Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Roger Allers

Brenda Chapman

Chris Sanders

Burny Mattinson

Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Great sing along songs to jive too, memorable characters and all round enjoyable screenplay, Disney’s take on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is different, enjoyable and one of the best adaptations there is.

The animation itself is a magical journey with enough stops at musical entertainment to make it easy to keep up with the what is going on. This Broadway musical blend is one of the best that Disney created in the Renaissance era and their further adaption into live-action of this same tale is also one of the best adaptations they have done.

Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the two leads. The Beast was a prince who has magically been transformed to a monster and his servants into household items as punishment for his arrogance.

Then there was Belle, a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle in exchange for her father trespassing on his castle ground.

For the magical spell to be broken, the Beast must learn to love and earn love in return before the last petal from an enchanted rose fall. Belle became the subject of the Beast's love interest, and the lady, his servants were working out for him to love and be loved in return.

This is Disney's 30th animated feature film and the third released during the Renaissance period.

To me it was this that cemented their mastery of the art of musical animations. The animation's tale is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and Disney' also borrewed ideas from the 1946 French film of the same name directed by Jean Cocteau.

The animation was both a critical and commercial success for Disney.

It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture (in 1991 and lost to Silence of the Lambs.) It remains the only animation to be nominated when the Best Picture category only had five nominees.

Although, since 2009 when the category nominee was increased to 10, Disney/Pixar's Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) have also been nominated for Best Picture (so far in 2018).

Beauty and the Beast was also the first animated film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. This feat was later repeated by The Lion King (1994) and Toy Story 2 (1999).

The animations soundtrack was also huge critical and commercial success for Disney. The album won several awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture.

The titular track, "Beauty and the Beast" which was performed when both characters were dancing after their beautiful meal together was also a success. The track won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song and Grammy Awards for both Best Song Written for Visual Media and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

The music in the movie along with the masterful art work and screenplay is what makes this movie a Disney classic, worth owning.