Even though Christmas is over, like WAY over, in fact we're already in Valentines Day (BA HUMBUG) and Black History Month (which is a holiday), let's talk about Christmas. We all love Christmas! Who doesn't? Even people who don't celebrate it seem to love the joy it brings and some are even guilty of watching a Christmas movie. We watch movies like Home Alone 1 and 2, The Santa Claus movies, How The Grinch Stole Christmas (both animated and live-action), Rudolph, Frosty The Snowman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and even a movie that completely misses the true meaning of Christmas by just talking about greed and commercialism (not what's wrong with it), the famous, A Christmas Story. However, I suppose the discussion about that movie is for another review.

Anyway, something else to know is about Disney Sequels. Honestly they're not as bad as people make them out to be, only one direct-to-video Disney Sequel is awful, The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel's Beginning. As for the others they are bad at worst and in my opinion fantastic at best. Something people don't realize is that the main fault was the Disney company for not giving Disney Toon the time and money to be able to give the sequels what they need to be considered as good as a regular Disney movie. However, in my opinion, a lot of times some sequels are better than the original. *crowds boo* OH SHUT UP YOU BUNCH OF IGNORANT SNOBS!!!!!!!

I mean Lady and The Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure talks about family and the issues real families deal with like a kid that runs away, siblings that bully the misunderstood sibling, and parents that don't understand their kids and are too hard on them, even about parents that lie to their kids. It even talks about orphans without any family. It's more developed and has a much deeper message than just a simple romance like the original movie, even though I like the original Lady and The Tramp. Also with Return To Neverland where we get a sense of the real world with seeing what it's like to be a child growing up during World War I or II. It shows how we all struggle with dealing with both the real world but also wanting to hold on to our childhood. Jane wants to but feels like she needs to grow up because it's dangerous, people are dying, and she needs to be the realistic one in her family. That's only two of some of my favorite sequels and how they're better and much deeper than the original movies. Trust me when I say that these are not the worst things that Disney has created. Have you seen Mars Needs Moms? Or Austin and Ally? But I digress.

Anyway, one sequel that gets a lot of hate, but also some love, is Beauty and The Beast and The Enchanted Christmas. I honestly don't get how this movie gets so much hate! There are far worse Disney sequels out there, in my opinion this is one of the best. It has such a deep message, amazing songs, decent animation, does the characters justice, and even has a subtle message, that I will get to later. So let's drive right in, shall we?



First we are opened to the Beast's castle on Christmas night, or Christmas Eve night, where every one goes to and sings Deck The Halls out of no where. Hey, it's Christmas, you're allowed to sing for no reason on Christmas, especially in an animated movie! Anyway, the servants of the castle that we all know and love (Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts), now human, are decorating and being festive for Christmas, while Chip is trying to get into the Christmas presents. If he's only allowed to open one I guess it's Christmas Eve.

Anyway, Lumiere and Cogsworth talk about how great it is that Chip is having a proper Christmas, unlike last year, though Mrs. Potts thought last year was quite nice. As always, Cogsworth and Lumiere get into a fight, this time about who was the one to save Christmas last year. Yet people think the characters are different from the original? No wonder the Chinese are ahead of us. Anyway Mrs. Potts ends up being the one to tell the story about what really happened. YAY!!!!! STORY TIME!!!!!!!

So it turns out the real movie is a flashback and it takes place right after the wolf attack from the original, or at least a little time after that. The gang decide to try to get Beast and Belle to bond together ice skating. Maybe Eudora should have called them to hook Tiana up with someone, same with Elinor for Merida and the Suitors. But I digress. Belle is wondering around the palace just happy about it almost being Christmas, to which Chip doesn't know about Christmas and everyone else is trying to avoid the subject. Belle and Beast start to bond with skating after some slightly awkward talking. I thought it was handled nicely, Belle didn't want to have anything to do with him but after he saved her life I think she got a sense of "Wow, maybe he's not as bad as I thought and I should give him a chance and get to know him." She ends up teaching Beast how to skate, good thing about being a Beast is you don't need skates, you can just use your claws on your feet.

