Disney's Anne Frank



Disney's Anne Frank is an animated film released by Disney in the spring of 1989. It is very, very loosely based on The Diary of Anne Frank, but takes a lot of liberties with the source material, adding three talking animal sidekicks, a Nazi necromancer Femme Fatale, and a Happily Ever After ending.

Despite Disney's assurances that they understood the sensitivity of the source material, it was critically panned for its handling of the Holocaust, particularly the ending, where Anne liberates Auschwitz. It was a Box Office Bomb and was largely buried by Disney. There are reports that they would rather release Song of the South again before this movie.

This film has a rather fascinating behind the scenes history though. Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, please keep some things in mind.

Compare other such unfortunate films as Titanic: The Legend Goes On, and The Legend of the Titanic.

See here for the YMMV page.

This work contains examples of:

 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: During the escape scene.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Some of the promotional materials show that in the film's early stages, Anne was blonde. An animator, whose name still has not been revealed, said this should have been the moment when they realized this wasn't going to work.
 * All Germans Are Nazis: Played straight, especially during the musical number "Life is Heil-arious!", which shows uniformed SS soldiers serving as policemen, train operators, even bakers. It actually has callbacks to Disney's propaganda cartoons "Der Fuehrer's Face" and "Education for Death".
 * All-Star Cast: Tom Cruise, Madonna, Bob Hope, and Jason Alexander just to name a few.
 * Almost Kiss: Anne and Peter, right before they are captured by Sgt. Olga. And again at the end before Miep interrupts the two.
 * Aloof Big Sister: Margot, in the beginning of the film.
 * Aluminum Christmas Trees: Sgt. Olga mentions that she's a member of the Thule Society, a real Nazi organization that investigated the occult. Of course, in real life, they didn't have actual magic powers.
 * A God Am I: Josef Mengele plans to become the "Great Archangel of Humanity", essentially becoming this as he would be worshipped by everyone.
 * Anachronism Stew:
 * Lorenz and Marie-Rose Blanche are a very eighties couple, modeled after Real Life Eighties Couple Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, so they particularly fall into this trap. The two sing Mickey and Silvia's "Love Is Strange," a song that won't be released until fifteen years after the events of the film take place. Which in turn is referencing a movie about the Sixties that won't be released until forty-five years later.
 * Josef Mengele in his angel form begins spouting pop-cultural references about Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and The Thing.
 * Animated Musical: With songs by Mel Brooks, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and Phil Collins. Yes, THAT Phil Collins.
 * America Wins the War: Surprisingly averted, in this version of the story the Jews just save themselves. The army that parades through Amsterdam in the final scene is American, though.
 * Arc Words: "Deep down, I believe everyone is good at heart."
 * Ascended Extra: Kaiser Willy in the Latin American cut.
 * Award Bait Song: "Living Free (Until the Nazis Find Us Again)" Also, Marie-Rose Blanche's Chariots of Fire-style song "Endurance," which she sings as motivation during Anne's seize on Auschwitz.
 * Even though, as pointed out in the Nostalgia Chick/ToddInTheShadows crossover "Top Ten Award Bait Disney Songs", "Living Free (Until the Nazis Find Us Again)" sounds suspiciously similar to Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth"...
 * The ending pop song was actually a top 40 hit, although has no official connection to this movie. The singer allegedly punched a reporter for even asking about it.
 * Some fans would argue that 'The World I See (From My Secret Window)' as the preferred award grabbing ballad.
 * Babies Ever After: While she lays dying, Marie-Rose Blanche tells Lorenz that she "left you something to remember me by". At the end of the film, before Anne and Petr leave for London, Anne and Petr bid Lorenz and Marie-Rose's mixed-species clutch of nestlings farewell. We also see Anne and Petr, along with what appears to be a human version of Lorenz and Marie-Rose, as beatnik-type married couples with children, during the 80's-music video-esque Disney Acid Sequence for "Leibchen."
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: When Sgt. Olga is forced to give Anne a gun to fight off the Zombies that eat her squad.
 * Badass Bookworm: Anne Frank. Lorenz the Stork qualifies, especially after the (apparent) fall of Marie-Rose Blanche.
 * The Baroness: Sgt. Olga, of course.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Anne yells at her mother that she wishes that she would never see her again. Then she and Peter get captured...
 * Beta Couple: Lorenz and Marie-Rose Blanche. One of the rare Disney cases in which one of them dies (even though she does get better).
