Released 1991 Directed by Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise Starring Paige O'Hara Animation, Family, Fantasy Genres Synopsis found here
Meshell
My childhood weekends were more often than not the crackle of a well-loved VHS Disney. I seemingly endlessly cycled between The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, cup of red cordial in one hand, nibbled apple slices in the other. Watching again as an adult had my stomach in the knots and butterflies of nostalgia. Bitter sweet.
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| Read the various versions of the story of Bluebeard here. |
Bluebeard, blue dress, blue scenery
I'm not sure if it's just me but blue is truly the colour of Beauty and the Beast.
The characters' garb is more often than not blue. Our princess, Belle, is clad in a blue dress (when she's not in her deliciously sunny yellow ball gown) and Beast is never seen without his dashing royal blue regimentals. Most scenes are predominantly washed with blue; the gorgeous balcony scene under the stars is 95% blue, Belle's beautiful library is Tiffany's box blue, and Beast's castle... well you know what colour that is.
To me, this is clearly connected to Bluebeard. After all, elements of Beauty and the Beast's storyline smacked of the old tale in which the wife (sometimes wives, depends on whose version) of Bluebeard (who is varying degrees of beastly, again wholly reliant on whose version) is forbidden from entering a particular room of Bluebeard's castle. If you're wondering how I've drawn such a flimsy connection (other than the colour blue), think to Beast's words to Belle;
'You can go anywhere, so long as you don't go to the west wing.'
Which Disney princess are you?
Remember the Facebook quiz craze or 2008 that saw your feed clogged with such quiz results as 'What colour are you?', 'What cocktail best represents your personality?' and 'Which Disney princess are you most like?' I do.
Well, I am almost certain I would have been Belle. Here is why:
a.) I like books more than people.
b.) I am sick of this provencal town.
c.) I am an adult educator by trade. I relate to the scene in the extended version where she assists Beast in reading Romeo & Juliet, as the people I teach to read are mostly beastly in appearance and almost always smell.
Animate inanimate objects
With each watch, my devastation and disappointment in my beloved Beast, candelabra, clock, teacup and teapot turning into people grows.
How hum-drum and unremarkable it is to be a human prince, footman, butler, maid or child. Especially as a follow-up to them singing 'Be My Guest' which involved a visual feast of singing and dancing crockery, and cutlery gracefully synchronised swimming in a crystal bowl of frothy, pink punch.
What would you rather, a subplot romance between a sexy feather duster lady and a French candelabra (with flame continuity issues frame-to-frame) or two boring people who flirt but aren't the main focus of the film?
Myskool
The renaissance
I'm going to bore you all with a history lesson: Disney was in a state during the eighties. Several factors led to this rut over the years, not the least of which involved the death of Walt Disney in 1966 (just missing out on the summer of love) and the death of his brother and successor as president of the studio in 1971. With no disrespect to their successors, they were largely businessmen. This is were a string of underachieving films came from, from Robin Hood to The Rescuers to The Black Cauldron (a notable curveball from a company that was starting to become formulaic) to the, fondly remembered but in my opinion rather poor, Fox and the Hound. Then there is Oliver and Company, which I'm embarrassed to admit that despite my animation fandom I have never seen. Though I've heard songs from it and have seen clips and have not come away feeling overly impressed. It wasn't until Disney's next animated feature that what was known as the Disney Renaissance truly began.
The Little Mermaid was and remains today an amazing movie. Everything from the underwater animation (now perfected, see: Disney's struggles and accomplishments years before with Pinnochio), to the characterisations, but mainly, the songs. This is where things get incredibly biased so precede with caution. More than any other factor, I believe that the addition of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman to the Disney payroll made the renaissance such a success. They changed the format of a Disney movie from something like, The Lady and the Tramp, which is more of a straight story told with some Tin Pan Alley style songs (I love the Sherman Brothers, don't get me wrong) to something more closely resembling a broadway musical. Withdrama melodrama to spare, a true musical structure and wonderful emotive performances. I'm biased because of my childhood love of Little Shop of Horrors which was written by the two of them together (and I have often likened Shop's 'Somewhere that's Green' as a doppelgänger to Little Mermaid's show-stopper 'Part of Your World). The movie opened to phenomenal success and paved the way for a whole feast of new films over the next decade. Why, it almost sounds like a fairy tale.
