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La Bella y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) - Special Edition

La Bella y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) - Special Edition

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BUY THIS DVD!!...
Review: I originally bought this DVD for the movie itself. But, I realized that my favorite singer, Celine Dion, was featured frequently in the DVD. Now I pretty much watch the Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson Music Video featured on Disc 2. It is a bit ironic, how my favorite movie( which has been my favorite movie since I was 3 years old) and my favorite singer( who has been my favorite singer since I was 6) are somewhat related - in a Hollywood sort of way.
If u like good movies and good music, buy this DVD- and don't waste a second!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disney does it again
Review: The DVD sound and video is excellent. My daughter loves it and so does the entire family. A MUST BUY.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A thinking girl's heroine
Review: When I saw "Beauty and the Beast" in the theater, I had a rare and magical experience: I felt like a child again watching an enchanting Disney movie. In fact, "Beauty and the Beast" seemed even better than the Disney classics like "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" that were such a wonderful part of my childhood. The animation is absolutely gorgeous--particularly the waltz scene, which feels incredibly three-dimensional. The songs are beautiful, singable instant classics.

Despite the animated characters, I felt like I was watching an old musical. The movie opens with a scene reminiscent of "The Sound of Music," with our heroine, Belle, singing on a hilltop about wanting more out of life. The "Be Our Guest" scene, featuring a Lumiere (the Maurice Chevalier-inspired singing candlestick), dancing dishes and champagne corks popping like fireworks, reminded me of the Busby Berkely musical extravaganzas of the '30s.

A big appeal for me is that Belle is a much different heroine than the Disney princesses of my childhood. Belle isn't looking for a man to rescue her from her life of drudgery. She loves to read and longs for a more interesting life. She already has the "town catch," Gaston, wanting to court her, but she's having none of it.

Belle's escape from "her provincial life" begins when her father, a kooky inventor, doesn't return from his travels. (He has sought shelter from a snow storm in a spooky enchanted castle and is being held prisoner by the Beast.) Belle tracks down her father and, out of concern for his ailing health, takes his place in captivity. The Beast, who has been placed under a spell, wonders if Belle might be "the one"--the young woman whose love will return him to his original human form.

The enchanted furniture, candlestick, clock and dishes added lots of fun characters to the traditional story. Cogsworth, a stuffy clock, and Lumiere, the match-making candlestick are a great comic duo. Cogsworth's romantic advice to Beast about wooing Belle is especially funny: Give her "flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep."

Gaston, meanwhile, wants to woo and wed Belle himself. He sings about his he-man attributes in one of the funniest ode to a redneck that I've ever heard: "I use antlers in all of my decorating," Gaston sings about himself.

When Gaston realizes that Belle loves the Beast instead of him, he stirs up an angry mob to head to the castle. In another twist on the traditional fairy tale ending, Belle ultimately rescues the Beast--not the other way around.

"Beauty and the Beast" is a delightful classic whether you are a child or a grownup who knows how to feel like a child at times.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: My kid liked it the first 20 times
Review: My three year old was on a "Beast" kick for about two weeks. He had to watch it everyday. He knew all the parts. I think that is a sign of a good movie. He is the target audience and he enjoys it. My wife likes it too, so I think it meets it's mark. The sound quality is great and the picture is good. There are some computer games and a game you can play from your DVD player. I think that means it has something for everyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beauty and the Beast BITES!
Review: What can I say that others have not? After it was nominated, Michael Medvid and others thought that it should have won for BEST PICTURE at the Academy Awards. Instead the Academy gave the honor to SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Never were there two films as diametrically opposed. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was family fare with charming music, skillful animation, and a happy ending. Hannibal the Cannibal, on the other hand, gave us a lurid R-rated tale with gross violence, nudity, and the partial triumph of evil. The word leaked out that while the Disney production was the better film, the Academy felt compelled to give the award to a film with live-action human actors.

Disney was unprepared for the subsequent backlash against their film from celebrities in the acting field. Not mentioned on the DVD was the fact that the subsequent Broadway production was, in large part, an attempt at appeasement to the acting community that publicly lamented the use of cartoons over live actors in the musical.

