Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Written by Roger Allers, et al.
Directed by Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise

I’ve never made a personal top 5 or top 10 list of the Disney films for myself (but stay tuned for after this marathon (#spoileralert)!), but I’ve known for a long time that Beauty and the Beast would rank pretty high on the list. I’ve seen the film more times than I can count, but it still thrills me every time I see it.

Still a jaw-dropping production number!

It’s hard to find any major issues with the film. The artistry, from the very first shot, is gorgeous, and the soundtrack is exquisite. I do wish the Beast sang more in this version (in the Broadway production and the recent live-action version, the Beast gets a great solo number; here, he gets a verse in a song), but the songs that ARE here are wonderful. So wonderful, that it’s hard to choose a favorite, but if I HAD to, I’d say “Be Our Guest”, just because I’m a sucker for big production numbers.

Get it together, Belle.

I’ve always said Belle is my favorite of the Disney Princesses, mostly because she, like me, is obsessed with books! I’ve always been MASSIVELY jealous of the library the Beast gives her, and I desperately need that in my house one day. Also, I weirdly get irrationally angry at the sheep who eats part of her book while she’s in town. It’s just so disrespectful. Belle unfortunately doesn’t get to be the smartest person of the film at the climax, however, when, after watching the Beast transform back into a human, she has to stare at him for a while before declaring, “It IS you!”, like YOU JUST WATCHED HIM TRANSFORM, THIS ISN’T A DAVID COPPERFIELD ILLUSION. She tried, y’all.

Beautiful on the outside, a beast on the inside…

The film also is the first of a series of films in the Renaissance era dealing with the theme of “who you are outside may not be who you are inside”, which is further explored in films like Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Mulan. This film shares this theme most with Hunchback: both films present two opposite characters, and shows the audience that their contrasting exteriors mirrors the interior of the other. Here, we get that with Gaston and the Beast. It’s an interesting duality of theme, that doesn’t have to be quite so explicitly mentioned here as it is in Hunchback.

I love this film. I really do. I try to be as objective as possible, but it’s so hard when it’s this good. As such, it gets the highest score I’ve given to any of the films in this marathon, so far:

FINAL GRADE: A