#12 - Meg Ryan and Liz Calloway as Anastasia - Anastasia (1997)
Best Song: Tough, but probably "Journey to the Past".
We have entered a new tier.
From now on in the list, every song works. Both the singing voice and the speaking voice have amazing charisma, most of these folks have multiple songs apiece, and everything just works to the extent that these particular princesses go straight into the "classics" tier. But we've got two oddballs among the ranks before the Top Ten. This is the first one.
Now, honestly, if she was actually Disney, I'd probably put her much higher, perhaps even in the Top 5. Anastasia is a beautiful, underrated classic that rivals all of my favorite Disney movies in scope, animation, storytelling, soundtrack, and just general magnificence. It's my favorite Don Bluth outing (even more than Secret of NIMH), and there's barely anything in it that doesn't work for me. Yeah, darkness generally appeals to me (you may have noticed from Hunchback), and particularly when it's as well-scored as Anastasia is.
And Liz Calloway does a superb job with these wonderful songs. Journey to the Past, Once Upon a December, and Learn to Do It are the three songs she sings, and I look forward to all three of these whenever I watch the movie (not to mention Dark of the Night and Paris Holds the Key, the major ones she doesn't sing in, are also wonderful). This success, as evidenced by the fairly massive fail that was Aaliyah trying to pull these songs off, can be linked quite demonstrably to Liz Calloway's performance. From the abject joy and hope she manages to convey in "Journey to the Past" to the pensive longing of Once Upon a December in about ten minutes of film, she manages to sell every aspect of Anastasia's inner dilemma.
Meg Ryan, too, does a surprisingly superb job as Anastasia's speaking voice. Though the character is really sold with the songs, Ryan brings just the right amount of snark to the role - not too much so as to make her unlikeable, but just enough to give her a compelling amount of character. At no point does she get obnoxious, as snarky animated characters have a tendency to be, and throughout the film you as the viewer are completely engrossed and invested in this completely fantastical (and, frankly, ridiculous) retelling of the story of the Romanovs.
So though I might get a bit of flak for putting her so high, I would argue that if she technically counted in the actual category, she would be even higher. I've never understood the amount of hate this film gets, and I never will, because this is one of those incredibly rare cases of another company "doing Disney better than Disney". A stylistic rip-off? Maybe. But it's so damn good (coupled with awesome Don Bluth animation) that I can't find a thing to complain about. Truly a gem.
Next HINT: For our last non-Top Ten entry, we've got the opposite of Anastasia - someone who technically is a Disney heroine but who no one really associates with Disney.