However, just like all good stories, this movie has a villain, an organ pipe named Mistro Forte. He doesn't like that Beast is getting along so well with Belle because he refers to humanity as "entirely overrated." I guess if you're an object that means you're immortal. But the main reason is that he loves having his melodies to sooth Beast's tortured soul and there was no need for them before the enchantment. He loves being wanted and having his music being appreciated, like any other artist, and doesn't want to let some peasant girl ruin it for him. I think I can relate, I hate whenever I make articles and no one reads or comments, like when not too many people commented on my story From Paws To Thumbs. *gets into a pathetic state and goes into a sad little comma*


Forte: KATARALOVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Alright, alright, I'm back to reviewing you overgrown deformed trashcan!

Anyway, Forte sends a little piccolo named Fife to make sure that this romance never happens and promises him a solo in his symphony. Belle and Beast continue to bond and it looks very natural and realistic. However, it's ruined by Fife and the two end up falling in the snow. Belle makes a snow angel and Beast looks at his snow print and refers to it as :the shadow of a monster", throws a fit like always, and storms off. What; did you expect him to suddenly become a different person just from one night of being with Belle? That's not realistic AT ALL! I think the two have been together for all of winter, so that's like three months. Anyway, Belle starts to wonder why she even bothered but Mrs. Potts begs her not to lose hope.

Beast goes off to look at his enchanted rose and says he hates Christmas. What; no ba humbug? No staring down at Whoville hating the who's? Oh well! Anyway he's comforted by Forte's music and is assured that he will always be there for him.

Belle is upset about how the Beast is such a grump, even on Christmas. The grump? Well it's no Scrooge or Grinch, let's stick to just Beast. Anyway Chip questions what Christmas is and Belle tries to explain and of course gets his attention when she mentions Christmas, just like any child. Anyway, he asks what she's going to give Beast but she's doesn't know him well enough to know what he would want. Well a fur coat is definitely out of the question. She ends up deciding to give him a story and ends up singing an amazing song, Stories. It's also beautifully animated. I mean, it's art style is like what you'd see in a book and it's so detailed. Plus, it's all hand drawn and it looks really difficult to draw. This scene is enough to prove that the animation is not "awful" like everyone says it is.

Anyway she finishes the story and plans on bringing Christmas to the palace, but Cogsworth says no. Oh gee, what a shocker! Lumiere once again tries to convince Cogsworth it will be great, he's against it, Lumiere lights Cogsworth on fire, he screams in pain, Mrs. Potts acts reasonable, Cogsworth is still against it, and everyone manipulates Cogsworth like Belle did in the original movie. He agrees and they all decide to start getting everything ready for Christmas, Lumiere says he knows just who would be right for the job. Cogsworth tells everyone he is in charge but everyone ignores him, leaves, and he says "wait for me". I think Cogsworth might be the Disney version of Brainy Smurf, except not as arrogant and not as irritating. This scene proves just how much the characters are like their original selves. Sequels are known to change some characters personalities but this one has them be the same as they were in the original.

So they end up going up an entire flight of stairs and apparently there are over a thousand stairs. It's a good thing I've been up the stairs in Notre Dame so I wouldn't get too tired going up them stairs. But I digress. They end up to find Angelic, the former castle decorated as well as an early combination of an American Girl doll and a Bratz doll. Lumiere seems to flirt with her a bit. What about Babette? Oh well, Lumiere has always been a bit of a flirt, he does somewhat flirt with Belle by kissing her hand. But I don't think it's anything serious because their relationship isn't mentioned again.

Anyway Angelic refuses to help decorate for Christmas because it will all just be a disaster. Belle believes it will be wonderful and starts the big number of the movie, As Long As There's Christmas and it's amazing. It has deep meaning and is also fun because everyone can sing a part, it even has a cameo of Babette. I used to sing this all the time as a kid. Although the other versions of the song in the movie are better because this does kind of talk about the commercialized stuff of Christmas, while the others are the deep meaningful things. But we'll get to them later.