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: When Miep tries to cheer up Anne when her birthday turned out to be very disappointing, he leads into a big band musical number with a Disney Acid Sequence going on in the background. The whole thing is loud and bombastic to make Anne happy and flies directly into the face of the fact that at the start of the movie, Anne's father clearly stated that they had to try to be as quiet as possible.
 * Bigger Bad: Josef Mengele is the true master mind behind everything.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Sgt. Hündin's surname means 'bitch' in German. On the good guys' side, Rose Blanche means "White Rose" in French, although whether this intentionally references the 1940's pacifist youth resistance movement in Munich is unclear. Actually, given Lorenz's penchant for quotes and aphorisms in foreign languages, every other word he says falls into this category.
 * Black Magic
 * Bloodless Carnage:
 * When Anne and Marie Rose are shot by Sgt. Olga.
 * The Auschwitz uprising. It helps that 9 out of 10 guards are zombies.
 * Bumbling Sidekick: Private Ludvig.
 * Busby Berkeley Number: The shower scene. Many have thought the number invokes Lyrical Dissonance, but listen carefully and you'll find that the backing vocals are actually a jazzed-up nursery rhyme about personal hygiene. Apparently the vocalists were never told they were singing as prisoners of war!
 * Butt Monkey: Ludvig.
 * But Wait! There's More!: Disney, prior to the film's release, developed a plan for a sequel that would focus on Anne's fictional daughter Anya as she searches for her lost younger brother Claus in Cold War-era Berlin, while Stalin's right-hand man Colonel Polov Vlagavich tries to catch her; However due to the severly disappointing reaction to the film by critics and audience members, production was quickly ended and the animated sequences that were completed were retrofitted into other Disney works.
 * The Cameo:
 * Tim Curry's brief yet memorable performance as Winston Churchill in the break dancing scene with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 * Prince as Kaiser Billy's singing dog in "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy".
 * Will Smith as Jackie Robinson and Christopher Lee as (an unnamed and faceless) Adolf Hitler.
 * Stephen Fry as Olga's pet gibbon.
 * John Inman as a clothing merchant
 * Canine Companion: Olga's villainous dachshund, Mr. Goebbels.
 * Canon Discontinuity: Not listed in the official films by Disney. Reportedly, they even asked that this site not list it on our own Disney Animated Canon page. In fact, when Disney included the original trailer of The Little Mermaid among that movie's laserdisc bonus features, they had Mark Elliot redub part of it, so that it would refer to The Little Mermaid as movie #28, instead of #29. They also used this version on the Platinum Edition DVD.
 * Cartoon Bomb: Thrown by Sgt. Olga to take out Anne and Peter at their second encounter; Miep jumps in front of Anne at the last second and throws it back to Olga, giving her and Ludvig Ash Faces, and allowing Anne and Peter to escape into a nearby building for more hijinx (see Paper Thin Disguise).
 * Catch Phrase: "Allright men, this is it.... TIME TO CLEAN OUT THE ATTIC!"
 * Cats Are Mean: Petr's cat, Mouschi, tries to eat Miep, until Anne convinces them they should learn to get along.
 * Chekhov's Gag: In the scene where Sgt. Olga first threatens Anne, Miep can be seen burrowing into her sandwich.
 * Chekhov's Skill: Early in the film, Anne is seen playing ping-pong with Margot and winning. Her skills come in handy later when the zombies start throwing grenades at her.
 * Conspicuously Light Patch: A lot of these, due to the low animation budget. Disney was pouring most of its resources into The Little Mermaid.
 * Cool Big Sis: Margot, later in the film. Killing two guards with a length of iron pipe and some good luck helped.
 * Creative Closing Credits: Throughout the closing credits there are short throwaway gags of Sgt. Olga attempting to capture Anne, usually resulting in Olga being injured.
 * Creator Cameo: Mel Brooks voices a funny rabbi that is held in Auschwitz.
 * Dark Reprise: Anne reprises "Living Free" when her family and Peter are captured.
 * Death Trap: Anne and her family rig up a series of traps ala Home Alone to keep the Nazis out of the attic, and facilitate their escape.
 * Diary
 * Did Not Do the Research: Which, in itself, is a symptom of Disneyfication (see below)
 * Sgt Olga drives a car that closely resembles a Jaguar XK 120, which in addition to being a British car, was not produced until 1948.
 * Even though a young Will Smith's voice cameo provided a small Moment of Awesome, not only did Jackie Robinson not become a Brooklyn Dodger until 1947, why would he even be in Amsterdam?
