This page will contain news stories about Beauty and the Beast, as they become available.Beauty and the Beast (1991 movie)Beauty and the Beast is the thirtieth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to theaters on November 22, 1991 by Buena Vista Pictures. It is an adaptation of the well-known fairy tale story of a beautiful woman kept in a castle by a horrific monster. It was the first, and to this date, only animated picture to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It stars the voices of Robby Benson (Beast), Paige O'Hara (Belle), Richard White (Gaston), Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth), and Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts). OverviewThe movie was adapted by Linda Woolverton from the story by Roger Allers and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (uncredited). It was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. The music was by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Song (for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's "Beauty and the Beast", sung at the end of the film by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson). Two other Menken and Ashman songs from the movie were also nominated for Best Music, Song ("Be Our Guest" and "Belle"). Beauty and the Beast was also nominated for Best Sound, and Best Picture. It is the only animated movie every to be nominated for Best Picture, and will remain so with the introduction of the award for Best Animated Feature. In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. This film inspired a Broadway stage musical which earned tremendous commercial success and multiple Tony Awards, and proved to be the first of a whole line of Disney stage productions. There are also Disney versions of the story published and sold as storybooks. In 1997, a midquel called Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas was released directly to video. Plot summarySpoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.One cold winter's night, an ugly old woman stumbles up to a prince's castle. She begs the prince for shelter from the cold, though she has only a single rose to give him as payment. The prince refuses her, simply because she is ugly. The woman reveals herself to be a powerful enchantress and, as punishment to the cruel and selfish prince, she transforms him into a beast. The servants in the castle are also transformed; they become tea cups, candles, items of furniture, and other household items. This spell can only be broken if the beast learns to love another and receives her love in return. But there is a catch! This must happen before his 21st birthday, or he will be doomed to remain a beast forever. The "beauty" of the title, a girl called Belle, lives with her father Maurice in a small French village. Maurice is known for his Rube Goldberg-type inventions; the townspeople note Belle's beauty, but consider her odd because of her passion for books. Her beauty has attracted the attentions of local hunter and bodybuilder Gaston, but Belle considers him 'rude and conceited', and ignores him. One day, Maurice decides to take his latest invention to a fair outside the village. On the way, he gets lost in the woods. Wolves chase him, and his horse Phillipe bucks him off in fright and fear. Maurice runs blindly through the woods and eventually comes to the beast's castle. The servants of the castle, still in the form of various household objects, look after him. That is, until the beast arrives. The beast has Maurice locked up as a prisoner. Belle, back in the village, politely but firmly resists Gaston's offer of marriage. Gaston explains to Belle that she is going to be his "little wife", have 6 or 7 handsome males ("strapping boys" , to quote the character) like himself, and makes a number of other chauvinistic comments. She is astonished later to find her father's horse without its master. She traces her way to the castle with her father's horse. Once there, she offers to take the place of her father as the Beast's prisoner; and the Beast agrees and sends Maurice back. Maurice tries to tell people back in the town what has happened to Belle, but the villagers, including Gaston, think him insane and rebuff him, so he decides to set off to get her back on his own. Back at the castle, the various dishes and accessories, including Lumiere the candlestick and Cogsworth the mini-clock, entertain their guest with a fancy French dinner and all the comforts a team of servants can provide (after the Beast orders them not to when he tried forcing Belle to come down to dinner with him). They are, of course, eager for Belle and the Beast to fall in love, so they can be turned human again. Unfortunately for them, Belle and the Beast don't get along very well (due to the chauvinism he is expliciting on her) and are constantly at each other's throats. However, Belle and the Beast eventually fall in love and over the following days the Beast becomes more human. When he gives her a magic mirror that will show her anything she wishes to see, she requests to see her father and sees him sick and dying. The Beast releases her to go rescue him, and she takes him back to their house in the village. However, Gaston arrives with a lynch mob to take Maurice to the asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him. Eager to prove her father sane, she ends up showing them an image of the Beast with the magic mirror. Enraged and feeling betrayed, Gaston convinces the mob that the Beast is a threat and menace to the community and leads the mob to the castle to pillage it, rallying with the cry, "kill the Beast." Most of the mob is fought and driven off by the enchanted artifacts of the castle, but Gaston reaches the Beast and begans to fight with him, though the Beast, disheartened, dosen't fight back until Belle shows up. After Gaston is killed, Belle tells the Beast she loves him, and the spell is broken. The Beast turns into a handsome prince again and the enchanted artifacts of the castle are turned back into people. Trivia
Characters
