30 – Beauty and the Beast
I've
watched 30 Disney movies this past month. That seems crazy to me. The
ridiculous variety of movies I've gotten to see is crazy to me too.
Even the weird varying qualities of these movies has been crazy.
1991's Beauty and the Beast, however,
is a whole new kind of crazy for me.
The
story is set up brilliantly with some narration that tells us that an
enchantress disguised as an old beggar places a curse on a Prince
when he denies her a place to stay because he is repulsed by her
appearance. The curse causes him to become a horrific beast as well
as cursing the whole castle and it's inhabitants. The spell will only
be broken if he can learn to love someone and have them fall in love
with him, despite his horrible appearance, before an enchanted rose
wilts on his 21st
birthday. If he can't, the curse on him and all the people in the
castle will remain permanently. Years later, a girl named Belle lives
in a young village hoping for a more exciting life. Her father is an
eccentric inventor who leaves to present one of his new inventions at
a fair. He ends up getting lost and is captured by the Beast. Belle
goes to rescue him and offers her in exchange for her father. Knowing
that she might be the key to breaking the curse, Beast takes the
offer.
Belle
is a young girl who lives in a small, dull, French village. She is
considered very odd by the other villagers as she always seems to
have her head in the clouds. She really just dreams of leaving the
village for a more exciting life. She uses books as a sort of escape
and always seems to be reading. She's also an incredibly strong
character. She doesn't let herself get pushed around by anyone and
she isn't so shallow that she falls for the local handsome bachelor,
Gaston. She also shows herself to be very adventurous and rebellious.
Paige O'Hara did a fantastic job bringing her to life. She is
definitely the strongest Disney heroine, or even just character, I've
seen so far. She has dreams and goals but she also takes action and
has realistic flaws that she needs to get over.
Beast
is also a really great, complex character. He is very angry and
controlling but you get the clear sense that this is hiding a great
compassion and kindness. He really doesn't know how to act in front
of Belle but it all comes from his lack of self esteem. He just can't
believe that someone like Belle could ever learn to love him. Despite
his anger and roughness you can't help but like him and identify with
him because you know it's just a facade caused by his insecurity. He
is definitely not the typical Disney Prince.
Beast
is assisted with his interactions with Belle by the other castle
inhabitants who have all been turned into various objects. Lumiére,
the head waiter, has been turned into a Candelabra. He is very
rebellious and ignores Beast's rules to be a good host to Belle and
her father. He loves to entertain people and is a bit of a ladies
man. His best friend is Cogsworth, the castle butler, who has been
turned into a clock. He is much more loyal to Beast and never wants
to get him angry. This causes him to be a bit of a stick in the mud
and get into arguments with Lumiére. Mrs. Potts and Chip are the
mother and son teapot and teacup, respectively. Mrs. Potts is very
wise and offers advice to Belle and Beast. Chip is very curious about
the world. I really loved all the side characters in this story. They
really added a unique quality to the world they created. You also
really root for them to become human again because you can tell how
they're good people and how they care about both Belle and Beast.
Gaston
starts off as a fairly typical chauvinist villain. He wants to
possess Belle simply because she's beautiful. He wants her to give up
her life and interests and become his trophy wife. It was a really
good choice to make him handsome to give him a good contrast against
Beast. He slowly gets more and more dangerous and angry throughout
the movie. He starts with silly ideas like proposing to Belle and
surprising her with a wedding already set up to really dark ones like
blackmailing her into marriage to avoid him sending her father to an
insane asylum. He really ends up being an interesting villain. I got
a really clear idea of his motivation and what kind of horrible
person he is.
One of
the many things that really struck me as incredible in this movie was
how much the characters changed over the course of the movie. Belle
follows a really great trend with modern Disney heroines to be the
cause of action rather than just react to things. She is way more
intelligent than past heroines but she also definitely has some
flaws, which is really great. When she meets Beast, even she is
repelled by his appearance until she finds out what kind of person he
really is. Beast starts off in so much despair about how he looks. He
seems almost afraid that things will never work out so he lashes out
in anger. Once he starts to soften up and take the chance to try to
change, he starts to become more confident and less angry. I really
like that his change in personality was gradual and natural. It never
feels like he's acting out of character. The big realization for him
doesn't come when he realizes he loves her but that he loves her so
much that he is willing to forego his own wishes to become human for
her sake.
Their
relationship really evolves in a natural way too. Belle starts off
incredibly angry at him and doesn't even want to give him a chance.
This, of course, just makes Beast angry because it's what he expects
would happen. Belle only gives him a chance once he proves that he
isn't who he has shown himself to be the whole time he's been with
her. They finally start to act more like themselves around each
other. I really love that this movie avoids the whole “love at
first sight” trope and makes a romance that makes sense and that
you can really root for.
Just
like with The Rescuers Down Under and
The Little Mermaid the
animation just keeps getting better. The ballroom scene is a classic
for very very good reasons. The music, however, is just on a
completely different level. Alan Menken completely surpassed the work
he did on The Little Mermaid
just as Howard Ashman did a fantastic job with the lyrics. Every
single sequence in this movie just blew me away. Every one of them
was beautiful and perfectly conveyed the emotions they wanted to
convey while still giving more insight into the characters and
pushing the story forward. The movie feels much more like a musical
than even their other “musicals.” The tone they find for the
whole movie, in general, is just perfect. They balance humor and
action so well and they manage to keep you so invested in the
characters.
So
this movie is just incredible. I remember seeing this one as a kid
but it's so much better than I remembered it. It's going to be
incredibly difficult to top this one. I usually go and read about how
they made the movie after I've watched it and even that story is
incredible. Howard Ashman really put his heart and soul into this
movie before he, sadly, passed away before he could even see the
finished version. I'd say that I hope that he would have been proud
of the finished product, but there's no need. I'll just end with a
quote.
When
producer Don Hahn had learned that the first screening of the movie
was well received he leaned over to Howard Ashman and said, “Beauty
and the Beast is going to be a great success. Who'd have thought it?”
Ashman replied, “I would have.”
30
down. 23 to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment