Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)

1991's "Beauty and the Beast" was one of a good bunch of Disney films that I was familiar with from an early age. I first heard of this straight-to-video sequel not long after its release, when I was eleven years old. Would I have enjoyed "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas" at the time? Probably, but I never ended up seeing it at the time for some reason, even though I was interested for a while. It's been ten years, and I have finally seen it, but am not that satisfied.

The story is set somewhere in the middle of the events we saw in the first movie, when the castle was still under the spell from the enchantress, meaning the prince was still a beast, and Belle was his prisoner. It's Christmas Eve, but Belle is the only one who is aware of this. She plans to decorate the castle for the forthcoming occasion, despite warnings from castle servants that the Beast hates Christmas, remembering that was the day the enchantress came! Belle believes that bringing Christmas back to the castle will save the Beast from his misery, but will it? Meanwhile, Forte, a former pipe organ player, now a self-playing pipe organ since the casting of the spell, does not wish to return to his original human form, and plans to have Belle permanently removed from the castle so the spell will never be broken!

I guess this isn't really a sequel, as it does not take place after the events of the first movie. Instead, it adds more to the original story. Either way, it's rather disappointing. I did find a bit of excitement in "The Enchanted Christmas", but certainly not as much as in the original. Also, unlike the 1991 smash hit, I did not find so much humour in this film. I guess one reason for that is Gaston and Lefou are not in it, but I also didn't find Lumiere and Cogsworth's arguments in this film as funny as they were in the original, and I'm not sure why. The story is also a bit bland in comparison, as almost all of it is set in the castle, so there isn't as much of a variety in locations, and there aren't as many characters, even though there are two new ones, Forte and Fife. As I recall, there aren't too many memorable songs, either. Nothing lacking in the animation as far as I could see, though.

As you can see, I've given "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas" a 5/10, despite the fact that I've given "The Return of Jafar" a 6/10, and have definitely noticed more problems with that Disney straight-to-video sequel than this one. It's a bit hard for me to describe my experience watching this film, as I wouldn't exactly say I was bored, but didn't really enjoy it, either. These straight-to-video sequels from Disney are never as popular as their theatrical predecessors, but it appears I'm only the 25th user to review this one, and the film has well under 1000 votes, so I guess it's even less popular than I thought! For fans of the original 1991 film, "The Enchanted Christmas" MIGHT be worth a try, but it's definitely not a must-see, at least not for adult fans.