Anastasia Tremaine is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Drizella Tremaine) of Disney's 12th full-length animated feature film Cinderella. Anastasia is the youngest daughter of Lady Tremaine, the younger sister of Drizella Tremaine, and one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters. She later appears as the major character in Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, and the deuteragonist of Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.
She was originally voiced by the late Lucille Bliss (who also voiced Ms. Bitters), and is currently voiced by Tress MacNeille.
Anastasia and her mother and sister constantly plot to ruin and torment Cinderella and have no qualms about hurting her feelings. Lady Tremaine is well aware of her daughters' harsh and cold-hearted and even violent mannerisms and can trigger Anastasia and Drizella's anger with a mere handful of casually-delivered words.
In a particularly distressing scene in the original film, as Lady Tremaine and her jealous daughters prepare to leave for the Prince's ball, Cinderella appears wearing her beautiful homemade gown. Lady Tremaine notes that Cinderella is wearing a pearl necklace that belonged to Drizella, who rejected it on the claims she was sick of the sight of it.
After Lady Tremaine casually points out to Drizella that the necklace adds a charming touch to the dress, Drizella flies into a rage and yanks the necklace from Cinderella's neck, which prompts Anastasia to realize that Cinderella is wearing her sash and the duo proceed to rip the dress about, leaving Cinderella devastated.
Anastasia and her sister attend the ball with their mother but are outshined by Cinderella in disguise. In the end, the Prince chooses Cinderella over Anastasia and Drizella and the two of them live happily ever after.
In this sequel, Anastasia acts as a major protagonist in the third and final story segment, "An Uncommon Romance", abandoning most of her wicked ways after falling in love with the Baker. Lady Tremaine and Drizella disapprove of the relationship, due to the Baker's low status. Cinderella attempts to help the two of them be together and in the end, she succeeds, with Anastasia and the Baker falling in love.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time
Anastasia acts as the secondary antagonist turned tritagonist. Prior to this, Anastasia finds the Fairy Godmother's wand and delivers it to Lady Tremaine, who uses it to change the past and make the shoe fit Anastasia's foot instead of Cinderella, leading the Prince to choose her instead. However, Anastasia eventually has a change of heart, reveals their evil plot to everyone and helps stop her mother and reunite Cinderella and the Prince. She was spared by the king and forgiven by everyone, particularly Cinderella herself. She fell for the baker and also got to live in the castle with Cinderella.
In other media
House of Mouse
In the series House of Mouse, Anastasia makes several cameos, mostly sitting with Drizella and Lucifer. She is also one of the villains to take over the House of Mouse in Mickey's House of Villains. After Mickey defeats Jafar, Anastasia then flees out of the House with the all of the other villains.
Anastasia appears in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland as one of the two main antagonists, portrayed by Emma Rigby. She is the Red Queen of Wonderland and is not related to Cinderella, but instead has another stepsister with a parallel storyline to Cinderella's. Anastasia has a bad relationship with her mother, due to the Prince choosing her stepsister over her.
Much like Anastasia's relationship with the Baker in Disney, Anastasia the Red Queen falls in love with Will Scarlet, whom her mother does not approve of. This leads to them retreating to Wonderland, where Anastasia betrays him for power to become the Red Queen. She eventually allies with Jafar until her reformation.
Once Upon a Time
Anastasia also appears in Once Upon a Time during the seventh season. This version is indeed related to Cinderella as her stepsister, but is not initially a villainous portrayal of the character, instead of being kind and sweet to Cinderella and others. However, she becomes a member of the Coven of the Eight in the mid-season finale, implying a fall into villainy, but leaves the group and reforms later on.
Trivia
In Once Upon a Time, some of Anastasia's storyline aspects are given to Clorinda, while her styling is given to Tisbe.
While it has become common for Anastasia to be known as the nicer sister, in the original film she was just as cruel as Drizella.
Anastasia appeared to be having standards of disliking perverts as shown in "Goofy's Date" when Mortimer flirted with her and Drizella.
In the Charles Perrault fairy tale that the original movie is based on, it was mentioned that one of the stepsisters was actually nicer to Cinderella than the other, if only somewhat. This is most likely the inspiration for Anastasia's reformation in the sequels.
It is actually a common occurrence in most retelling of Cinderella to have at least one of the stepsisters become nicer to Cinderella. i.e., in the live-action movie Ever After, the youngest stepsister Jacqueline is much kinder to Danielle/Cinderella than her mother Rodmilla and her older sister Marguerite.
Anastasia's straight hair in Cinderella II is inspired by Ariel. Coincidentally both women wore pink dresses.
Anastasia's laugh is very similar to her mother's.
She is sometimes thought to be the protagonist of the third film.
The shape of Anastasia's foot changes in two of the films. In the first movie, it was long; in the third movie, it was fat.
In the 1950 classic, Anastasia Tremaine is voiced by actress Lucille Bliss, for which she was honored 50 years later by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award in March 2000.
Anastasia is highly allergic to roses, as shown in Cinderella III.
Anastasia was the first of Cinderella's stepfamily to hold the Fairy Godmother's wand.
According to Linda Woolverton, Anastasia and her sister Drizella are part of the reason why she removed Belle's wicked sisters in her penning of the adaptation for Beauty and the Beast, as she wanted to avoid confusion with them.
In the second film, when Anastasia gets her dress ruined, she runs away and cries by a fountain, this is a nod to Cinderella's breakdown in the first movie.
Both Anastasia and her mother wore purple. Interestingly, purple was only worn by royalty or of nobility in the 1800s and previously, implying the Tremaine household is noble.
In the 1957 Disneyland Records Storyteller book and record set narrated by Jiminy Cricket, he gives Anastasia the nickname Stash for short.
Villains