 * Putting aside the Willing Suspension of Disbelief required for a small egret to wear heels, a pearl necklace, and an evening gown, said evening gown reflects the Christian Dior "New Look" of long, full skirts, which wasn't introduced until 1948.
 * One of the Nazis is referred to as Ernst Rohm who Hitler had actually had murdered in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.
 * The fact that Sgt Olga and Josef Mengele marry. He already had a wife called Irene Schöbein, which doesn't appear in the movie...
 * Disney Acid Sequence:
 * Anne's trip through the concentration camp, when bleeding to death. The music becomes minimal, the imagery becomes trippy all for it to suddenly become lighter and lighter when a hideous winged figure dances around Anne. The sequence ends with the beautiful, angel-like spirit of the fallen Marie-Rose appears to encourage Anne to live (and vice versa; see Crowning Moment of Heartwarming).
 * Josef Mengele's "Dance of the Grateful Flesh" is brief, but the psychodelic lights and the singing deformed victims must definitely invoke this.
 * Disney Death: Anne Frank at one point looks like she won't be able to recover from being shot by Sgt. Olga. She gets better. When Marie-Rose Blanche dies, she gives a big long final speech to Lorenz. She winds up coming Back From the Dead, however.
 * Disneyfication: Yeah.
 * Disney Princess: Although not even considered for that line, Urban Legends still persist that one can see Anne's outline in some of The Merch. She is however seen in a princess like dress during the liberation from Auschwitz made from the blue striped pajamas.
 * Disney Villain Death: Subverted. The scene where Ludvig pushes Olga off the tower is shot like one, but Olga survives it. However, see Dragged Off to Hell below. Josef Mengele, on the other hand, is shot while flying 2,000 meters in the sky, so you can imagine how his demise was.
 * The Dog Bites Back: Private Ludvig, when he realizes Sgt. Olga is using the souls of the Auschwitz prisoners to reanimate a zombie army (of which he is the prototype).
 * And a literal one several scenes after Josef Mengele pulls a street dog's tail.
 * Dragged Off to Hell:
 * Sgt Olga, after her Necromancy magic backfires on her and the spirits of all those she enslaved drag her into hell.
 * Josef Mengele is implied to suffer this fate, but since his death is marked with bright golden light it can also be interpreted as his ascent to Heaven.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
 * Private Ludvig.
 * Josef Mengele keeps a photo of his parents etched into his chest.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Josef Mengele actually hates Nazi dogma and was only using them to gather resources and power to ascend and unite all of mankind under his rule. Likewise, Olga and the other nazis are visibly repulsed by his ideals, although it's an extreme case of Blue and Orange Morality because they hate the fact that he will treat everyone equally.
 * Everything's Deader with Zombies: Private Ludvig is a zombie. There were no zombies in WWII in real life.
 * Eyes Do Not Belong There: Josef Mengele's true form has eyes absolutely everywhere.
 * The Faceless: Adolf Hitler's face is kept off-screen Blofeld-style during his one small scene with Sgt. Olga. The song "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy" contains several references to his signature mustache, though.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death: Poor Sgt. Olga. Or not.
 * "Falling in Love" Montage: During the Award Bait Song "The Stars and Moon," as well as during "Leibchen (Means I Love You)."
 * Feathered Fiend: Josef Mengele's true form is that of an Eldritch Abomination angel swan.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Josef's One-Winged Angel form is pretty spot on considering how his nickname in real life is "The Angel Of Death".
 * Funny Foreigner: A lot of these, usually with the Germans.
 * Mickey Rooney as the Japanese soldier- possibly an homage to his character in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
 * Mel Brooks as the Ukrainian rabbi.
 * Gag Boobs: Sgt. Olga in pre-production sketches.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: After Anne calls her an "evil old hag", Olga stuffs a bar of soap with the word "Stutthof" on it into Anne's mouth. Stutthof was a concentration camp rumored to have turned its victims' bodies into soap.
 * Josef Mengele's implied mutilations and experiments.
 * One of the prisoners is heavily implied to be one of the many homosexual victims of the Nazi Regime.
 * The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Margot and Anne. They reconcile at the end, though.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser: The Nazi top brass, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin all attend a bar mitzvah together. They even sing together ("It's Tough at the Top", a song with one of the most lamentable hip-hop verses of all time)
 * Goofy Print Underwear: Private Ludvig sports polka-dot boxers.
 * Ghost Amnesia: Originally, Ludvig can't remember anything about his previous life, except his mother's face. Later, he is able to remember that Olga Hündin killed him and his mom, prompting his Heel Face Turn.
