Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World

Disney made another direct to video midquel to Beauty and the Beast in 1998. Set after Christmas but before the fight against Gaston, Angela Lansbury and Haley Joel Osment were replaced by Anne Rogers and Gregory Grudt. As with The Enchanted Christmas, it also was received poorly.

The film consists of four episodes to an unreleased television show loosely woven together in a feature length story.

In the first, Belle (Paige O’Hara) and Beast (Robby Benson) stop speaking to each other after a fight. But the dictionary Webster (Jim Cummings) forges a letter of apology with a pile of papers named Crane (Jeff Bennett) and a quill named LePlume (Rob Paulsen).

The second has Fifi (Kimmy Robertson) believe Lumiere (Jerry Orbach) is cheating on her with Belle.

The third features Belle throwing a surprise party for Mrs. Potts (Rogers).

The fourth consists of Beast learning to overcome his hatred of birds.

Every criticism I had with The Enchanted Christmas rears its head again here. The old characters continue to be derailed and the new characters aren’t enjoyable. Plus, any semblance of an actual consistent story is thrown out the window in favor of telling it in the form of episodes.

If Disney couldn’t get a Beauty and the Beast animated television series up and running, why did they think it would do well as a film? This would have been one of the better times where Disney should have left well enough alone.

But there’d be another sequel in 1999.

#53

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

Disney’s 1997 Christmas video release was a direct to video midquel to Beauty and the Beast. Starring most of the main voice actors from the original film, plus Paul Reubens, Bernadette Peters, Tim Curry and Haley Joel Osment, The Enchanted Christmas has not been very well received.

Set around the Christmas season in the middle of the events of the first film, Belle (Paige O’Hara) wants to celebrate Christmas. But the Beast (Robbie Benson) won’t allow it as Christmas was when he was transformed. Forte (Curry), an organ, and his music have been the only thing keeping the Beast happy. He wants to remain under the curse as he didn’t have any significance in the castle before then. He uses his lackey, Fife (Reubens) to break Belle and the Beast apart.

The only good thing this film has going for it is Tim Curry. Because no matter what crappy film that man is in (like Ferngully), he’s always able to provide an enjoyable performance.

It’s a shame Disney thought the story of Beauty and the Beast needed to be continued in some manner. Because here, we have things that didn’t need to be seen, old characters who get derailed, and new characters that are, mostly, unlikeable with a plot forced into the events of the first film with all the gentleness of a speeding locomotive.

Bear in mind, this takes place between Belle running away and getting attacked by wolves and Beast giving her the library.

For one, as said above, Beast hates Christmas because it was the night the enchantress transformed him. The first film showed this via stained glass window. This film outright gives it a fully animated sequence, thus ruining the beauty and charm of the original telling.

Then there’s our old characters. In the first film, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts had an idea of social norms and that falling in love takes time. Here, they want to rush everything without any care of how social graces work. And Belle changes from someone who acts like her life completely changed (BECAUSE IT DID!!!) to happily loving her life and joyously giving Beast lessons on ice skating.

And then we have the new characters. Bernadette Peters as the castle decorator got turned into a Christmas angel. She got locked into a tower with all the other servants turned Christmas ornaments and pretty much spends the film telling Belle how celebrating Christmas would be a bad idea, but helps her anyway. We also have a Jewish axe that spends the majority of his time in the film kvetching with Jewish humor. But it’s not funny.

The kicker is, I hear this is the better than the other Beauty and the Beast sequels.

#52

Beauty and the Beast

I like 1991. Mainly because it was the year I was born, but other than that, a lot of great stuff happened. The Soviet Union fell, Comedy Central was launched, the first Starbucks opened in California, and Beauty and the Beast was released to theaters. Starring Paige O’Hara, Richard White, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury, and Robby Benson, it made $399 million at the box office. It was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, had three songs nominated for Best Original Song (“Beauty and the Beast” won) and won the award for Best Original Score. It also won three Grammys and two Golden Globes and The American Film Institute recognizes it as its #22 Greatest Musical, #7 animated film, #62 Greatest Song (“Beauty and the Beast”) , #34 Greatest Passions, and nominated Belle as one of their 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains. Eventually, it became a musical and was featured in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

When Belle’s (O'Hara)  father doesn't return from his trip to a fair, she searches for him and finds a caste hidden in a forest. She finds her father in the dungeon and offers herself in his place. The Beast (Benson) that imprisoned him accepts.

However, he is actually a cursed human prince who hopes her love will break the enchantment on him and his servants (Stiers, Lansbury, and Jerry Orbach) . With time limited to a wilting rose, the prince must tame his temper and she must learn to see his goodness.

But the vain Gaston (White) sees Belle as his and vows to marry her.

Remember when I said the Big Ben scene in The Great Mouse Detective was the definitive use of CGI in the 1980s? Well, this film could possibly the greatest use of it in animation in the early 90s. And whenever it’s used, it looks spectacular. The “Beauty and the Beast” number would not have been nearly as good without it. Which leads me to say that this film’s production value is nothing short of amazing.

But we can’t stop there! Disney subverted “love at first sight again!” And this time, not only is it central to the story (unlike The Aristocats), but it’s actually pulled off very well, tying it into character development and a well-placed song. He went from unpleasantly mean, angry and abrasive to gentle, kind and loving and she went from being afraid of him to seeing him for who he truly is. And that’s what’s interesting. Beast wasn’t angry and abrasive because he wanted to be, it was because he hated himself. And since Belle was the first one to get past that exterior, he was able to get over himself.

Beast is also a great foil for Gaston. He starts off absolutely loving himself as God’s gift to women. And for some reason, the entire town seems to love him. He was a vain jerk that thought that since he was attracted to Belle, she should drop everything and marry him. But when it becomes clear that he’s not getting what he wants for the first time, he devolves into a complete psychopath and leads on of Disney’s greatest third acts.

And then there’s the music. I’ve mentioned two songs already and the fact that three of them were nominated for an Oscar. That’s because they’re all great songs. Except for one. See, I watched the Special Edition. And got “Human Again.” They were right to cut it out of the theatrical release as it just stops the movie dead cold for the song before picking it up again.

But if the only problem with a film is that a previously cut song is out of place, then it’s a pretty strong movie that got robbed by Silence of the Lambs. #2. 

Initial Reaction: Beauty and the Beast

Once again, the renaissance gives us beautiful animation.

We have all very interesting characters, including the secondary ones. Main characters go through very realistic development, with the subversion of love at first sight. And Gaston has a rather gripping breakdown  where he goes from vain pretty boy to psychotic murderer.


Most of the music is great. But, considering I go the special edition, "Human Again" seems unnecessary and stop the movie dead.

As of tonight, I'm thinking #2