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The Beast turns into a handsome prince again and the enchanted artifacts of the castle are turned back into people. "Uncle Trusty" then starts telling the puppies about his good old friend "Old Reliable", and the film ends. After Gaston is killed, Belle tells the Beast she loves him, and the spell is broken. Just then, Jock and Trusty arrive— it turns out Trusty survived the accident with an injured leg. Enraged and feeling betrayed, Gaston convinces the mob that the Beast is a threat and menace to the community and leads the mob to the castle to pillage it, rallying with the cry, "kill the Beast." Most of the mob is fought and driven off by the enchanted artifacts of the castle, but Gaston reaches the Beast and begans to fight with him, though the Beast, disheartened, dosen't fight back until Belle shows up. At Christmastime, Lady gives birth to her and Tramp's four puppies ,and they are all photographed together with the baby. Eager to prove her father sane, she ends up showing them an image of the Beast with the magic mirror. Jock is convinced Trusty is dead and he begins to cry. However, Gaston arrives with a lynch mob to take Maurice to the asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him. Tramp is released from the wagon, while Trusty is trapped under the wheel. The Beast releases her to go rescue him, and she takes him back to their house in the village. Several passers-by are helping the driver and trying to release the horses when a taxi pulls up and Jim Dear and Lady get out. When he gives her a magic mirror that will show her anything she wishes to see, she requests to see her father and sees him sick and dying. They confront the horses which are pulling the wagon and it topples over into a tree. However, Belle and the Beast eventually fall in love and over the following days the Beast becomes more human. Jock and Trusty are both waiting outside the house and hear about the rat. They decide to go after the dog catcher's wagon and finally sniff its scent, and run towards the wagon while it is just yards away from the dog pound. Unfortunately for them, Belle and the Beast don't get along very well (due to the chauvinism he is expliciting on her) and are constantly at each other's throats. They see the dead rat and everyone knows that Lady and Tramp had entered the house to catch the rat. Back at the castle, the various dishes and accessories, including Lumiere the candlestick and Cogsworth the mini-clock, entertain their guest with a fancy French dinner and all the comforts a team of servants can provide (after the Beast orders them not to when he tried forcing Belle to come down to dinner with him). They are, of course, eager for Belle and the Beast to fall in love, so they can be turned human again. Aunt Sarah, Jim Dear and Darling all follow her. Maurice tries to tell people back in the town what has happened to Belle, but the villagers, including Gaston, think him insane and rebuff him, so he decides to set off to get her back on his own. Lady begins barking frantically and runs upstairs. Once there, she offers to take the place of her father as the Beast's prisoner; and the Beast agrees and sends Maurice back. They then unlock the cellar door and release Lady, despite Aunt Sarah's fears that Lady would harm the baby. She traces her way to the castle with her father's horse. Just as the dog catcher is collecting Tramp, Jim Dear and Darling return. She is astonished later to find her father's horse without its master. She tries to convince him to destroy Tramp; meanwhile, Lady is locked in the cellar. Gaston explains to Belle that she is going to be his "little wife", have 6 or 7 handsome males ("strapping boys" , to quote the character) like himself, and makes a number of other chauvinistic comments. Aunt Sarah calls the dog pound and demands that the dog catcher come to collect Tramp. Belle, back in the village, politely but firmly resists Gaston's offer of marriage. Tramp eventually manages to kill the rat but in the process tips over the baby's cot, and Aunt Sarah is awakened by the baby crying. The beast has Maurice locked up as a prisoner. Just as the fight is reaching its climax, Lady comes in. That is, until the beast arrives. He chases the rat all around the bedroom. The servants of the castle, still in the form of various household objects, look after him. Tramp enters the house and soon comes face to face with the rat. Maurice runs blindly through the woods and eventually comes to the beast's castle. Then Tramp re-appears and Lady tells him that the rat has gone into the baby's room. Wolves chase him, and his horse Phillipe bucks him off in fright and fear. She barks so loud that Aunt Sarah wakes up and tells her to stop barking. On the way, he gets lost in the woods. Just as Tramp is leaving, a rat appears in the garden and Lady begins to bark. One day, Maurice decides to take his latest invention to a fair outside the village. And when Tramp comes, she is angry with him for getting her locked up in the pound, and tells him she does not want to see him again. Her beauty has attracted the attentions of local hunter and bodybuilder Gaston, but Belle considers him 'rude and conceited', and ignores him. Jock and Trusty both come to see Lady, but she is not in the mood for visitors. Maurice is known for his Rube Goldberg-type inventions; the townspeople note Belle's beauty, but consider her odd because of her passion for books. Because she has a name tag, she is soon identified and taken home—but Aunt Sarah chains her to a kennel in the garden. The "beauty" of the title, a girl called Belle, lives with her father Maurice in a small French village. Lady is captured by the dog catcher and taken to the dog pound, where she does not stay for long. But there is a catch! This must happen before his 21st birthday, or he will be doomed to remain a beast forever. The next morning, they chase chickens around a chicken pen, and narrowly escape being shot by the owner of the chicken house. This spell can only be broken if the beast learns to love another and receives her love in return. They sleep for the night in a nearby park. The woman