Dimitri is the deuteragonist and the love interest of Anastasia in the film of the same name. After working in the Romanovs Palace as a child he survived the Russian Revolution. As an adult he became a smart, and witty con-artist.
Personality[]
Dimitri is a sly and charming con-artist from St. Petersburg whose real interest is in the fast money and who always must have the last word. Before meeting Anya, he has encountered few people who can match his cleverness and is soon outsmarted by her quick witted nature, which often leaves him speechless. Despite remarking that he hates women with their own minds, he soon warms to Anya.
Due to struggling his entire life, Dimitri keeps his heart close to him and possesses a cynical outlook on life. However he gradually falls in love with Anya, which brings out his sensitivity and encourages him to be more tender hearted and courageous.
Role in Film[]
As a young boy, Dimitri was employed at the Catherine Palace as a kitchen boy. Curious and ambitious, he is unafraid to sneak into the grand balls held by the Russian royalty and briefly witnesses the Dowager Empress Marie presenting her youngest granddaughter Anastasia with a special gift before being dragged back to the kitchens. Dimitri manages to return in time to see Rasputin curse the imperial family. When the palace falls under siege during the revolution, Dimitri opens a hidden passage to Anastasia's room when the grand duchess returns to retrieve her music box, which allows Anastasia and her grandmother to escape the palace through the servants quarters. When revolutionary soldiers burst into the room, he refuses to reveal where the royals have gone and is knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, he takes Anastasia's music box, mistaking it to be jewellery box, as a memento.
Ten years later, Dimitri is a twenty-years-old and notorious as a con artist in St. Petersburg. With Vladimir, a former courtier, he intends to find a convincing Anastasia imposter to fool the Dowager Empress into giving them a 10 million ruble reward for restoring her lost granddaughter and intends to use the music box as a prop to persuade the Empress. After several successful auditions and left penniless, the duo retreat to the Catherine Palace, where an orphan named Anya has broken in so she can find Dimitri and obtain passage to Paris, where she believes she can find her lost family. Struck by her uncanny resemblance to the missing Grand Duchess, Dimitri and Vladimir trick Anya into believing that she may be Anastasia, adding that she will still be able to go to Paris even if it turns out they were mistaken, but do not reveal that she is meant to be part of a con to avoid giving her a share of the 10 million ruble reward.
Beginning their journey by train, Dimitri and Anya soon develop a contentious relationship. The undead monk Rasputin, realizing that Anastasia is still alive and his curse was unfulfilled, sends his minions to derail the train. Dimitri and Vladimir, horrified to realize that their forged passports will not be able to fool the Communist officials, discreetly relocate their party to the baggage car. Dimitri, thanks to Anya employing dynamite, manages to uncouple the baggage car from the rest of the train when the minions destroy the bridge and the group leaps from the train. Forced to continue on foot to Germany, Anya is soon outraged to learn that she must lie in order to convince the Dowager Empress that she is Anastasia, though Dimitri and Vladimir persuade her that it would not be a lie if it turns out that she is truly Anastasia. Mollified, she agrees for them to teach her everything about her supposed past as they travel through Germany to reach a port where they will take a boat to France.
After they board the ship to France, Dimitri's growing romantic feelings for Anya begin to surface as they dance together, though he quickly suppresses them. In the evening, Anya finds the music box in Dimitri's belongings, but does not recognize what it is yet. After she falls asleep, Rasputin invades her dreams and causes her to sleepwalk onto the ship's deck during a storm. Woken by Anya's dog Pooka, Dimitri scrambles to the deck and saves Anya from leaping to her death and comforts her from the nightmares induced by Rasputin.
Arriving in Paris, Anya is interrogated by Sophie, the Dowager Empress's first cousin, to confirm if she is actually Anastasia. When Sophie asks the unexpected question as to how Anya escaped the palace during the siege, Dimitri believes their con has been exposed. However Anya is able to answer the question - she dimly recalls that she escaped when a boy opened a door in the wall - which reveals to Dimitri that Anya actually is Anastasia. Having fallen in love with Anastasia, Dimitri feels conflicted and heartbroken at the thought that she will soon enter a life where he will have no place by her side. However for the sake of her happiness, he becomes determined to reunite Anya with her only family.
With Sophie engineering a meeting with the Dowager Empress at the Paris Opera, Dimitri insists to Vladimir that they will not reveal to Anya that she is actually Anastasia. The meeting with the Dowager Empress ends poorly and Dimitri is thrown out of the Empress's private box after she reveals that she had heard about Dimitri's scheme to bring a false Anastasia to see her. Anya, having overheard the entire conversation, is horrified and leaves Dimitri and returns to Sophie's townhouse. Left alone at the opera house, Dimitri hijacks the Dowager Empress's car and brings her to Sophie's townhouse, where he manages to convince Marie to at least meet with Anya by returning Anastasia's music box to Marie. Anya's memory returns after meeting Marie, reuniting the two women at last.
The next day, Marie offers Dimitri the reward money, but to her surprise he refuses it and leaves for Russia, convinced that he cannot be with Anya, who has been recognized as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. That night, at Anastasia's return celebration, Marie informs Anya of Dimitri's gesture and advises her to decide between her future with her grandmother in the High Society, a life full of obligations and etiquette or Dimitri. Dimitri, on his way back to Russia, changes his mind and decides to stay in Paris to tell Anya his feelings for her. He winds out finding her on the Pon Alexandre III, where she is struggling against Rasputin. Despite Dimitri's attempts to save her, he is soon injured and knocked unconscious. Anastasia manages to save herself and she and Dimitri reconcile. Though he reminds her of her obligation to high society, she chooses to elope with him instead, leaving a farewell letter to Marie and Sophie to return one day. She and Dimitri share a kiss as they sail out of Paris.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Character animation supervised by Len Simon.
- Dimitri was originally going to be named "Phillipe".
- Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Jim Carrey, Harry Connick Jr., Ethan Hawke, Matthew Broderick, Matt Leblanc, Chris O’Donnell, Val Kilmer, Nicolas Cage, Michael Jackson, Cary Elwes, Mel Gibson, Michael J. Fox, Scott Weinger, Christian Slater, and Brendan Fraser were all considered to voice Dimitri before John Cusack was cast.
- Dimitri was among the most popular non-Disney princes along with Cornelius from Thumbelina and Prince Derek from The Swan Princess until Disney started the deal with 21st Century Fox (including 20th Century Fox, including the rights of both Anastasia and Thumbelina), making both male protagonists unofficial princes.
- After Disney accepted the deal with 21st Century Fox (including 20th Century Fox) as of March 20, 2019, though Dimitri is also not part of the "Disney Princes" catalog, in hearts of users he is a new Disney Princes and Disney have rights to Anastasia.
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