I think now is a good time to talk about the animation. In my opinion the animation is absolutely beautiful! When you compare it to the original movie it's obviously not as good but it's beautiful nonetheless. The characters are decently animated, Belle is more consistently drawn and maintains beautiful appearance, it has a unique artistic style (like with Stories), and the animation suits the movie. It really fits into the style of Christmas. When you look at other animated Christmas movies you can see that there's a similar style. Besides, I've seen people praise animation in other movies when honestly the animation is not that good. If this movie wasn't a sequel, especially to one that has such gorgeous animation, it wouldn't get so much hate.



Anyway, Fife tells Forte that Belle is planning Christmas, who tells Beast. What is this, Girls gossiping in the girls room? Anyway Beast recalls how the Enchantment happened, which was on Christmas. We also see that he does not like books so looks like Belle might be facing some disappointment. But what he expect, a Play Station 3? Plus we see what Fotre looked like as a human, let's just say he looks like he's Yzma's grandmother. We all know what happens, Beast refuses the old hag, the gets bad and turns into a beautiful enchantress, and curse the entire castle until Beast can find love and earn love in return. I personally like seeing the scene actually happen instead of just seeing some stained glass window, it's much more interesting. The only things that bother me about it is that they forgot that the hag warned the prince, he dismissed her a second time, and he tried to apologize. Also I've always wondered this question, it's a problem that the original left out as well so it's not this movie's fault. In the original they said they've been enchanted for ten years and that the rose will bloom until his twenty-first year so that means he was eleven when he was cursed. So I'm wondering, where were his parents during all of this?

Well, just like the original, this movie isn't going to answer my question so let's just move on. Belle is off in the boiler room to pick out a special log, the yule log tradition. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's where a log is chosen, everyone in the house touches it, they close their eyes, and make a Christmas wish. After that the log is thrown into the fireplace and it's said that the ashes of the log holds on to your wish as it flies up to tell an angel, God, Jesus, or whoever, your wish. I have to say, ever since I was a little kid I've always wanted to do this tradition but we don't have a fireplace so we couldn't. But I plan on making it a tradition for my family when I grow up and have a family of my own.

Anyway, Beast comes in and of course gets mad, even mocking the yule log tradition. He goes as far as to tell her she made a Christmas wish last year and asked if this is what he wished for, also screaming and roaring while doing it. Well Scrooges thing was "Ba Humbug" and Grinch had his own theme song so I guess yelling and roaring is the Beast's thing. But Belle tells him she will keep wishing and criticizes him for being so selfish for not allowing Christmas. He tells her she doesn't know what it's like to lose everything he's ever had and to be a prisoner, when actually it's shown that she does. I mean, she loses her father, her home, and her freedom and is a prisoner in the castle so she really knows exactly how it feels. She, as always, has the spine to tell him off by saying the only one keeping anyone prisoner is him and that she refuses to give up bringing joy and happiness to everyone in the castle.

Now people have often said that this movie ruins Belle by making herself basically a doormat. But I ask this, HOW? We see here that she's not taking any of the Beast's sh*t and it standing up for herself, as well as everyone else. This is the same Belle from the original, except more active (not in a Mulan or Ariel way) and is actually more than just someone who's merely there to break the curse. That just means they need her to break the curse, fall in love, and have Beast fall in love with her. That's not all Belle is meant to be about. This shows that she has true beauty, not just from the outside but also on the inside. Her true beauty is from within and the fact that she does all she can to bring joy to others. She's shown in the sequel not just someone to break the curse but also to bring joy and happiness to everyone, before the enchantment none of them were happy but Belle comes and she changes it and this Christmas thing is the best way, it's the most joyful time of year.

I know people also say it's like she's trying to change Beast but she's really not, she's just trying to make him happy. He's always angry and she's not sure why, she wants to get to know him now because she knows there's good in him and has been hurt. I think a good way to show this would be showing flashbacks of Beast being ignored by his parents and them dying when he was young so he ended up being spoiled and rude to feel some void and cover his feelings. Unfortunately, they never mention that so we're left without it. But I think the Belle in this movie is a lot more like the one from Once Upon A Time. She sees good in people, though the one in Enchanted Christmas has more proof of Beast having good in him, and when it's hard to get out, she helps bring it out simply by being the kind and caring person she is inside, where her true beauty is.