The Little Mermaid was and remains today an amazing movie. Everything from the underwater animation (now perfected, see: Disney's struggles and accomplishments years before with Pinnochio), to the characterisations, but mainly, the songs. This is where things get incredibly biased so precede with caution. More than any other factor, I believe that the addition of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman to the Disney payroll made the renaissance such a success. They changed the format of a Disney movie from something like, The Lady and the Tramp, which is more of a straight story told with some Tin Pan Alley style songs (I love the Sherman Brothers, don't get me wrong) to something more closely resembling a broadway musical. With
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| Isn't he fabulous? |
He uses antlers in all of his decorating
Geez, that intro was really dry. I get really passionate about this period of Disney, largely because it's a huge part of my nostalgia muscle but also because they stand up as great films. My dad revealed to me that when he got really depressed he used to watch Beauty and the Beast to cheer him up. I, even with my terrible memory, shot back to the numerous times I walked past the 'adult' lounge-room to hear faint cries of 'be our guest...' coming from the television. This is something I naturally came to do as an adult, before he informed me of that he did it. So many times while I was studying did I wake up in the middle of the night needing to feel a bit warmer and I would put on Beauty and the Beast and I would always feel better. I like to stress though that many people try and accuse Disney of being overly positive and unrealistic (which I would first argue is the point of escapism) but from where I am standing (... or sitting) they are wrong.
The villain of this film is Gaston, surely one of the most reprehensible beings I've ever seen on film. It's a strange thing, a character like Scar from The Lion King or Ursula from The Little Mermaid I can understand completely, their motivations are power. Everyone to some degree desires power but Gaston's motivations are pure delusional arrogance and... well, kinda rapey. He is truly scary, the idea that someone would want to be married to someone else based purely on their looks is confusing to me. I suppose there isn't anything inherently wrong with it, though it's not what I'd encourage people to do. Though what I would encourage people to do is if that person is not interested, either give give up or try to find something about them. Gaston just wants Belle as a possession and though I understand that's the point, he is so oblivious to the fact that she has zero interest in him that it gets really creepy. Plus I don't like blue eyes, and both he and the beast have them. So, the great trick in this movie is making a villain so obviously ugly to counter the perceived ugliness of Beast. So much so to the point that when he dies, we genuinely don't care at all. I think Disney could have gotten away with the beast rip out his entrails really slowly and stamp on them with his hind legs... all in a long one shot, like a Bergman movie.
The villain of this film is Gaston, surely one of the most reprehensible beings I've ever seen on film. It's a strange thing, a character like Scar from The Lion King or Ursula from The Little Mermaid I can understand completely, their motivations are power. Everyone to some degree desires power but Gaston's motivations are pure delusional arrogance and... well, kinda rapey. He is truly scary, the idea that someone would want to be married to someone else based purely on their looks is confusing to me. I suppose there isn't anything inherently wrong with it, though it's not what I'd encourage people to do. Though what I would encourage people to do is if that person is not interested, either give give up or try to find something about them. Gaston just wants Belle as a possession and though I understand that's the point, he is so oblivious to the fact that she has zero interest in him that it gets really creepy. Plus I don't like blue eyes, and both he and the beast have them. So, the great trick in this movie is making a villain so obviously ugly to counter the perceived ugliness of Beast. So much so to the point that when he dies, we genuinely don't care at all. I think Disney could have gotten away with the beast rip out his entrails really slowly and stamp on them with his hind legs... all in a long one shot, like a Bergman movie.
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| Howard Ashman on the set of Little Shop of Horrors |
Flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep...
Of course, Beauty and the Beast will go down in history as the only animated film to get nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Some people will tell you that Up also received this honour and that is true though it was after they extended the nominations to ten films instead of the original five. Beauty lost to Silence of the Lambs (another excellent film) and although I think people would not be surprised to find it did not win, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't think it deserved to be in there.
Perhaps, the most tragic thing about the movie is not anything in the story, but what happened to Howard Ashman shortly afterward. Ashman had contracted AIDS and had suffered through the finishing stages of making the film and died four days after advance screenings to press and public. He lived just long enough to hear how well the film was received. Ashman posthumously won the Academy Award for best song which was accepted by Menken and Bill Lauch (his partner). The studio's next film, Aladdin, featured songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman but also Tim Rice who completed the rest of the lyrics. Though Ashman died, he left two phenomenally crafted Disney films as part of his legacy and one of my other favourite movies of all time, I thank him for everything he did and hope that the next one of these I write won't be so somber.
Perhaps, the most tragic thing about the movie is not anything in the story, but what happened to Howard Ashman shortly afterward. Ashman had contracted AIDS and had suffered through the finishing stages of making the film and died four days after advance screenings to press and public. He lived just long enough to hear how well the film was received. Ashman posthumously won the Academy Award for best song which was accepted by Menken and Bill Lauch (his partner). The studio's next film, Aladdin, featured songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman but also Tim Rice who completed the rest of the lyrics. Though Ashman died, he left two phenomenally crafted Disney films as part of his legacy and one of my other favourite movies of all time, I thank him for everything he did and hope that the next one of these I write won't be so somber.
