We consider why Beauty and the Beast remains Disneys finest animated feature film to date…
This article comes courtesy ofDen of Geek UK.
Its had success with this too.
And few have been more successful than Bill Condons slavish, and uninspired, remake ofBeauty and the Beast.
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But what about it makes it so special for me?
You might just regret asking that.
The bottom line for me is thatBeauty and the Beastis the bestDisneyanimated movie to date.
And one of my all-time favorite films.
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For who could ever learn to love a beast?
Me, me, me, me, me.
And many before and after me.
Ironic, given that it was a film I didnt initially have much interest in.
I was 16, not hugely interested in the film, but intrigued enough to agree to watch it.
And I was utterly blown away.
So much so that I went to see it two further times during its original theatrical run.
And it flamed a passion for the Disney animation back catalog thats been burning ever since.
But the primary one is that Disney was struggling to find anyone to put the film together.
That the idea had been around for some time, but nobody coud quite make it click.
Katzenberg thus took a gamble.
Katzenberg gave them a chance.
They had a few months to find a shape for the project and to develop it.
Those months, thankfully, turned out to be well spent.
Ashman, working with Alan Menken, had at that time most famously collaborated onLittle Shop of Horrors.
Crucially though, it was still unfinished and audiences were some way off feasting their eyes on it.
A sequel,The Rescuers Down Under, was to be the Disney project lined up for immediately after.
That seemed a safer bet on paper.
Yet Ashman and Menken clearly had something special.
What wasnt widely known when Ashman started work onBeauty and the Beastin earnest though was that he was dying.
I use antlers in all of my decorating.
And Id argue that its Disney at the peak of its storytelling song powers.
Yet it nearly wasnt in the film at all.
Nor was the Broadway-inspired Be Our Guest or the quite brilliant The Mob Song.
Nor the goosebump-inducing centralBeauty and the Beastsong and sequence itself.
The majesty and experience of Disneys older guard, crossing over with a new generation.
Somethings lurking that you dont see every day.
I loveThe Jungle Book,101 Dalmatians,The Little Mermaid, and many more.
But never has music and narrative gelled so compellingly in a Disney film for me as it does here.
Many animated films introduce a collection of characters, whose names you struggle to remember come the end credits.
Put simply, everything fits and leaves room for a full, three-act story, too.
Theres something in him that I simply didnt see.
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But its not.
And its a delicate tightrope that the film walks.
Even then, he feels unpredictable enough to jump between comedy and rage.
They might have him singing a song to camera, to push across that kind of transformation.
This is where the genius of music as storytelling kicks in.
Everyone who makes an animated film that has a love story at the heart should watch this.
But heck, the film owes so, so much to his brilliance.
The tightness of his writing on the songs ofThe Little Mermaidwould be enough to top 99.9 percent of careers.
Heck, this is aDisneyfilm.
The same Disney that too often gets unfairly criticized for taking a safer, soft approach to material.
Granted, most people didnt notice, but that didnt matter.
Theres ambition from top to bottom here, and Ashmans genius is surely at the heart of it.
Very different from the rest of us.
Lets, while were here, give Alan Menken some of the credit he really deserves.
But I wanted to just commend his broad, excellent score that underpinsBeauty and the Beast.
Because Mr. Menken is on absolute fire here.
And its hard to see how it could have been got round.
No wonder they dress him up in the same outfit as the Beast for the final dance.
Its about the only way we could really emote with him.
But thats my quibble.
Illumination consistenly nails character and usually fumbles story.Beauty and the Beasthits the bullseye on all counts though.
Few outside of Disney would even attempt to tackle a musical project on this kind of scale.
Partly thats down to the loss of Ashman.
It was, quite simply, the right film, for the right people, at the right time.
Finally, my nerdy mistake spot.
In the opening scene, Gaston flicks through Belles book and declares there arent any pictures in it.
When Belle is sat down reading the book?
We get a close-up of a spread with a picture on it.