Unfortunately, it seems like Belle has gave up until she sees how important it is to Chip, and probably everyone else. So she decides that they'll just have Christmas with or without the Beast. Though, being the Christmas thing to do, she sneaks into the West Wing and leaves the Beast's gift on the table where he keeps the rose, without him even noticing. Afterwards Belle and Chip go looking for a Christmas tree, which all look like a bunch of Charlie Brown Christmas Tree rejects.

Beast is actually watching them and looks scary while doing it. Serious, as a kid I was more afraid of Beast than I was of the CGI pip organ, my niece is too. Anyway he sees that there's a Christmas present and is angry about it until he finds out it's from Belle. But he can't open it because it's not Christmas yet. Don't you just hate that rule? Anyway, Lumiere, being the wise one he always is, tells Beast that he and everyone knows how he feels about Christmas but when a woman gives a man a gift she's saying "I care about you". Just another way of how Belle's true beauty just shines through the movie. Anyway Beast decides that he's going to have Forte compose a "happy" song for as Christmas present for Belle, and he takes it very well.

Forte: Oh but happiness is so... depressing... What's next? Love songs? Wedding marches? It's all that girl's fault!

Or maybe not! Anyway Forte uses his music to lure Belle to him so he can get rid of her once and for all. He tells her she can find a magnificent tree in the black forest. However she says she can't because she promised Beaut she wouldn't leave the castle grounds. However, Forte ends up manipulating her, mostly by, in my opinion, using Chip and his plees to get her to agree. Perhaps she'll be smart and ask Beast's permission? Or even ask him to go with them so he knows he can trust her and can make sure she won't leave. Nope, she just decides to go behind his back and sneak off without telling him.

Well, let's face it, Belle isn't exactly very good at keeping her word or doing as she's told to begin with. I mean, she went into the West Wing when she was told it's the one place in the entire castle she can't go and later breaks her promise never to leave but she runs away. Yeah, breaking a promise that she made to make sure her father wouldn't die and would be free won't backfire at all! What was to stop Beast from taking her father back and even killing him? Plus the fact that the wolves almost killed her. So Belle most definitely hasn't changed here either! She's not stupid at all, she's quite bright, but she's foolish at times. Plus after the fight she just had with him it's understandable that she didn't go to him, it's not too smart, but it's understandable.

Anyway Forte sends Fife to follow Belle and to make sure she doesn't come back. Fife doesn't want to because she's so nice but once Forte pulls the whole solo thing he soon agrees. Okay, that's kind of despicable, but I do think Fife later makes up for it but we'll get to that later.

Beast wants Cogsworth to find Belle so she can hear the song he had Forte compose for her but Cogsworth can't find her. He and Lumiere go to find her and find out she went into the Black Forrest so they go after her. Mrs. Potts keeps Beast distracted, though not very well. It turns out Fotre wrote Deck The Halls, looks like whoever said they wrote it should be sued for plagiarism. Anyway, Beast wants to know where Belle is and Mrs. Potts says they can't find her. Beast gets mad and looks like he smashed one of Mrs. Potts children. Okay, so it's just a regular teacup without a face, but when I was a kid I thought he had killed one of Mrs. Potts' kids.

Anyway Beast ends up asking the mirror where she is, thinks she's left him, and decides to bring her back. However, Forte tells him not to because she'll only cause him pain. This leads to the villain song of the movie, Don't Fall In Love. It's actually pretty interesting, the song is quite good and pretty catchy. It's no Hellfire, Cruella De Vil, or Poor Unfortunate Souls, but I like it. Though I do wonder why Forte has magic powers. How did that work out? It's probably the same reason that Beast just has a random magic mirror, the Enchantress was just being generous. It's definitely better than a song about an arrogant macho idiot singing about himself. In fact, Forte is better than Gaston PERIOD! He's smart, manipulative, devious, and doesn't have a plan that seemed like it was came up by a monkey with a light-bulb.

Angelic is bring critical about the decorating everyone did, but she admits it's not bad for amateur. However, her hope is crushed as Beast comes and destroys it all. This is just so tragic because during all of this Angelic is being cynical and a pessimist but literally the moment she decides to let some hope in it's all ruined for her, or so we think but we'll get to it later.