We all know the story. An inhospitable young man is punished by an enchantress by being transformed into a hairy monster. His servants are changed into various household items. They are reduced from persons into things or objects-- always the price of inhospitality. The Beast has until his 21st birthday to find someone to love who will love him in return. If he does not, the last petal on a mystical rose will fall and he will remain a monster forever. When all seems lost, a beautiful girl comes into his life who softens his heart of stone. A rival suitor will try to kill him, but her love for him will win the day.

The story has always been a wonderful metaphor, a parable so to speak. Without love, we are all monsters. With love, life is given its meaning and we are changed.

>No nudity.
>No vulgar language or blasphemy.
>Plot violence.
>Some female characters are top heavy and revealing.
>A few characters are obvious womanizers and flirtatious.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply outstanding!
Review: The best love story that was ever told is not Titanic. For the greatest love story that was ever told is nothing but Beauty and the Beast. The story of Beauty and the Beast has been told from generation to generations, it is indeed true that it is a tale as old as time. Love does not found on appearance, but love is found within, that is what Beauty and the Beast all about.

The story starts with an introduction, a young prince who is selfish, unkind and spoiled. He was turned into a ugly beast. He must learn to love someone, and earn her love back before 21, else he will be remain a beast forever.

A young girl named Belle, who lived in a small village where everyday is like the one before. She is looking for adventures that more than she can tell. A handsome guy named Geston, who but a heart of a pig would like to marry her just because she is the most beautiful girl in town.

Her father is an inventor named Maurice, went for Invention competition and lost himself in the woods. Ended up in the castle of the Beast. The Beasts captured him as a prisoner and locked him in the cell. Later Belle found up and went to rescue her father. Belle loved his father so much that she is willing to take her father's place. During the time Belle in the castle,
the beast starts to learn to love. And slowly Belle founds something in him that she didn't see.

At the mean time, Maurice rushed to the town and asked for help. Nobody believed in him, not even Geston. Yet Geston trying to use his father to force Belle to marry him.

During the stay in the castle, Belle was happy but she missed her father so much and the beast showed her her father via the magic mirror. Belle saw her father fell on the snowing hill helplessly lying on the ground. The beast released Belle as prisoner and let her go to help her father.

Geston accused Maurice that he is mad and wanted to take him away unless Belle agrees to marry him. Geston found out that Belle in love with the Beast and he started to gather the villagers to kill the beast.

At the end, the beast and Geston having a great fight. The beast won the battle, but bleeding to death. Belle confested her love to the beast at the very last moment and broke the spell. The beast transformed back to a handsome prince and they live happily ever after. The End.

It comes with 2 discs. Disc one (main disc). Disc two (Supplemental Features)

When Disc 1 is inserted, it automatically plays the sneek peeks:
- Jungle Book 2
- The Lion King (Imax version)
- Beauty and the Beast (Enchanted Christmas Special Edition)
- Lilo & Stich (Beauty and the Beast) &
- Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition)

After that, an eye popping and jaw dropping of 3D rendered intro bringing you to the interactive DVD menu:

The film features 3 version:

Special Edition
Original Theatrical Edition
Work-In-Progress Edition

Special Edition: Figuring a never-seen-before musical footage known as "Human Again". This song was taken out from normal edition because it causes timing error that sadly the song as to take out. At January 1st 2002, This special edition was shown on Imax Theatre as well as other giant screen theatres. It was shown in Singapore Science Center from January 2002 to June 2002 as well. Since there are no giant screen theatre in Malaysia, My girlfriend and I went to Singapore, purposely to catch this wonderful show. It comes with 3 audio channel:
- English
- French &
- Audio Commentary

Since the story is on France background, French is definately can not be excluded. Audio Commentary is another interesting audio, the director commented every moments in the film with interesting stories happened during production.

It also comes with 2 subtitles:
- Sing-along track
- English

The Sing-along track is sub-title only on musical sequences.

Work-In-Progress Edition: It is shown in 1991 New York Film Festival. You can see many of the sketches, pencil drawing, concept arts are playing on this version.

