-liked and successful movies are going to have behind-the-scenes secrets, little known facts, and unanswered questions. They may even be associated with lost media, as is the case for Anastasia. At the time of this article’s publication, the full show footage of Anastasia On Ice and/or Anastasia’s theatrical teaser trailer has not been found. However, this doesn’t discourage me. I’d like to find these pieces of lost media by November 21^st,2027, Anastasia’s 30^th anniversary. I’m hoping by then, the “journey to the past” would have been worth it.

Sources:

https://forums.lostmediawiki.com/thread/12559/anastasia-1997-teaser-trailer (the link to the Reddit post about the Anastasia theatrical teaser trailer is included in the thread)

‘The Making of Anastasia (1997)’ (from the Youtube channel, DVDXtras)

https://www.feldentertainment.com/company/History/ https://playbill.com/article/anastasia-copyright-lawsuit-heads-toward-trial

https://lostmediawiki.com/Anastasia_(partially_found_live-action_reference_material_for_Don_Bluth_animated_film;_1997)

https://playbill.com/article/anastasia-copyright-lawsuit-heads-toward-trial