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The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the Beast (a prince whose heart is too hard to love anyone besides himself), Belle boldly takes her father's place, imprisoned in the Beast's gloomy mansion. Naturally, Belle teaches the Beast to love. What makes this such a dazzler, besides the amazingly accomplished animation and the winning coterie of supporting characters (the Beast's mansion is overrun by quipping, dancing household items) is the array of beautiful and hilarious songs by composer Alan Menken and the late, lamented lyricist Howard Ashman. (The title song won the 1991 Best Song Oscar, and Menken's score scored a trophy as well.) The downright funniest song is "Gaston," a lout's paean to himself (including the immortal line, "I use antlers in all of my de-co-ra-ting"). "Be Our Guest" is transformed into an inspired Busby Berkeley homage. Since Ashman's passing, animated musicals haven't quite reached the same exhilarating level of wit, sophistication, and pure joy. --David Kronke --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
 Customer Reviews 
A Winner This Time For Disney
Rating: 5
This story is a lot more appealing now that it's out on DVD. It looks and sounds super. The colors are bold, bright and just plain gorgeous. The sound separation is excellent. If you have a nice surround system, you'll be pleasantly surprised with this.
The story is nothing extraordinary but decent with a lot of subtle humor mixed in with it, mainly with the talking objects in the castle. Little "teacup" is the cutest of the characters. The songs, with the exception of the title tune and a Busby Berkeley-type number, are nothing to write home about.
Still, when you look at the whole picture, this is a solid movie and probably one of the Disney's all-time best animated movies.
For Once, Disney Did a Fairy Tale Right.
Rating: 5
There a lot of Disney films based off of fairy tales; Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid to name a few. While, Cinderella and Snow White remain favorites to this day, Beauty and the Beast is probably the only one that is consistently funny, has good songs, and a great cast of characters.
If one has not seen "Beauty and the Beast", the basic story goes: Belle is a bookish woman who doesn't fit in, but as her name suggest, her beauty is unparalleled. Her father is an eccentric inventor and is trying to become a famous inventor. When he stumbles across the Beast's castle, he is on the way to an inventor's contest, and then he is imprisoned by the Beats who is incapable of love. This is a very touching film because the Beast is a man who has never learned to love, and Belle has a hard time loving someone who would imprison her or her father, but eventually as time goes by, she begins to see that he is not as bad as he seemed. It gives wonderful message that you cannot always judge someone based upon their looks, and sometimes you just need to really know a person before you can decide whether or not they are worth knowing - despite first impressions.
Admittedly I had not watched "Beauty and the Beast" since it came out, until recently, and I had forgotten that it is more than a children's film. The story is very predictable, but is filled with so much fabulous music, characters with actual depth, and beautiful animation it overshadows the story. This movie has the perennial heroine that all the other Fairy Tale Disney movies have. Yet, this is the only Disney movie that gets the female lead right. She's smart, sassy (not bratty), beautiful, and can take care of herself. She doesn't desire the best looking man which is why Gaston holds no interest for her. She is the kind of woman that I would feel comfortable letting my kids watch in a movie.
The only caution I would give, is that there is mild sexual innuendo most of it is from "Lumiere" (A character reminiscent of Honore Lachaille in 'Gigi') the candlestick. :) However, it is mild, and not blatant or bad enough to deter you from letting your children watch it. It is after all based in France, you have to expect a little bit of that.
Overall, this is one of Disney's crowning achievements, and should be in any one's movie collection!
God Bless & *enjoy* ~Amy
One of my all time favorites
Rating: 5
This is up there for the best Disney movie. The animation is astounding, the music, perfect. Its an unforgettable classic that everybody should watch, if they have yet to do so.
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