Disc 1 also features a small interactive game called "Break The Spell". A kiddie game, nothing much worth to mention here.

Disc 2 features a lot of information and fun staffs. I can't list them one by one, it is just too many of it. However, I would like to highlight the main interesting ones on Disc 2.
- The Making of Beauty and the Beast
- The Story Behind The Story (hosted by Celine Dion)
- MTV of Beauty and the Beast
o Sung by Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson
o Pop version, sung by Jump 5 (not too bad actually)

It comes with a nice full coloured booklet covering:
- Introduction by the Producer Don Hahn
- Sitemaps of Disc 1 and Disc 2. Typically sitemaps of Disc 2, due to the huge contents, the middle page is folded in. When you flip open the middle page, it reviews a panoramic containing the full sitemap of the Disc 2.
- Features of the DVDs

A must-have for a DVD collectors especially you are a Disney animation fans and Beauty and the Beast fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another classic
Review: This movie is a must-have for any Disney fan. Origianlly released in the early 1990's, this was one of the first movies to actually use computer generated environments, although all the characters were still hand drawn. The movie captures the classic fairy tale, where the Beast must make someone fall in love with him despite his appearance.

Overall, the movie is spectacular. There are 3 different versions included in this set: the Original Theatrical Release, Special Edition, and Commentary. The Special Edition version includes a couple of scenes that were originally cut from the Theatrical Release, and have since been remastered.

My only complaint: I'm not sure why each version was included as a whole, instead of having the "Special Edition" version play the original release plus a couple of extra scenes. Same with the commentary: they could have just included the commentary as a separate audio track instead of re-recording the whole movie over again. I get the feeling that Disney included each as a separate "recording" (as you can see by watching the track numbers on your DVD player as you play each version) to fill up a whole disk with this somewhat short movie, and to justify having a second disk for other "extras". Overall, though, the movie is worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best
Review: This is one of the best children's movies ever. I think that the story is exciting enough to keep kids of all ages interested. At the same time, it is not too scary and is ultimately uplifting. The music is captivating. The animation is seamless. Every kid should have this in their collection!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dawn of the "New Disney"...
Review: This film was one of the first in a series of what I call the "New Disneys". Beginning with "The Little Mermaid", the New Disneys were made to be more accessible to grown-up viewers. The New Disneys are designed with more than kids in mind, taking into account that parents are bringing the kids to the theater and have to sit through whatever the kids are watching. Another factor the New Disneys consider is the changing moral and social tastes of the public (Heaven forbid we ever have an Eminem-inspired rapper Mickey!).

One manifestation of a New Disney is a sexier character design than previously seen in the Classic Disneys. Here we see three buxom blondes mooning over the arrogant bad-boy, Gaston. Beauty herself is drawn in a somewhat full-figured, realistic style. The key, of course, is to add these kind of elements seamlessly. Too little, the effect will not work. Too much, and the audience will notice and react negatively (these are supposed to be kids' movies, after all).

New Disneys are also more politically correct, which can be grating when they push it to the Nth degree.

In this film, we have an interesting story that, in the best/worst Disney traditions, does not always follow the original source material faithfully. However, the animation and songs (Be Our Guest), more than make up for any deficiencies in the lack of fairy tale accuracy. We are even treated to some experimental computer animation, most notably in the famous ballroom dance sequence.

A great cast offers up good voice characterizations, too. It sure is nice to know that Jo Anne Worley is still working!

While "The Lion King" is (so far) the high water mark of the New Disneys, "Beauty & the Beast" is still an excellent work. The extras offered on the Platinum Edition are absolutely stellar, and any fan of this animated feature will be enthralled for hours just going through the bonus material.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Favorite Disney Movie
Review: I absolutely love this movie. It's got everything anyone would want in a movie: Adventure, action, love, mystery, special effects, comedy and a great message: That everyone should be judged by who they are rather than what they look like. The DVD specials are also amazing and very entertaining, altough Chip's Challenge Game has been difficult at times. Overall, excellent!


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