 * Ghostapo:
 * Sgt. Olga Hündin.
 * Helps that she serves an angel.
 * Grammar Nazi. Literally. Sgt. Olga routinely belittles Pvt. Ludvig's mumbling zombie speech. Inverted with Josef Mengele, whose grammar is atrocious no matter what language he speaks. Foreshadowing for the fact that he is not human at all.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Private Ludvig, right before he helps Anne and Peter break down the walls of Auschwitz. This is somewhat foreshadowed by Ludvig's often-overlooked, mournful solo acapella early in the film titled "Step by Stumbling Step (I Still Can't Find Mein Mutter)" where his characteristic mumbling is temporarily comically changed into an excellent singing voice. It also echoes the descent into racist fascism of the German state, not just in lyrics, moving from a cabaret style song into a grand marching rhythm.
 * Mr. Goebbels makes a more humorous but consequential turn late in the film.
 * Historical Beauty Update: Anne Frank. She certainly wasn't unattractive, but here she looks like one of the Disney Princesses.
 * Humanoid Abomination:
 * It's implied that the old gypsy in the beginning was one, and the one who taught Olga her black magic in the first place... Kinda ironic actually.
 * Josef Mengele, although his true form is a pure Eldritch Abomination, although a swan like one.
 * In Name Only: In Real Life, Fritz Pfeffer was in his fifties when he hid out with the Franks and van Pels. Here, he's made into a teenager, apparently for no other reason than to Pair the Spares with Margot. Oy.
 * "I Want" Song: Anne sings about being free from the suffering her family experiences in a song called "Living Free".
 * Kick the Dog: When the chips go down, Olga attempts to sacrifice her own dog, Mr. Goebbels to gain a last shred of necromantic power.
 * The Dog Bites Back: Mr. Goebbles gets revenge by piddling on her ritual circle, culminating in Olga getting dragged down to Hell.
 * Kill the Cutie: Averted when Anne is shot. She doesn't die, but comes very close to it.
 * Killed Off for Real: Olga, Josef Mengele.
 * Knight Templar: What else do you call someone whose idea of peace is to have everyone worship him and live in fear for their lives?
 * Large Ham: Kaiser Vilhelm and Sgt. Olga, especially during her Villainous Breakdown.
 * Molly Ringwald's entire performance as Anne Frank rivals Tony Montana in terms of sheer scenery-chewing. And it's part of the film's perverse charm.
 * Last-Minute Hookup:
 * At the very end, Miep is seen holding paws with that one girl mouse with the bow, Golda. Where'd that come from?
 * The same thing with Margot and Fritz, though that was at least hinted beforehand (when he saved her from falling off the cliff).
 * Lighter and Softer: And how.
 * Light'Em Up: Josef Mengele, who casts divine light from his fingers and eyes using Quran verses. Needless to say...
 * Light Is Not Good: Josef Mengele, who is actually an angel.
 * Mister Muffykins : Mr. Goebbels, Olga's dog.
 * Mood Whiplash: Anne and Sgt. Olga's first encounter is expository; their second encounter is slapsticky and played for laughs; their third and subsequent encounters are played for serious drama (especially when Anne is shot).
 * Moral Sociopathy: Josef Mengele. Of courses, emphasis on "Sociopathy".
 * Montage: Anne and her family clean up the attic to the song "Life Up Above".
 * MST3K Mantra: Invoked by then Disney CEO Michael Eisner after early criticisms of the movie; sadly, it did little to help.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Sgt. Olga is very insistent that the name of her dachshund is Mr. Goebbles, not "Mr. Gobbles." Though in the ending, when he's adopted by Anne's father, they rename him Mr. Gobbles and he seems pretty pleased by it.
 * Non-Human Sidekick:
 * Miep the mouse (here's another picture of him)
 * And his villainous counterpart Mr. Goebbles the dachshund for Sgt. Olga.
 * Petr has Mouschi the cat
 * No Swastikas: All swastikas are replaced by black X's, including the one on Sgt. Olga's sleeve. The word "Nazi" is absent, except (weirdly) in the song numbers - most notably "Free Again".
 * The X's may be a reference to The Great Dictator, another movie that treats the holocaust in a humorous fashion, albeit much more successfully.
 * One-Scene Wonder: On the trainride to Auschwitz, a surprisingly non-zombie guard begins to feel sorry for Anne because her diary was taken from her by Olga, he begins telling lousy jokes which eventually leads to the number "I'm On A Fast Train To Camp Blues". He never appears after this scene. His voice actor wanted to be left uncredited, but his Executive Meddling lead to his name getting top billing, before the title which angered him so much that he refused to work for Disney for years until being asked to dub some roles for Laputa: Castle in the Sky and the Kingdom Hearts series. That V.A.'s name was Mark Hamill.
