This has always been one of my favourite movies, but I’m not
being biased when I say that this is one of the greatest Animated movies of all
time.
First of all, the love story at its core is obviously a
beautiful one and the ways in which it has been adapted, with the development
of the villain for example, are actually an improvement on the original
fairy-tale. The parallel between Gaston
and the Beast, where as the latter becomes more human the former becomes the
true Beast is far more compelling than Beauty’s sisters in the (now probably
lesser known) original story and although she may be a bit too perfect at
times, Belle is a far more interesting than her fairy-tale counterpart.
Speaking of the villain, Gaston is a great one, managing to
be both cartoonish enough to be likable, whilst being monstrous enough be
genuinely threatening, a feat not achieved by many animated villains, in
addition to the aforementioned parallels with the Beast. The Enchanted Objects
are also perfect comic relief, specifically Lumiรจre
and Cogsworth, both of whom have great character design.
The backgrounds and specifically the castle itself are
stunning – the gothic aspects of the design looks both incredibly cool and
slightly intimidating, whilst in other places it is as warm and light as it
needs to be. Much like the Rescuers Down Under, the rest of the animation also
looks much more fluid than previous films in the canon, thanks to developments
in animation around the time, so that’s really great.
Something I haven’t even mentioned yet is the music- Alan
Menken and Howard Ashman once again provided some of the best music in the
Disney animated canon, from the fantastic storytelling of Belle, to the
spectacle of Be Our Guest to the sheer beauty of the title song.
Ratings
Good guys: Some
of the most loveable characters in the canon get 8/10
Bad guys: Gaston
is one of the best villains in the canon, so the bad guys get 10/10
Animation: Some
stunning backgrounds and nice character designs mean that the movie gets 9/10
for animation
Music: A
fantastic soundtrack gets 10/10
Plot: One of the
greatest love stories ever told, the plot gets 10/10
Overall rating: 47/50
Next review: Aladdin
