Dimitri Sudayev (sometimes known as Dimitri Antonov) is the deuteragonist and the love interest of the titular protagonist of Don Bluth's 1997 animated film, Anastasia. He is a schemer and plans to have auditions for the long-lost Anastasia to collect the healthy reward. When he meets the scraggly orphan Anya, he's taken immediately by how alike she and the princess look. He and his partner, Vladimir, take Anya on a trip to Paris, having found their princess, teaching her everything she needs to know to convince the Grand Duchess Anya really is Anastasia. But throughout the journey he begins to develop genuine feelings for Anya and soon realizes the truth.
He is voiced by John Cusack (Jonathan Dokuchitz, singing) who also plays as Jackson Curtis, Igor and Harry in The Journey of Natty Gann.
Why He's Dimitri In A Good Way
First and foremost, he is a massive improvement over Don Bluth's previous prince, as he is a well-written strong male character up on par to the standard of many animated male deuteragonists of the time (such as Eric from The Little Mermaid (1989), Adam/Beast from Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin from Aladdin (1992), John Smith from Pocahontas (1995), amongst others), with a clear set of personality, goals, and likability.
Like Anastasia, he is based on a real person, in the form of a servant of the royal family.
He goes through a great amount of character development over the course of the film, similar to that of Adam/Beast from Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin from Aladdin (1992), as initially he was sarcastic, cunning and sly, with a hint of an arrogant streak, which often upset Anya. However, as the film progressed, Dimitri matured and developed into a considerate, understanding and kind-hearted young gentleman.
His musical numbers, especially his romance songs with Anastasia, are well composed and excellent.
He is one of the very few animated prince characters to come from Eastern Europe or any Slavic country, which is very awesome.
Due to Disney buying out 20th Century Fox in 2019, he is now considered by fans to be a de facto Disney Prince.
He can be unintentionally cute, despite the bent in his nose which was meant to make him less cute, but ended up backfiring.
His final showdown with Grigori Rasputin is awesome.
His extremely heartwarming relationship with Anastasia.