It looks like the wolves from the original movie learned their lesson from the first movie and aren't going after Belle, so that was kind of pointless though. Anyway, they find the perfect Christmas tree, Lumiere uses Cogsworth as a snow board so they can go fast and find Belle (classic Lumiere), Belle and Chip get the tree, Fife tries to stop them, and it turns into a disaster. His high pitched and uncontrollable sound made the horse go crazy, made the ice crack, they lose the tree, Chip falls into the water. I wonder how that happened. I mean how did Chip fall in? Was he on the rope trying to stop them from losing the tree? Anyway, Belle tries to save him but just like in the original gets her damsel moments.

However, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Fife, and that talking Ax save them. Unfortunately, Belle has another damsel moment by getting her leg caught by the rope attached to the tree. Belle, honey don't ever join the army or go after a magical sword, you won't last too long.Anyway Beast saves her but he ends up throwing her in the dungeon. This is something where I think they need a scene where Belle goes off on Beast because of his lack of trust and not being able to let anyone in. I know that'll make her seem like an unreliable source, but it would still be true and she was planning on coming back. Besides, it's true, something like that would fit in. I mean, even though he's surrounded by servants he doesn't really let any of them in and they fear him. They still try to get him to let them in but he won't. He definitely won't let Belle in, he won't even tell her his real name. I think it should be something like this scene from Once Upon A Time, except Belle is left in the dungeon: link

Anyway he's mad that she left, she says she wasn't trying to leave and was simply trying to make him happy, he leaves her to rot, and she says she should have know he wouldn't be anything more... than a Beast....

Okay this scene just makes me cry every time! Christmas is ruined, Belle has lost her hope in Beast, and all the hope that came from Belle has been lost, not only that she'd break the curse, but that she'd also bring happiness and joy to everyone.

The gang all go to visit Belle for Christmas, not that there was much to celebrate. Angelic at first looks like she's just being a know-it-all and bragging about everything she said was true but it turns out she was trying to say she was wrong. This is where the most emotional scene of the movie comes in, As Long As There's Christmas Reprise. An amazing and moving duet from Belle and Angelic. It shows that Christmas really doesn't come from all the presents, trees, stockings, snow, mistletoe, or anything else. The true meaning is being with the ones you love, knowing that there's always goodness in the world, there is always hope, peace, and love somewhere in the world, and the guiding star represents God (in my opinion). I think they talk about God in such a subtle way where they can share about the real meaning of Christmas without having it be something uncomfortable for those who don't believe in got and atheist. It's a scene that never fails to make me cry tears of joy and it still does, such a beautiful scene. It makes me question why anyone would find this movie horrible with this scene alone.

Forte uses Beast's grief against him to try to get him to destroy the enchanted rose so they can remain as they are forever. Beast almost does until he see's Belle's present, which he opens because it is Christmas. Forte mocks that it's a book but Beast defends it "it's from Belle". He tells Forte to shut up because he wants to read. It turns out it's basically a biography about him, with an ending that hadn't came yet, "with that small act of kindness Christmas that year was spent exchanging humble gifts but the greatest gift anyone received that year was the gift of hope". It touches the Beast's heart, they say his heart grew three sizes that day. But seriously, this is another scene from the movie that never fails to make me cry. It's so emotional and touching, it's beautiful!

Back in the dungeon we get a musical number from Lumiere and Cogsworth fighting over who is the best, like always, either way it's called A Cut Above The Rest. However Belle tells them how they work best together and they start singing about how well they work together. It's not the best song but it's catchy and I like it. I can stand up and dance along with it, not very well I might add. Though I did notice that when there were two Christmas ordinates that Lumiere uses for eyes and later they're thrown and we hear a breaking sound. OH MY GOSH THEY KILLED THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Beast comes in and apologizes in a really touching way. There's hardly any words but the look in their eyes and how they have such a strong connection is just so WOW! So they all celebrate, Beast get's the girl, the enchantment is lifted, and the they all lived happily ever after!

