Beauty and the Beast

In the 1970s and 1980s Disney had fallen a long way from it's once hallowed pedestal as a magical fountain of classic animated features. Films like The Great Mouse Detective and The Black Cauldron had failed to capture the public's imagination in the same way as their ancestors, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio or even The Sword in the Stone. In 1991, Beauty and the Beast was the film that won Disney back it's glory. Grossing $370 million, utilising breakthrough animation techniques and even garnering itself a Best Film Oscar nomination (unprecedented for an animated feature), Beauty and the Beast now remains one of the most fondly remembered of all Disney's features.

Much of the film follows the classic fairytale it's based on with the usual Disney interjections - the comic relief characters (Cogsworth, LeFou), the musical numbers and the dark-haired villain. But where the film excels is the ways in which it uses the famous fairytale to subvert the standard Disney tropes. The Beast is an unlikely male hero figure... his voice and appearance (horns, hair and haunches) are almost satanic, whereas the villain, Gaston (who seems to be based on Bruce Campbell!) is unusually dashing and good-looking. Beyond appearances, the Beast is also insensitive, quick-tempered and understandably 'beastly' - but, as far as animated features go, the film is sophisticated enough to ask it's viewers to look past this to see the Beast's more wounded and selfless qualities. And whilst Gaston appears as slick and good-humoured, he's actually quite ugly on the inside - he's vain, cruel and self-centred.

Whilst I could probably do without the songs and the musical-theatre tradition that Disney refuses to let die, this film has at least two big memorable numbers in Be Our Guest and the title song. Also solidifying it's status as a now much-loved classic is the film's design. Combining CGI with traditional 2D animation, Beauty and the Beast seamlessly integrates richly textured three-dimensional backgrounds, seethrough fabrics and realistically opaque substances like smoke, mist and dust. What also stood out for me (and often gets forgotten in favour of the CGI ballroom scene) is the beautiful, stylised stained glass introduction.

One aspect of the film that might've been developed a bit more is the French influence. A lot of the film's look is based on a French provincial style but most of the major characters sound British or American (the worst of these Angela Lansbury's character, Mrs. Potts). The French stereotypes are reserved for incidental or supporting characters and the bulk of it only really comes through in Lumiere - the memorable candlestick character (voiced by Jerry Orbach) patently based on famed Frenchman Maurice Chevalier. I liked the way the melted wax drop on Lumiere's head mimics a floppy hair fringe - it's touches like that that can really sell a film. It's just a shame that a lot of the other characters weren't a bit more French.

So, despite the soppy subject matter, I think Beauty and the Beast remains a classic because it's the Disney film that goes against the grain with it's monstrous hero and dashing villain. Also, the morals - that appearances don't neccessarily reflect inner beauty, and that if you truly love someone you'll let them go - don't ring false or feel contrived.

DIRECTOR: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Linda Woolverton, from a story credited to eleven seperate people! Based on the fairytale by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.
KEY ACTORS: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, David Ogden Stiers, Jesse Corti.

RELATED TEXTS:
- The fairytale written in the 18th century by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont is the original source for the Beauty and the Beast story.
- It was adapted into a film by French director Jean Cocteau in 1946, also called Beauty and the Beast.
- This animated feature was spun off by Disney into two direct-to-video sequels, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World.
- A live-action television spin-off series, Sing Me a Story With Belle, was produced by Disney in the late 90s.
- Disney also used this film as the foundation for a musical stage production that ran from 1994 to 2007.
- A non-Disney modern-retelling was also made as a television series in the late 1980s.
- I mentioned earlier that Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to be nominated for Best Film at the Academy Awards. To date, Up is the only other film to manage the same feat.
- Gaston falls to his death at the end of Beauty and the Beast. This tends to be the fate of a lot of Disney villains... at least seven others have died in similar ways.

AWARDS
Won two music-based Academy Awards, and was nominated for another four Oscars (including Best Film).

Won three Golden Globes - Best Comedy/Musical Film, Best Song (the title song) and Best Score. Nominated for one other Golden Globe (Best Song for Be Our Guest)

Nominated for two BAFTAs (best special effects and best score).

Also nominated and won over ten other awards at smaller film awards ceremonies, mostly for music and animation.