Beauty and the Beast (1991) Reviews

This movie is without doubt the best animated movie of all time. The artistry was perfect. I was spellbound at the animated sequences to the songs "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast" especially. The characters were very well drawn, and because of the dark and colourful backgrounds, the film looked beautiful. The songs are fantastic. Another movie with great songs is "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"(which has the best beginning to a Disney movie). In fact, all the Alan Menken scores are brilliant, with the exception of Home On The Range, which is one of the weaker Disney efforts. My personal favourites, were the songs I just mentioned, and "Gaston" was great fun too. The incidental music was the best in any Disney movie, and that is the same with the other Menken scores. The music in the transformation of the Beast was phenomenal, as well as the animation, and reminded me of the last movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, which is really frightening. Another Disney with great incidental music is "The Lion King". The story is quite simply one of the best love stories ever, and the characters are wonderful. Belle was voiced beautifully by Paige O'Hara, who has a beautiful singing voice. I love Belle, she is beautiful, clever and strong, and is one of the best Disney characters for those reasons. Gaston was made into a complex villain, and quite narcissistic(great idea Disney). When he was nasty he was quite frightening, and Richard White can really sing. Jerry Orbach and David Ogden Stiers were really entertaining as Lumiere and Cogsworth,(I just love how witty, elegant and debonair Lumiere is) and Angela Lansbury gives a brilliant rendition of the title song. The best voice over was that of the Beast, who was very frightening, and there were some parts that were truly sensitive. Why are some people fussed about him as a human? Remember, true beauty comes from within. In conclusion, an essential to your Disney collection with a very poignant ending. 10/10. Bethany Cox

De entrada la película es muy buena por no pintar a las relaciones in-terespecie como algo bonito o romántico. En todo momento la condición de la bestia es mas una tragedia y es algo malo y cuidan mucho que no hayan besos sino hasta que el príncipe se vuelve humano.
Acercan a los dos de una forma muy tierna y sus interacciones son todas muy genuinas, los choques que tienen se sienten hasta graciosos por sus personalidades. Contrario de lo que algunos piensan, no es por síndrome de Estocolmo, después de todo esta cercanía se empieza a dar justo después de que la bestia le SALVA LA VIDAS a Bella y como ella es observadora se da cuenta de que tal vez el no es tan malo, a partir de ahí se van acercando mas y mas. El gesto de la biblioteca no se da si no hasta que ya eran un poco mas cercanos y la bestia, queriendo ser considerado, le regala algo que sabe que le podría llegar a gustar.

Bonita película con canciones icónicas y un villano gracioso.

Disney's thirtieth animated outing stands apart from its closest predecessors due to its deviation from the norm by introducing novel ideas into an anterior fairy tale, most notably feminism and toxic masculinity. Satisfyingly traditional and in tune with the sensibilities of the time, its stunning visuals, beautiful soundtrack, fluent pacing and romanticism recall a bygone era in which motion pictures were developed with the audience in mind whilst existing in the moral vacuum, reflecting our deepest fears and desires.

"Beauty and the Beast" serves as an exemplar that love can be transformative and beauty is not external, a lesson that broke new ground for Disney and its archaic treatment of their female characters; herein, the obligatory Princess is a bookworm discontented with her provincial life who then finds acceptance, adoration and respect from a Prince cursed with the body of a Beast. For the first time in Disney's history, the saviour roles are reversed in terms of gender and the stock love interest is recognised for what he is: a vainglorious, misogynistic throwback. Beastly as he is, we fall in love with what lies beneath the monstrous visage and temperament of the titular hero, although once he returns to his human form, the aforementioned spell is broken in more ways than one. Will the Prince value his Princess and still be true to her now that he is a fallible, lovable human again? Was the Beast perfect as he was? This lingering ambiguity is one of the many reasons why this is one of the greatest Disney adaptations, a magical fable that possesses universal appeal, modern touches, and lean, simplistic storytelling. It remains eminently entertaining and evocative, a true gem of modern animation that revived the fortunes of an outdated film company stuck in a formulaic rut and paved the way for its future dominance in the cinematic realm.

