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

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic movie!
Review: This is my favorite movie of my whole Disney collection! I absolutely LOVE this movie...always has. The colors on the DVD are fantastic and the story line is the best! The new song "Human Again" is very cute and catchy! One weird thing I did notice is that when the Closed Caption is on, it will say some things that the characters will not. (Ex. Belle's father asks her if she had a good time in town). I found that a little odd. I checked another DVD to see if there was something wrong with mine, but it was just the same. I'm now wondering whether the old VHS version does the same. Not that I really mind that, I'm just curious, since I'm so in love with this movie! Wonderful classic, never get bored of watching it!

Rating:
Summary: Animation At Its Best Level
Review: Funny, entertaining, creepy, violent, and fun are all in the category of Beauty and the Beast. The story and plot is just so realistic that it could be made into a motion picture all over again. The shabby sequels aren't as good as the first. Most sequels that aren't realeased theatrically are mostly low-budget and bad. This one, remastered in high-definition, is loaded with features and behind-the scenes stuff. It is an awesome film, which makes it good enough to buy.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Beautiful Film. Not to Be Missed
Review: Everyone has that special movie about which it is impossible to be objective. This is that movie for me. I saw it first when my son was seven and he brought it home when a schoolmate loaned it to him. It instantly became a favorite in our house. My son, my daughter, and I have a special bond that this film signifies to this day.

The story is based on a traditional tale of a prince turned into a beast by a spell cast by an enchantress. The spell can be broken only if, by the end of his 21st birthday, he falls in love with someone who will also love him. An enchanted rose blooms as a symbol of the spell, and the last petal will fall at the end of the spell.

The beauty is a beautiful woman, Belle, in a small French village, who is very intelligent and reads voraciously. She spends much of her time dreaming of living in the worlds she reads about in the books, any place other than the provincial village life she knows. She lives with her father, Maurice, a rather eccentric inventor, and both of them seem to be regarded as odd and unconventional types by the village residents. Gaston, a handsome but arrogant hunter, hopes to marry Belle for no other reason than to be able to say that he has married the most beautiful woman in the village; it is a matter of ego more than feeling, because he admits to no real feeling for anyone other than himself.

Maurice heads out for a fair but goes astray from the path and ends up at a castle. The castle turns out to be enchanted, and the ornaments at the castle turn out to be lifelike beings who welcome him. Cogsworth, the pompous clock, Lumière, the romantic candlelabra, Mrs. Potts, the motherly teapot, and Chip, the boyish teacup, all welcome him. All is well until the master, the surly, growling Beast, enters the room, shouting that Maurice is not welcome and takes him prisoner. At a later time in the film, when Belle comes looking for her father, Belle begs the Beast to let her take her father's place, so she becomes the Beast's prisoner.

The clash of the high-spirited Belle and the ill-tempered Beast is inevitable, for when the Beast loses his temper with Belle and frightens her, she tries to flee him. Wolves try to attack her, and the Beast comes to her rescue. Somehow the incident draws them together, and the resistance slowly causes the two to start to relate to one another. Before long, the two have become very close. The Beast allows Belle to look into his enchanted mirror, and she sees her father is quite ill. When the Beast sees how distressed Belle is, he releases her.

When Belle goes back to her father, she realizes that her feelings for the Beast have changed. As she and Maurice discover, Gaston, in an attempt to intimidate Belle into marrying him, have plotted to put Maurice into an insane asylum. When Gaston discovers that Belle has developed affections for the Beast, he leads the townspeople on a lynch to destroy the Beast.

As the lynch mob approaches the castle, all the objects in the castle prepare for the onslaught. Furniture, kitchen utensils, decorations, virtually every object in the castle, turn on the townspeople, and defeat them in the battle. They rejoice in their victory in the end.

The only persons left in the battle are Gaston and the Beast. The Beast is so depressed because he has lost Belle that he does not resist and lets Gaston assault him. Suddenly Belle appears, and the Beast rises up against Gaston, throwing him from the castle roof. The Beast is in Belle's arms, dying, as Belle tells him that she loves him. Suddenly, in those last moments, the last petal of the rose falls and the spell is broken. The Beast is transformed into a man. The objects again become human, and the movie ends happily.

It is hard to list all the summa cum laudes in this film. Disney broke new ground in this film by using a UNIX workstation for the ballroom scene that enabled a three-dimensional representation of the dance sequence, showing Belle and the Beast dancing through the ballroom under the chandelier. The movie features the voices of Paige O'Hara (Belle), Robby Benson (Beast), Jerry Orbach (Lumière), David Ogden Stiers), Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury), Chip (Bradley Pierce), and Wardrobe (Joanne Worley). Alan Menken's musical score is outstanding; the title song won the 1991 Best Song Oscar.

Too often when the words "entertainment for the whole family" are used, the words mean "boring and awful." Many adults also think of animated films as too juvenile to be good. This film is one that is definitely not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty is revealed
Review: Disney's Oscar-winning animated Beauty and the Beast is a truly touching, pivotal piece of art that is both enjoyable, breathtaking and essential in all its splendor. The opening scene that flashes the movie's title in beautiful ribbons is gorgeous itself, but it's its strong heroine, entertaining songs and beautiful animation that truly grab the audience. PERFECT.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty and the beast rocks!
Review: Beauty and the Beast is my favorite disney movie. and also a its a great lesson for children, not to judge a book by its cover so to speak. its very sweet and i think every child should see this movie. not to mention the songs in it are so beautiful. definetly one of disney's better movies.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most remarkable films ever made.
Review: If memory serves me right, I first saw this film in a theater back in May 1992. Although it was great I didn't officially get the video until this very DVD issue in 2004. I was ashamed of myself for not getting the original video release right away back in 1992.