reveals herself to be a powerful enchantress and, as punishment to the cruel and selfish prince, she transforms him into a beast. The servants in the castle are also transformed; they become tea cups, candles, items of furniture, and other household items. Tramp then takes Lady to Tony's Italian Restaurant, where Tony the cook prepares them a special spaghetti meal. The prince refuses her, simply because she is ugly. Tramp then takes Lady around the town, introducing her to a few of his friends, including a beaver who removes Lady's muzzle. She begs the prince for shelter from the cold, though she has only a single rose to give him as payment. Lady comes face to face with a group of vicious dogs on the other side of town, but Tramp arrives on the scene and rescues Lady. One cold winter's night, an ugly old woman stumbles up to a prince's castle. Aunt Sarah then takes Lady to a pet shop to have her fitted with a muzzle, but Lady runs away while the shopkeeper is trying to fit her with a muzzle. In 1997, a midquel called Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas was released directly to video. Lady scares Si and Am and they pretend to have been hurt, which causes Aunt Sarah to come downstairs. There are also Disney versions of the story published and sold as storybooks. But she begins to bark when the two cats go up the stairs to see the baby. This film inspired a Broadway stage musical which earned tremendous commercial success and multiple Tony Awards, and proved to be the first of a whole line of Disney stage productions. Lady manages to keep the goldfish and canary safe from harm, but is unable to prevent the two cats from knocking over furniture and tearing the curtains. In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Aunt Sarah, who is not fond of dogs, has two Siamese cats—Si and Am—who run wild in the house. It is the only animated movie every to be nominated for Best Picture, and will remain so with the introduction of the award for Best Animated Feature. Soon after the baby is born, Jim Dear and Darling go away for a few days and Aunt Sarah comes to the house to look after the baby. Beauty and the Beast was also nominated for Best Sound, and Best Picture. She is mystified by this but soon grows to like the new baby boy. Two other Menken and Ashman songs from the movie were also nominated for Best Music, Song ("Be Our Guest" and "Belle"). Darling then has a baby and Lady feels that Jim Dear and Darling are not giving her as much attention as before. It won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score and Best Music, Song (for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's "Beauty and the Beast", sung at the end of the film by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson). A short time afterwards, she becomes friends with another dog—a stray dog called Tramp. The music was by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. She makes friends with two dogs living nearby, Jock and Trusty. It was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. When Lady is six months old, she has to have a licence and is able to leave Jim Dear and Darling's house. The movie was adapted by Linda Woolverton from the story by Roger Allers and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (uncredited). She quickly becomes the centre of their attention and is pampered with many presents. Potts). Lady is a gift from Jim Dear to his wife Darling one Christmas. It stars the voices of Robby Benson (Beast), Paige O'Hara (Belle), Richard White (Gaston), Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth), and Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Scamp also starred in a direct-to-video sequel in 2002 titled Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure. It was the first, and to this date, only animated picture to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. This film begat a spinoff comic titled Scamp, named after one of Lady and Tramp's puppies. It is an adaptation of the well-known fairy tale story of a beautiful woman kept in a castle by a horrific monster. Greene later wrote a novelization of the film, which was released two years before the film itself, at Walt Disney's insistence, so that audiences would be familiar with the story. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to theaters on November 22, 1991 by Buena Vista Pictures. The film was based loosely on two previous works, the 1937 book Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog by Ward Greene about a mutt from the wrong side of the tracks, and a story line worked on for several years by Disney story man Joe Grant about a Cocker Spaniel named Lady, based on his own pet. Beauty and the Beast is the thirtieth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. Once of the two of them meet, they share an adventure together and eventually fall in love. "The Mob Song": sample Sung by the villagers on their way to the castle to kill the beast. The story pairs a Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a rich family with a mutt (possibly part Great Dane) named Tramp who lives on the streets. Potts whilst Belle and the Beast dance in the castle ballroom. It was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen film process. "Beauty And The Beast (Tale As Old As Time)": sample Sung by Mrs. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and was originally released to theaters on June 16, 1955 by Buena Vista Distribution, a new division of Disney which assumed distribution rights of the studio's product from RKO Radio Pictures. "Something There": sample Sung by Belle and the Beast when they realise they have feelings for each other. Lady and the Tramp is the fifteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It is here that Gaston thinks of the idea to blackmail Belle by sending her father to an asylum if she doesn't marry him. "Gaston Reprise": sample After Maurice flees the Beast's castle, he enters the tavern pleading for help, only to be mocked by the townsfolk. "Gaston": sample LeFou (Gaston's sidekick) and the local drunkards sing Gaston's praises in a village tavern.