After being overshadowed for nearly 2 decades by their own Pixar and even by Dreamworks, Disney is finally going through another renaissance and the last time they went through such productive period was at the beginning of the 90's. Back then, this movie was one of their most acclaimed works and it was even nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, something really unique. However, after watching the damned thing a couple of times, I tend to think it is actually rather overrated. I mean, it is what Disney does best, a traditional timeless fairy-tale, but, in my opinion, it was just decent and nothing really remarkable. First of all, let's take the animation. Sure, there were a few very nice bits, especially the enchanted servants but they have done some much better work after and before making this movie. For example, it always bothered me that Belle kept looking slightly different from one scene to another. Anyway, the biggest issue I had with this movie is that I didn't really like the way they handled the Beast. Indeed, he should have been a terrifying monster but, instead, they created this rude and grumpy child. Seriously, the character was almost a joke. Sure, they made this choice to make sure that the little kids still could watch the damned thing but I think it would have better worked if the whole thing would have been slightly darker. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie is very often considered as one of the very best animated features delivered by Disney, I actually struggled to really care about the damned thing but, of course, it is still a decent movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

"Beauty and the Beast" is one of the films to put Disney on the map. With a tale as old as time, this fairytale is more believable than most of the animations that come from this studio. Having a down-on-her-luck girl being wanted by a man who she despises, she gives up her life to save her father, where she finds herself confronted with a scary beast. The destiny of the film unfolds and will warm everyone's heart while watching it unravel. It's a film that will never falter or fail to impress, no matter how many times you watch it. With perfect writing and a story that will be remembered forever, "Beauty and the Beast" is one of the best Disney films out there to date!

`Beauty and the Beast' is one of those films that has stood the test of time and it still feels as well made and delightful as when it was first released. Now it is re-released in blu-ray splendour you can relive it's magic again and again.

Belle lives in a French village and loves nothing more than a good book and when the local Casanova Gaston (who is odious and vain) tries to take her hand in marriage she can think of nothing worse. Her father stumbles across a deserted castle inhabited by a gruesome beast, who is really a prince under a spell, and when Belle goes to rescue him she ends up being held prisoner herself. Over time Belle and the beast develop a love for one another and when Gaston comes to kill the beast the story is brought to a head.

Of course there is slightly more to the story than that, but that is the rough outline and gives an idea of what you can expect here. The animation is very well done in this film, as it's Oscar will attest to, and the backgrounds are rendered with a level of detail Disney films have lacked in recent years. The use of light is very good as well, especially in the castle where the shadows and pools of light are very well done.

This has decent enough music and isn't too twee and the voiceover work is also very good. I especially enjoyed Angela Lansbury as the teapot and thought she matched the character perfectly.

This has become a classic in the Disney stable for a reason and if you haven't watched this yet you should be pleased with the story and animation on offer. This has plenty of extras, most of which are aimed at kids, but the commentaries and `making of' featurette are of special interest to adults and give a deeper insight into the film. Overall this is a great package with excellent remastering and is another wonderful film to add to your Disney collection.

Beauty And The Beast was released in a time where Walt Disney Animation Studios were in a phase of a breakthrough despite the death of Walt Disney. The Little Mermaid became a huge success in 1989 and Beauty And The Beast is another great success that has been added to the list of great Disney Classics. This one has received the strongest positive response regarding awards than any Disney animated film (until Up was released). It became the first ever animated film to have been nominated for Best Picture and it won 2 other Academy Awards: Best Song for 'Beauty And The Beast' and Best Original Score (which doesn't surprise me, quite frankly).


Beauty And The Beast bought out in the Disney industry the enchantment and the beauty that they perhaps never thought they'd see again after Walt's passing despite that most of the films between Walt's death and The Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast were still very good. They just didn't live up to the level of imagination, charm and magic within it like pretty much all the Disney Renaissances did. The way Beauty And The Beast is filled with so much magic is that there are almost like two different worlds that merge together: the normal village in France with normal people and on the other side, a Beast (a former prince) inside a castle with a moving and talking candlestick, clock, teapot, teacup and others for servants who were humans and are under a spell like the Beast is.


A prince is transformed into a beast by an enchantress as punishment for his cold-hearted attitude and that 'she had seen there is no love in his heart'. She gave him an enchanted rose and if the Beast could love another and earn her love back then the spell would break but if all of the petals fell off, the Beast would remain that way forever. Meanwhile, a young girl named Belle is left alone after her father Maurice heads off to a fair and gets lost in the woods and ends up at the Beast's castle. While home alone, she tries to avoid the clutches of the desperate Gaston who seeks to marry her because 'she is the prettiest girl in town and he deserves the best' and he goes to deep measures to try and make Belle his wife. Maurice's horse returns to Belle and leads her to the Beast's castle where her father is held prisoner and when Beast meets Belle and keeps her captive there instead, everything begins to change and Belle discovers that there is a good man within the Beast that hasn't been discovered before.


