Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Writer: Linda Woolverton (Screenplay) Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (Original Story)
Starring: (Voice Talents) Robby Benson, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart, Angela Lansbury, Paige O’Hara, Jerry Orbach
Plot: A young woman whose father has been imprisoned by a terrifying beast offers herself in his place, unaware that her captor is actually a prince, physically altered by a magic spell.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Truly Classic Disney
Story: Beauty and the Beast starts as we learn the curse placed upon the Beast, who must wait until love can be felt before he can return to human form. In the small French town Belle is different to all the other girls, she enjoys reading and thinking for herself and lives with her inventor father. Belle has caught the attention of the town stud Gaston, the self-centred man that other woman dive at the feet off, but Belle is just not interested.
When Belle’s father goes missing she goes in search of him finding the Beast castle and being kept captive by the Beast and his living furniture. To escape the castle Belle must fall in love with the Beast but back home Gaston leads an attempted rescue for her. Can the fairy tale be cured and love found in an unlikely place?
Thoughts on Beauty and the Beast
Characters – Belle is the typical strong lead female that wants to be independent unlike most of the other women she knows but only to find herself falling in love with the man kept her hostage. The Beast finds himself transformed in this form after not being accepting to other people, he is aggressive, grumpy and short tempered but once he opens up to Belle he could lift the curse. Gaston is the man all the women love and he believes he can have anything he wants and isn’t used to women rejecting him like Belle does, he is always planning to make it happen.
Story – The story is about love, it is about love coming from a place you least expect it in fairy tale form. It would be fair to say there is a huge questionable flaw in this story because keeping a woman captive who then falls in love with you is creepy to say the least, but for the younger audience the story is perfect about finding a happy ending while being the strong independent woman.
Family/Musical/Romance – The family can all enjoy this together because of the catchy musical numbers and the simple romance story.
Settings – Each setting shows us the different worlds Belle came from to be with the Beast showing the small-town girl could end up in a castle.
Animation – The animation looks fantastic which adds to the fantasy animation you saw in the Disney films during the 90s.
Final Thoughts – This is one film that the princess lovers will always love because it is about a normal girl that gets to be treated like a princess.
Overall: Wonderful fantasy romance film.
Rating