Forte: I THINK NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: What are you talking about? Didn't you see the first movie? Of course that's how it happens!
*Forte plays his music*

Okay, so Forte goes crazy and apparently has the power to cause destruction. Well, at least he has a plan B. Fife goes to him and tells him off, to which he finds out he was never going to get a solo. Beast also goes to stop Forte but Forte is no longer listening to Beast. Eventually Beast takes the keyboard and smashes it, which causes Forte to lose his powers and die. I guess the guy who claims he wrote Deck The Halls doesn't have to worry about being sued for plagiarism anymore. Beast is actually sad about Forte dying for a moment it seems, which is understandable, I mean he was the only one he ever opened up to, that he considered a friend. I think this scene would've been better if they had added a part where Beast was sad that he had lost his only friend but Belle and the other let him know that he's not alone and he has friends.

Anyway, everyone finally gets to celebrate Christmas and we cut back to present day where Mrs. Potts says that the one who saved Christmas was Belle. We then see the human Beast with his wife Belle. So since his parents aren't there does that technically make Belle a queen instead of a princess? In fact, Snow's parents and step-mother are dead so she's queen of her kingdom and Ariel is married to parentless Eric, so she's a queen too. But I digress!


Anyway, Beast, or Adam is what his human form seems to be called, pulls a present out of his pocket for chip. It turns out to be a story book, what was considered video games back in that time and is now an unappreciated work of art. Speaking of art, Fife turns out to be very good at music, as Adam refers to him as "Mistro". So it's good that dreams come true, especially for such a nice guy. So we get a beautiful ending, with a fantastic score, Adam gives Belle a rose (how many pockets does he have?), and the two look off to gaze at the beautiful night. Lastly we get an and credit cover of As Long As There's Christmas, sung by the best male vocalist ever, Peabo Bryson, and the lovely and incredibly talented Roberta Flack.



So that was Beauty and The Beast and The Enchanted Christmas and in my opinion, it's one of my ALL TIME favorite movies! I know it has it's problems, but no bigger than the ones in normal Disney movies, like the original. The only big problems are that we don't know where Maurice and Lefou have been but even that's not a big issue. I mean if we're going to be logical, Lefou would've died the first night he spent out in the snow and same with Maurice. Besides, this takes after the wolf attack so it's not like it's that big of a spend of time, so really it's not even really an issue. I think all the things people nitpick about is pretty inaccurate. The characters not being the same, Belle being a doormat, Beast acting like a jacka**, and so on. First of all Beast isn't going to change from just one night, Belle is FAR from a doormat, and the characters are exactly the same.

I've also heard people say that the problem is also the cheesy preaches of Christmas. But people when you really think about it that's something that's in, mostly animated ones, all Christmas movies. I mean I've heard several preaches about the importance of Christmas from Christmas movies, except for A Christmas Story but that's just about greed. So really this isn't any different from other Christmas movies when it comes to that. I mean A Christmas Carol does more preaching about it than any story and it's praised as a classic.

So in my honest opinion, it doesn't deserve the hate it gets and should be considered a Christmas classic. I mean it's a really beautiful story and means a lot to me. It's a tradition that every Christmas I watch it. Whenever I would get greedy, like the kid in A Christmas Story, or any other kid on Christmas, this movie would remind me what Christmas was really about. So it's really a beautiful and meaningful movie! So whoever said the sequels can't make a big impact on someone's life is dead wrong because several Disney sequels, including this one, have made an impact on mine.

This is one of those sequels where I don't think there's an obvious choice of which movie is better, this or the original. Oh gee I wonder what everyone else things! Anyway I feel like I can understand how someone could go either way. It's the same way with The Lion King and The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, I actually love them both equally. I don't think it's like with Return To Neverland and Lady and The Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure where I think it's pretty obvious that they're better than their original movies because they have more development and depth.

So in conclusion, I think this is a phenomenal and tragically underrated movie! I know everyone is going to disagree with me but I don't care because this movie means a lot to me and will always be in my top 10 favorite movies. I've enjoyed it since I was a little kid and it warms my heart that I've passed the tradition on to my niece, I hope to do the same with my children. Well, since it's not Christmas or Valentines Day anymore I say HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!