entertaining Belle. "Be Our Guest": sample A luncheon cabaret of the castle's servants as crockery, flatware etc. "Belle Reprise": sample Sung by Belle after Gaston proposes to her, Belle repeats her plea of "wanting much more than this provincial life". "Belle": sample The opening song of the movie, Belle makes her way to the local bookshop and the whole village erupts into song, describing the oddness of Belle.
Potts (voice by Angela Lansbury) is the maid of the castle, who was transformed into a teapot, and her children (including Chip) into teacups. Mrs. Lumiere (voice by Jerry Orbach) is the maitre d' of the castle, who is now a candelabra. Cogsworth (voice by David Ogden Stiers) is the butler of the castle )always wanting to keep things orderly and ordained, and is very eager to please his master, the Beast), who was turned into a mantle clock when the spell was cast. In the words of Roger Ebert, Gaston "degenerates during the course of the film from a chauvinist pig to a sadistic monster.". He is far more attractive than most Disney villains are and, unlike most villains in Disney fantasies, lacks supernatural powers. Though he is scheming, amoral and cocky (not to mention sexist and chauvinist), he is not a typical Disney villain. He is large, strong, handsome, and macho, and sees himself as highly desirable (a self-image supported by the opinions of many young women in the village, including the three blonde Bimbettes). Gaston (voice by Richard White) is the film's villain. When he finally gets one such person, his lack of patience and excess firmness prove to be obstacles to his goal. Since falling in love with someone is the only way to break the spell, he has desperately wished for a girl to fall in love with, though only (initially) so he can be turned back into his human form. The Beast (voice by Robby Benson) was transformed into a Beast by an enchantress for his lack of compassion (and, to some viewers and fans, elicit sexism against women). Her father, Maurice, appears to be the only living member of her family. Very intelligent and self-assured, she desperately wants to escape the condition of the life in the poor village where she lives. She has brown hair, brown eyes and a passion for reading. Belle (voice by Paige O'Hara) is a girl in either her late teens or early twenties. This is the same deer as Bambi's mother, in the scene right before the hunter kills her. If you watch the deer, it suddenly picks its head up to look around. At the very beginning of the movie, as soon as the picture comes on the screen, it shows the castle before it is cursed. There is a deer in the foreground drinking out of the stream. Beauty and the Beast was the first, and, so far, only animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. This special tradition continues today, up to The Lion King 1 1/2. When Gaston places his feet on Belle's table, the mud coming off the boots strongly resembles Mickey Mouse's head, following the long standing Disney tradition of having "Hidden Mickeys" in their movies. Gaston is the first-ever animated character in a Disney film (besides Jafar) to make a chauvinistic comment about a woman (Gaston calls Belle his "little wife", Jafar says that silence is "a fine quality in a wife" when speaking to Princess Jasmine. "Belle" is French for 'beautiful', and the name of the film is, after all, Beauty and the Beast. It was shown at some IMAX theaters, too, prior to the release of the DVD version. The film was restored and remastered almost beyond its original brilliance for the 2002 DVD release. In both cases the people believe the "Beast" is evil, when it is they themselves who are really evil. The mob's cries of "Kill the Beast" is, probably unintentionally, reminiscent of William Golding's Lord of the Flies. "Screw your courage to the sticking place.". In "The Mob Song", Gaston quotes Macbeth by William Shakespeare. |