During the “Disney Renaissance” Disney’s animation studios relied on a
often ridiculed formula: Discontent, strong headed young woman breaks
social norms and finds fulfillment in some kind of forbidden love. Add a
broadway soundtrack, a plucky, wisecracking male counterpart, a
megalomaniacal villain and lots of goofy comic relief characters and,
bam, you have a 1990s Disney movie. Sure
there are deviations from this but for the most part this is it. Beauty
and the Beast is no exception in terms of the formula but it just so
happens that in terms of the particulars of this fairy tale that the
Disney formula churns out the maximum amount of magic possible.
Based on an 18th century French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast tells the story about a haughty and uncaring young prince who is cursed by an enchantress when he refuses to provide hospitality to a poor old woman. To make his outward appearance match his spiritual state the prince is then turned into a “beast” (a 100% awesome half-animal, half man hybrid) with the stipulation that he will be stuck that way unless he learns to love by his 21st birthday. Unfortunately for the prince's servants they too are all cursed and for some reason that means they have to be anthropomorphized furniture and household goods.....like a libidinous singing candlestick. Yeah.
Meanwhile, Belle, a hipster living in a provincial French village (in other words, somewhere other than Paris) has decided that she doesn’t want to marry the misogynistic and yet oh so dreamy Gaston, the second funniest Disney villain of all time. Also in the meantime, Belle’s father, a good intentioned yet bungling inventor, has set off to enter some sort of steam-powered guillotine (hey, it’s France) into a contest of some sort and gets lost in the process. Eventually he stumbles on the beasts castle, finds out about talking, skirt chasing candles and winds up tossed into the beast's dungeon (apparently he hasn’t changed much over the years). This of course leads Belle to come and look for him where she in turn confronts the beast and, out of love for her father, she agrees to take his place. The beast, moved by her sacrifice, agrees on the grounds that she stays forever and he proceeds to essentially make her his permanent dinner guest. An improbable love story ensues, it is awesome, and you probably know what happens. They dance in a ballroom.
Beauty and the Beast is a really great movie and, I believe, still the only Disney movie to ever be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Like any Disney movie it was essentially a collaborative effort of a team of animators, and for the first time, professional writers, but a few key lights shined through. One was the addition of Linda Woolverton who wrote the screenplay (a Disney animated first) that ultimately won over Jeffrey Katzenberg who had refused to produce the movie until a better story could be produced. Woolverton was a total noob to film writing and had been working doing some writing for Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers (totally awesome) when a novel she wrote for children was read by Disney executives. It must have impressed them because she got the job and, clearly, she did a great job because she has had a pretty illustrious career at the House of Mouse ever since. We’ll have to see how her movie about Maleficent turns out!
Then there was Howard Ashman. Ashman, the guy who wrote Little Shop of Horrors for broadway, did a lot to help Disney in this time period since much of the creative work and virtually all of the music for the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast were done by him and his partner Alan Menken. Unfortunately, Ashman was dying of AIDs at the time of Beauty and Beast's production and he would never actually live to see it released, though it is said that he worked frantically from his home in New York City right up to the end. While I think this was tragically misspent time Beauty and the Beast does have one of if not the very best soundtrack of any of the 90s Disney movies. If you haven’t heard and liked "Be Our Guest" then all I have to say is, YOU LIAR.
The animation was really great, an improvement on the Little Mermaid, but perhaps not as rich as future films like Pocahontas (a beautiful turd). The score is as good as anything in a major movie, the broadway songs funny and well choreographed, the characters are endearing, even the villain, and....rarity of rarities....there is a very beautiful moral message about love and humility. I’ll also go out on a limb and declare Belle to be my favorite fictional Disney princess.
It’s your sister's favorite Disney movie and one of mine too.
I give it 4.8 wilting roses under a bell-jar
Based on an 18th century French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast tells the story about a haughty and uncaring young prince who is cursed by an enchantress when he refuses to provide hospitality to a poor old woman. To make his outward appearance match his spiritual state the prince is then turned into a “beast” (a 100% awesome half-animal, half man hybrid) with the stipulation that he will be stuck that way unless he learns to love by his 21st birthday. Unfortunately for the prince's servants they too are all cursed and for some reason that means they have to be anthropomorphized furniture and household goods.....like a libidinous singing candlestick. Yeah.
Meanwhile, Belle, a hipster living in a provincial French village (in other words, somewhere other than Paris) has decided that she doesn’t want to marry the misogynistic and yet oh so dreamy Gaston, the second funniest Disney villain of all time. Also in the meantime, Belle’s father, a good intentioned yet bungling inventor, has set off to enter some sort of steam-powered guillotine (hey, it’s France) into a contest of some sort and gets lost in the process. Eventually he stumbles on the beasts castle, finds out about talking, skirt chasing candles and winds up tossed into the beast's dungeon (apparently he hasn’t changed much over the years). This of course leads Belle to come and look for him where she in turn confronts the beast and, out of love for her father, she agrees to take his place. The beast, moved by her sacrifice, agrees on the grounds that she stays forever and he proceeds to essentially make her his permanent dinner guest. An improbable love story ensues, it is awesome, and you probably know what happens. They dance in a ballroom.
Beauty and the Beast is a really great movie and, I believe, still the only Disney movie to ever be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Like any Disney movie it was essentially a collaborative effort of a team of animators, and for the first time, professional writers, but a few key lights shined through. One was the addition of Linda Woolverton who wrote the screenplay (a Disney animated first) that ultimately won over Jeffrey Katzenberg who had refused to produce the movie until a better story could be produced. Woolverton was a total noob to film writing and had been working doing some writing for Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers (totally awesome) when a novel she wrote for children was read by Disney executives. It must have impressed them because she got the job and, clearly, she did a great job because she has had a pretty illustrious career at the House of Mouse ever since. We’ll have to see how her movie about Maleficent turns out!
Then there was Howard Ashman. Ashman, the guy who wrote Little Shop of Horrors for broadway, did a lot to help Disney in this time period since much of the creative work and virtually all of the music for the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast were done by him and his partner Alan Menken. Unfortunately, Ashman was dying of AIDs at the time of Beauty and Beast's production and he would never actually live to see it released, though it is said that he worked frantically from his home in New York City right up to the end. While I think this was tragically misspent time Beauty and the Beast does have one of if not the very best soundtrack of any of the 90s Disney movies. If you haven’t heard and liked "Be Our Guest" then all I have to say is, YOU LIAR.
The animation was really great, an improvement on the Little Mermaid, but perhaps not as rich as future films like Pocahontas (a beautiful turd). The score is as good as anything in a major movie, the broadway songs funny and well choreographed, the characters are endearing, even the villain, and....rarity of rarities....there is a very beautiful moral message about love and humility. I’ll also go out on a limb and declare Belle to be my favorite fictional Disney princess.
It’s your sister's favorite Disney movie and one of mine too.
I give it 4.8 wilting roses under a bell-jar