 * Our Angels Are Different: A common theory is that that it was an angel that saved Anne from death. The angel is very very biblical. Josef Mengele turns out to be an angel as well. Strangely enough, he adheres to the original Eldritch Abomination depictions of angels, being a swan with seven wings completely covered with blue eyes.
 * Off-Model: All over the place, especially on Anne's parents during the song "Block Party."
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Anne and Peter when they infiltrate Joseph Goebbels' bar mitzvah.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Not in the film, but seen in the leaked promotional materials. Apparently, they just never found a good justification to have her wear it, with even a Dream Ballet sequence being scrapped.
 * Punch Clock Villain / Just Following Orders: Private Ludvig.
 * Religion Is Magic:
 * When the Ukrainian rabbi counteracts Olga's spells with Hebrew prayers.
 * Josef Mengele uses Quran verses for some of his spells.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Caricatures of Col Klink and Sgt Shultz can be spotted during the ballroom scene.
 * A mouse as a sidekick may be a nod to the graphic novel Maus, also dealing with World War II oppression. A few scenes seem to pay homage to the work too, for the attentive comic fan.
 * During the flashback of how Ludvig was reborn, the scientists both have "Heir Dr. MD" on the backs of their uniforms, as an homage to how Mel Brooks (the lyricist of this film) always wore the same thing whenever he played a scientist!
 * The clown in the background at the concentration camp may refer to The Day the Clown Cried.
 * At the end when the Americans FINALLY come, they mention something about a guy named Steve Rogers.
 * One of the grains of rice is shaped like Gusto Gummi.
 * The Nazi uniform buttons feature hidden Mickeys in three seperate scenes.
 * One of the children shown briefly in the Hitler Youth looked shockingly like a Disney-fied Eric Cartman.
 * The Starscream: Josef Mengele for the Nazis.
 * Scooby-Dooby Doors: The chase scene in the Achterhuis near the beginning of the film.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Several German names are butchered, so as not to confuse the poor English speakers. Most commonly replacing w's with v's (such as in Ludvig, native German Ludwig) but the most weird change has got to be "Harry" which is spelled "Flavius" in native German.
 * Stock Scream:
 * The Goofy holler is used near the end, when the last Jew in the queue is kicked into the shower.
 * Kaiser Vilhelm lets out a Wilhelm Scream in the middle of his Villain Song.
 * Taking the Bullet: Anne for Peter
 * Talking to Himself: Jim Cummings plays both of Anne's parents.
 * They Just Didn't Care: The accents. Goodness, the accents.
 * Those Wacky Nazis: So wacky, they're comic relief!
 * Unholy Matrimony: Sgt. Olga and Josef Mengele marry midway through the film.
 * Very Loosely Based on a True Story
 * Villainous Breakdown: A short scene near the end, of Sgt. Olga ranting at those under her command, has some uncanny similarity to the famous "Hitler Reacts" scene from Downfall (so far, no parody videos have shown up).
 * Villain Song:
 * "Dial Up Ze Nazi", where Sgt. Olga sings about being in charge of Auschwitz.
 * Josef Mengele's "Dance of the Grateful Flesh", where he sings how his human experimentation and mutilations are for the greater good and how the victims love it.
 * Springtime for Hitler was in the Second Harlan Ellison version of the script. And he wanted it to be sung by A NAZI Brian Blessed!
 * The Ghost of Kaiser Vilhelm's number, "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy".
 * "Life is Heil-arious!", sung by the German occupation troops.
 * There was a planned song that Hitler would have sung called "Mein Kampf" but was cut and Hitler was made The Faceless.
 * Vindicated By Video
 * We Named the Monkey "Jack": Olga explains to Joseph Goebbels that this is why her dachshund got his name, before she pushes him (the human Goebbels, that is) out of his zeppelin laboratory.
 * Wham! Line:
 * "I've read... your diary..."
 * "I remember." Said to Olga by Ludvig when his memories of his mother come rushing back.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Klaus, the wisecracking Jewish rooster?
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Anne
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: One of the very last scenes shows Mr. Goebbels, Mouschi and Miep all sleeping together in a pile, symbolizing(?) that people of very different backgrounds can live in peace.
 * White Magic: Josef Mengele uses it. It has healing purposes...which he uses to keep his victims alive while "doing nasty things to them".