(Re)discover “Beauty and the Beast”, a true monument of the Disney studios released in the early 90s, and the studio’s only feature film to have been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Film category.
Once upon a time, in a magnificent castle, there lived a prince with a heart of stone, selfish and lonely. One winter evening, having refused shelter to an old beggar woman, he finds himself transformed into a horrible beast, and condemned to maintain this hideous appearance until the end of his days if he does not succeed in loving a woman. , and to be loved in return, before his 21st birthday.
A few leagues away, a young girl named Belle, considered an original by all the inhabitants of her small village, dreams of another life by browsing the chapters of the numerous works that she borrows from the town’s bookseller.
Directed in 1991 by the duo Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale (who would sign the excellent Hunchback of Notre Dame a few years later), Beauty and the Beast is a small miracle of cinema. Considered by many fans to be the best animated feature film from Disney Studios, this film, which Walt himself had considered making several decades earlier, immediately dazzled audiences and critics.
Carried by a story as powerful as it is effective and by sumptuous animation, the 30th classic of the enchanted kingdom rests above all on three unshakable pillars…
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Three major qualities
Its heroine Belle, who is among the most interesting and endearing in Disney history. Its protagonist (the Beast), whom the particularly inspired brushstrokes of Glen Keane at the top of his art helped to make terrifying, touching and complex at the same time.
And finally, the film’s masterful score, composed in the style of a Broadway musical by the brilliant Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
With all these qualities, to which should be added the visual prowess of the film, Beauty and the Beast achieves a level of demand and technicality unprecedented in the history of the studio, which allows it to become the first feature animated film to be nominated for the Oscars in the Best Film category (a feat which would only be repeated twice, by Up there and Toy Story 3 from Pixar studios).
Walt Disney Animation Studios
What they will like…
- The songs from the film, starting with the sensational introductory track, and followed by the memorable It’s party Or Eternal History.
- The magnificent romance between Beauty and the Beast, which is undoubtedly one of the studio’s most beautiful love stories.
- The various secondary characters, as funny as they are friendly, such as the Lumière candlestick, the Big Ben clock or the Mrs Samovar teapot.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
What might worry them…
- The Beast, especially at the beginning of the film, before the character becomes human. Truly terrifying when you get to know him, his metamorphosis (firstly internal) is all the more incredible.
- The real villain of the film, Gaston. Rather funny and ridiculous most of the time, he also knows how to be disturbing on occasion.
(Re)discover all the hidden details of “Beauty and the Beast”…