Belle is just an absolutely beautiful woman for a cartoon character and the character in general is so powerful hence why I would say that Belle is my favourite Disney Princess. Even a cartoon character has more sense on what's more important about someone than most women in the world nowadays. I think perhaps Beast was quite an eerie character to add in a Disney animated kids film because he is both disfiguring and scary but despite this, they still managed to make him disfiguring to add the drama but also scary to make the audience get more to grips with his character. Gaston is a perfect example of a lot of the men in the world: arrogant, self-absorbed and selfish who think they can just get what they want but not every one has a good physique like Gaston does. Well, for an animation anyway. Lefou is a great character for me because he mysteriously sticks with Gaston even though Gaston treats him like crap (bit like Mr. Smee and Captain Hook) so I guess that goes to show that Lefou is really thick and that Gaston is quite a powerful force over some of the people in that French town. I love all the characters in the castle but I have to say that my favourite character is Lumiere.


Both Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise as co-directors isn't only their first time directing a feature film together but also a feature film that both have directed in general for the first time so I would say that this goes on the list of the greatest directorial debuts list for both of them because they rightfully deserve it. They both did a fantastic job on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame as well. The screenplay was fantastic! I love how they had the prologue of the Beast and the spell he is under at the start and then the film really begins. Personally, I think what makes a film instantly epic is if there is a prologue at the start with solid music and with strong screenplay. I have to say that the script for this film was just fantastic! I think the most crucial point about this film is the message is sends out: no matter how beautiful one really is, it is more about a person for who they are as a person than what a person looks like. I mean, is better loving someone who's ugly with a strong and nice personality than handsome and an evil bastard. It is just a shame that there aren't many people around nowadays who do appreciate that fact.


Overall, Beauty And The Beast is an absolutely beautiful masterpiece that I fell in love with from when I first saw it and still love it now. It is definitely one of Disney's best animated films ever and it deserves to be. It is also one of those films that almost made me cry but failed to do so. I would still call it a tearjerker. Beauty And The Beast was released on the year I was born so that is another reason why I love it. You have no heart if you decide not to watch this! By the way, if any of you have a blu-ray player, go and get it because you enter a world beyond this one while watching it. Highly recommend both the blu-ray and the film.

I have to say, this movie is one of the few that has aged really well from my childhood making it one of the more enduring films from pre-teen/early teen years. When I first watched it at the age of 12, I think, it was just a very remarkable cartoon. It captivated me with it's animation, especially the comic staff of the enchanted castle. As I watched it over the years, the romantic aspects of the movie appealed to me as well, and so did the lovely music, while still keeping an appreciation for the things that first captivated me. I also discovered the depth of the characters and the cleverness with which the mannerisms of the enchanted staff of the castle were constructed. This movie works on several levels, as a romance, as a technical achievement, as a fairy tale and as a musical. Possibly the finest Disney movie ever made in their classic style of animated movie making.

The only animated movie to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and it deserved it.

Magic from the opening prologue to the final credit, "Beauty and the Beast" is the last real classic to come from the Disney crew before John Lasseter came along. This was one of the few movies I happily paid to see twice in the cinema, and sitting in a sparsely-populated Friday night audience (I was living in Barbados at the time, and it was hardly the most artistic place on Earth... it was a crying shame that there was hardly anyone there while "Home Alone 2" went through the roof) the second time, the magic remained.

You all know the story, so apart from pointing out the movie's one flaw (the prince's spell had to be broken before he turned 21 or he would remain a beast forever; so if it was cast ten years before the events of the movie, wouldn't that mean he was 11 when the spell was cast...?), let's look at how well the movie works. You have a monster who's more human than the movie's medallion-man villain; you have a heroine who's PC but engaging with it; you have a supporting cast of magic utensils who wisely never upstage the couple at the centre of this love story (and despite the Disney animated trappings, it IS a love story); and you have a captivating story, beautifully told.

The movie's also got wonderful design of its French setting and characters, with the ballroom scene a standout (the tiny but appreciative audience were impressed by the sight of the Beast and Belle in their evening wear - the only time I've ever seen cartoon characters get wolf-whistled in a cinema); and Alan Menken's score is his finest work for the Mouse, with matchless lyrics from the late and much lamented Howard Ashman - how many musicals can you name where ALL the songs are brilliant? But ultimately it's the movie's very real heart that makes it a keeper; the cliche "You'll laugh, you'll cry" is all too true in this case. A lot of movies called 'classic' don't deserve that appellation, but this one does.

I'll be slaughtered by anime fans, but what the hell... one "Beauty and the Beast" is worth a thousand "Akira"s. And "Shrek"s. And, I'm willing to bet, "Treasure Planet"s. This is a truly adult animated feature that's also one for the entire family. Forget "The Silence of the Lambs" - this is the real best picture of 1991.