The film itself is an unusual one for the average fairy tale. Typically, when one hears a fairy tale like 'Snow White,' 'Cinderella,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' or 'The Little Mermaid,' all of which the Walt Disney Company turned into splendid animated blockbuster hits, he/she can expect a type of 'love-at-first-sight' consequence; they see and like each other immediately. But in this one, the meeting is so much different: Belle, the leading character, doesn't know who she'll be in love with. She just wants 'adventure in the great wide somewhere' and not to be married to Gaston, the so-called 'Don Juan' of her French village whom everyone favors over Belle. But is Belle interested in him? I don't think so! Gaston is wicked on the inside, but he'll stop at nothing to get Belle for his wife.

But when Belle searches for her father, she does escape Gaston's clutches but at the same time becomes the Beast's prisoner. And at first she is afraid of the Beast, who had been a self-centered Prince once before. Eventually they get to know and love each other because the Beast wants to be 'Human Again' and have a kind heart, and Belle, with her outer and inner beauty, is the one who gives this kind of love to him and his servants. And in the end, a spiritual transformation seems to take place much similar to that in 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.'

It should be noted that an old peddler woman turned the bratty Prince into a Beast and his servants into objects who haven't been used for ten years because he didn't take the hag's 'inner beauty' seriously. THIS is the most important part of the whole film: 'True beauty comes from within.' That's so true: you don't hear that in a lot of films or even WITNESS it.

You'll love this new version's bonuses. Not only is the song 'Human Again,' which was used in the Broadway production of B&TB, worth noting for its cheerful melody and fabulous PIXAR-type design (it was thrown in as 'an all-new musical sequence'), but there is so much to enjoy that I can't explain it in full.

My only complaint is that the Walt Disney Company seems to have this ridiculous policy of 'release something on video/DVD and then throw it into the vault after three months.' That was where this release went: into the vault. Hard to believe such a wonderful studio could do such a 'limited edition' thing to its beloved hits. They're only released once every few years. To people who'd like to see the films, they either have to search long and hard for or wait to see these films on TV, if ever at all. Later.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST movie ever
Review: THis is the best movie ever, with such a great timeless story, and the first cg, it has nothing to compare with. I can watch this movie every day and never get bored. The fight between good and evil is not the prevailing story as in most Disney movies, but the beauty within. It has such a moving, thought provoking theme, that adults can enjoy it just as much as children. Great, great movie

Rating:
Summary: Simply Good
Review: As everyone says, this is a good movie. Why is it so good? It is because our heroine, Belle, is good. Not selfish, not lying, simply good. Each of her actions show selflessness and bravery: when she goes out to rescue her father, and when she takes his place in the castle. And a particular moment that I adore: Belle has run away from the Beast because he has scared her; he rescues her and fights off the wolves, then collapses in the snow. And Belle, seeing what he has done for her, does what is right: she loads him onto her horse and takes him back to the castle, even though her intention was to leave.

The Beast, too, is good in many of his actions as well. He goes after Belle and rescues her, risking his life. He lets her go to save her father, when he is at the point of breaking the spell.

And then there are the shared moments, as the two of them fall slowly in love: the yelling through her bedroom door; her tending him in front of the fireplace after he saved her life; the snowball fight, when Belle begins to realize her feelings and woners what she is doing because he is, after all, a Beast; learning to eat together; dancing; and then, at the end, when he is so grateful that she came back. And then when she thinks she has lost him and puts her hands over her mouth in alarm...

Besides the sterling character of the characters, there are other reasons this movie was nominated for Best Picture. The opening scene at the village is like being brought into an opera, with Belle, the villagers, and Gaston all singing beautifully as they describe what they want out of life. And what book lover does not sympathize with Belle, as she effuses over a story to be greeted with polite indifference?

Good movie. Simply good.

Rating:
Summary: Enchantingly a Favorite Masterpiece
Review: This is my favorite Disney movie of all time. No question and hands down. The animation is breathtaking as it is a sweet & tender story. This Disney movie stands out above all of the other's. It takes a classic fairy tale and makes it a whole new story. The musical numbers such as: Beauty and The Beast, Be Our Guest, Belle, & much more will make you feel like your at a Broadway Musical, which in addition it's no wonder it did very well on Broadway itself. The voices are extremely talented and make you take a loving interest in the characters even the villains. Everyone knows this story already; however, everyone needs to see and experience this Disney classic. It's again my favorite among them all.

The DVD is truly amazing of course. My favorites include: Beauty and the Beast music video with an introduction from my favorite singer Celine Dion, all of the games which the kids will enjoy, & the behind the scene's. The most enjoyable was the new addition to the movie Human Again which was put on the cutting room floor in the original theatrical version.

This is an instantly beautiful treasure to add to your Disney collection or DVD collection. It's also a film that the entire family will enjoy in it's timeless masterpiece.