Part Of ‘Hayden Wright’s Top 50’ (#50)

Ours is a society that celebrates "firsts." We watched with rapt anticipation when the first man walked on the moon, we smiled and cried when Kelly Clarkson was crowned the first American Idol and, most recently, we partook in the spectacle that brought us our first African American presidential candidate. Today we're here to celebrate the Disney classic, “Beauty and the Beast,” which was the first animated film to be nominated for Oscar's top prize. Therefore, it would be fitting that this film is actually last on my megalist.

But it's nonetheless fantastic. In fact, some might even say I saved the best for last. Or, for the purposes of this series, I saved the best for last so it could be written about first. More than ten films and an campy TV series (which, to its credit, has become somewhat of a cult classic) have been adapted from Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's legendary novel about a peasant girl trapped in an enchanted castle, owned by a cursed prince-turned-Beast whose livelihood depends on falling in love.

With all due respect to all of those adaptations, only one really matters to me, and that's the 1991 animated musical by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. The same version has since spawned a successful Broadway musical and earned its place in the pantheon of great Disney classics. Why? Because of a lot of different factors.

The most important element of the film is its heroine. By now everyone recognizes Belle twirling around a ballroom in her yellow circus tent of a gown, though it's in her less glamorous scenes where the talented vocalist Paige O'Hara really brings her to life. Unlike many Disney Princesses before her, Belle is independent and intellectual. She's romantic, but not blinded by the rollercoaster of love. I suppose that she is blinded, in the literal sense, to Beast's external qualities, but she’s still a sharp, scrutinizing girl who puts family first and loves a great library. She doubts. She has standards. She doesn't wander blindly into the arms of any Prince Charming with a castle and blonde hair.

There's no way of addressing “Beauty and the Beast” without talking music. Music, music, music. Alan Menken has scored lots of different Disney films (“Aladdin”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Pocahontas”, and the very underrated “Hercules”), and everyone has his or her favorite. “Beauty and the Beast” is mine. Constructed around themes of provincial France and the enchanted castle, the songbook is a mixture of the chaotic ("Belle"), the glitzy ("Be Our Guest"), the reflective ("Something There That Wasn't There Before"), the misogynistic ("Gaston") and, finally, the romantic in the film's theme music. In short, it's a sophisticated, inspired soundtrack that tackles different elements of the plot without becoming boring or overly repetitive.

But none of the music would come together so nicely were it not for the brilliant vocal work of supporting players, most notably the late, great Jerry Orbach and the phenomenal Angela Lansbury. Orbach's pitch-perfect French accent and loosey-goosey attitude make him the perfect match for David Ogden Stiers' straight man, Cogsworth; he also holds down the most sprawling, ambitious sequence of the film marvelously. Lansbury is incredible just being herself—there's something immediately nostalgic about her voice and in the famous ballroom scene, her simple, wistful approach to the title song is a clever way of underplaying what could have been an over-the-top sequence.

Thematically, one would assume that the film would tackle this notion of blind love, but to say that discredits the virtues of Belle as a heroine. Belle begins with an open mind and is turned off by the Beast's behavior more than his appearance. She only takes a few small steps toward change in the film. In the beginning, it's the Beast who is set to a transformative task, so his transition from gruff, unpleasant animal to kind, gentle lover is the real driving force in the film.

As the Beast is embattled with Gaston at the end of the film, the real thematic aim comes to light: that sometimes in even the most handsome, charismatic people there can be ugliness and inhumanity, that sometimes you have to look in unexpected places to find love, and that it might take a little bit of compromise to make that love work.

Last Word: “Beauty And The Beast” is a classic tale filled with modern sentiments on romance, beautifully drawn and whimsically scored by Disney’s most talented animation artists. A Stellar cast of voice actors makes this and instant classic.”

Review By:
Hayden Wright, Contributing Critic
FIRONLINE