Introduction
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is based on the classic french fairy tale La Belle et la Bête and it was relesed on November 22 in 1991.
The production started in 1988 and Linda Woolverton wrote the script, but in 1989 they scraped the script and started from scratch, a few months after that Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale joined the production team.
The changes to the script included adding a real villain that later became Gaston and to create the enchanted servents like Lumiére and Gogsworth.
The Animators
This movie had three of my favorite Disney animators working on the main cast,
Glen Keane: The Beast
Mark Henn: Belle
Andreas Deja: Gaston
Voice Cast
The voice actors in this movie like many Disney movies are perfect for their roles both in the original version and in the swedish version that i grew up with.
The roles are as follows:
English/Swedish
Paige O'Hara/Sofia Källgren as Belle
Robby Benson/Tommy Körberg as Beast
Richard White/Hans Josefsson as Gaston
Jerry Orbach/Jan Malmsjö as Lumiére
David Ogden Stiers/Åke Lagergren as Gogsworth
Angela Lansbury/Meta Velander as Mrs. Potts
The Characters
The Characters in this movie are some of my alltime favorites, so here is pictures of the three main characters and a little short information.
Belle
The heroine of the story, a beautiful woman considerd odd by her fellow villagers and the target of Gaston.
She loves to read and the ends up in her very own fairy tale
Beast
The story´s hero, a spoiled and unkind prince transformed by an enchantress into a monster.
He has to learn to love another and earn her love in return before his 21st birthday inorder to break the spell.
Gaston
The villain, he is not the sharpest tool in the shed but is still a formidable opponent thanks to his hunting experience and his popularity in the village.
He wants to marry Belle because she is the most beautiful person besides himself and sees that as reason enough to force her into marrige.
The Setting
The movie takes place in a small French village and in the Beast´s Castle.
The Story
This is my favorite story but i have to say that the Disney version is better than the original for a number of reasons but here is the film´s prologue.
"An enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman offers a selfish young prince a rose in exchange for a night's shelter. When he turns her away, she punishes him by transforming him into an ugly Beast and turns his servants into furniture and other household items. She gives him a magic mirror that will enable him to view faraway events, and also gives him the rose, which will bloom until his 21st birthday. He must love and be loved in return before all the rose's petals have fallen off, or he will remain a beast forever."
My Favorite Moments
I love the whole movie but there is a few scenes the left a huge impact on me as a kid, and here is two of them.
This is the scene when the Beast have saved Belle from the wolfes and then collapses, i love it because Belle has the chance to escape but she decides to stay behind and save the Beast´s life.
Then we have the famous scene with the ballroom dance, what can i say? i love it.
Great music, beautiful animation and you can just see the love growing between them.
The Message
The message in this move is to love someone for whats in their soul and not for their outward appearence and i think that is an important lesson that everyone could learn from and take to heart.
The Verdict
Like i said before this is my favorite Disney movie and i have loved it ever since it first came out.
The Story gets 8/10 because of a few problems that you can ignore since it is a kids movie.
The Characters gets 8/10 because a few characters gets to little screentime.
The Art gets 10/10 i have no complains there.
So i give the movie itself a solid 9/10
I hope you have enjoyed this and i hope you comment and say if you agree or disagree with what i have said here.
