Movie Review: Beauty and the Beast (1991) directed by Gary Trousdale
Once upon a time, there was an enchantress who went to an eleven year old boy’s house in disguise. When he refused to let her in because her disguise was ugly, she punished his rudeness by turning him into a beast, and everyone else in his house into “inanimate” objects. But the curse didn’t have to be permanent. If the Beast could find someone he could love and they loved him back by the time an enchanted rose lost its last petal on his twenty-first birthday, the enchantment would be lifted.
Of course, being a monster on the outside made it very unlikely the Beast would ever find love, and as the years passed he sealed himself off from the world and his behavior became more and more beastlike, especially his terrible temper. The outside world forgot that he even existed. For his servants, trapped in the castle with him, all seemed lost.
But a couple of hours away by fast walk, there was a village, and almost ten years later, a wacky inventor, Maurice, and his beautiful daughter Belle had moved there. Belle felt stifled in the provincial village where she was the only literate woman and considered an oddity because of that. But leading citizen Gaston, most handsome and virile fellow in the village, was willing to overlook Belle’s brain on account of her beauty, and made attempts to woo her.
Maurice made a wrong turn in the dark and wound up in the Beast’s castle, where the Beast kept him prisoner. Belle came and offered herself as hostage in exchange for her aged and ill father. Secretly touched by this filial loyalty, the Beast agreed. And thus began the tale of the Beauty and the Beast.
This was a huge hit for Disney back in the early 1990s, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It is a very good movie with stunning animation for the time, some excellent songs, good performances by the voice actors (I am especially fond of Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts,) and a cool character design for the Beast.
The central relationship relies heavily on our understanding of condensed action; there’s only ninety minutes to tell the story, so Beast’s learning to control his temper and show his finer qualities, and Belle’s realization that there is a person she can love under that monstrous exterior, have to happen in a tiny amount of time. Beast’s early unspoken moment where he realizes Belle is sacrificing herself and honors that is key to showing that he’s not lost to monsterhood. Kids might want to avoid trying to cure a monster this way at home.
Gaston, conversely, is admired by the public not just because of his good looks, but fulfilling the role of the mighty hunter and strong man that are considered heroic in that time and place. His arrogance and slyness are not considered drawbacks by the villagers, as long as he’s a winner. But to modern eyes, he’s pretty obviously a villain because of his anti-intellectualism and vindictiveness.
One does have to wonder about events after the movie, when the villagers suddenly have a prince who presumably holds authority over them, and who they were recently trying to kill. How are the other nobles going to react? Not to mention that weirdo Belle is now the princess. And can the other village men step up on the hunting front?
Like many of the Disney animated movies, this is a classic and well worth gathering the family to watch. The littlest ones should not watch alone the first time as there are some scary and sad bits.
In tribute to the original version of this tale, here’s one of the songs in French.
