The 30th animated Disney "classic" is, without a doubt, one of the most famous Disney classics, which is a good and a bad thing either, because its success tends somewhat to overshadow other very good Disney classics (often better than this). Or maybe what happens is that this movie gets the deserved attention, while others sadly do not have the same luck (such as "The Rescuers", "The Aristocats", "The Fox and the Hound", "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", "Robin Hood" and others). That is the worst aspect of this movie's success. So, as one can see, it's not all roses.
Nevertheless, "Beauty and the Beast" is one of Disney's most original movies. To a point, it is every bit as creative and imaginative as "Alice in Wonderland", except that it isn't as eccentric as that one.
One thing that is very obvious from the beginning is that this is a french tale. It's quite easy to understand that because all the characters have french names. Plus, they often use french words such as "Bonjour" (which means "Good morning" in french). Lumière even uses the word «Sacré bleu» once. However, it's not very clear the exact place of our story. All we know is that it's somewhere in France.
As much as I don't like all of the movie's characters, some of them are very charming. For example: Lumière (the candelabra), Cogsworth (a clock), Mrs. Potts (a teapot), Chip (the cute little teacup), Belle, Maurice (Belle's father, who is also an inventor) and Philippe (the horse). It's funny that a horse is named Philippe (Philip in french) - LOL.
Belle is one of Disney's most beautiful chicks, together with Jasmine, Ariel and the Blue Fairy. Belle is also classy, charming, carefree, nonconformist, conservative and nice. All of this makes her an interesting character and, above all, different from the rest of her village's population, who see her as a strange girl because she likes to read and also because she can't stand Gaston (unlike the rest of women) neither the idea of being his "little wife". Belle is appropriately named like that (her name means beautiful in french).
Gaston (who is considered the villain of the movie) is a character who's got no culture at all, being the epitome of pure strength and no brain (like Biff Tannen from "Back to the Future"). Gaston is a tall, muscled, vain, arrogant, snobbish and chauvinistic guy with a heart of stone.
On the other hand, Gaston's follower and helper, Lefou, is more of a goofy guy than anything else, nearly like a comic relief. No wonder he is named Lefou (which means "The Fool" in french).
Monsieur D'Arque is a strange man with a sinister appearance that makes him seem to come from a terror film. For some children, he might be a bit of a creepy character.
My favorite character is Chip (he is the cutest of all, besides, his natural sweetness and innocence helps). However, Lumière and Belle come incredibly close to Chip when it comes to my favorite characters of this film.
The soundtrack isn't entirely spectacular, but the romantic ballad "Beauty and the Beast" is beautiful. It has 2 versions. Angela Lansbury's version is good, but the original one by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson is extraordinary.
As for the cast, it is brand new comparing to older Disney films and most of them do well. Paige O'Hara and Angela Lansbury are among the best ones, but those who steal the show are Bradley Pierce as Chip and Jerry Orbach as Lumière. Jerry Orbach gives so much life and energy to Lumière, with such a convincing french accent.
The best part of the whole film is the famous ballroom dance sequence, which is wonderful, brilliant and very artistic (the graphics also make it look incredibly close to a live-action ballroom).
Generally speaking, this film has the main ingredients of an animated Disney movie: great picture quality (good designs, backgrounds, sceneries and colors), very good animation, creativity, originality, some charming characters, some romance, adventure, darkness, suspense, classic humor and so on...
The Prince (that is, the Beast as a human being) almost looks like Jean Michel Jarre with that long hair. That said, his change of heart during the movie is amazing. From a person who is spoiled, selfish, unkind and with an explosive temper, he becomes kind, gentle and even romantic.
Although the sequence "Human Again" was originally gonna be included in the movie, it was removed in the final version. It was recovered for the DVD. Yet, the version I consider the true one is the one without the sequence "Human Again", even if that one is not *officially* the movie's true version. But for me the true version is the one I know since 1991. It's the way I always knew it, so it makes perfect sense.
