Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Movie is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and transformed by Walt Disney in American animated musical romantic fantasy drama.

At the beginning of the story we met the prince who is young and handsome but also spoiled, selfish and unkind. One winter’s night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. She warned him not to be deceived by appearances, “for a beauty is found within”. When he dismissed her again, the old woman’s ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. Because she saw that there was no love in his heart, she transformed him into a hideous beast, to match his beastly heart, and places a powerful spell at the castle and all who lived there. The Beast receives a mirror that enables him to view faraway events, along with an enchanted rose which will bloom until his 21^st birthday. If he could learn to love the other and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, the spell would be broken. If not he will be doomed to remain a beast for all time.

“But who would love the beast?”

Ten years later we meet Belle, a young woman bored by the life she is doing in her village, and she is looking for excitement she finds in her books. She is ridiculed by everyone in the village except her father Maurice (the inventor) and Gaston who is popular with the townsfolk and determined to marry her.

One day Maurice and his horse Phillipe get lost in the forest, and they stumble upon the Beast’s castle. He meets Lumiere, the candlestick, Cogsworth, the clock, Mrs. Potts the teapot, and her son Chip, the teacup. They offer their help to him until Beast finds out about the intruder and imprisons him. When Belle arrives at the castle, she offers the Beast an exchange - she will stay if the Beast will give the freedom to her father. The Beast accept the offer and sends Maurice back to the village without giving Belle a chance to say goodbye. Back at the village, Maurice tries to convince the others to rescue Belle, but no one believes his story about the beast in the castle.

Back in the castle, the Beast is not happy when Belle refuse to have a dinner with him the first night and forbids her from eating at all in petty revenge. However, the transformed servants of the castle defy his orders and offer her dinner and a tour. Belle’s curiosity leads her to the forbidden West Wing where the Beast’s rooms are. When Beast frightens Belle in his rage, she runs out into the forest and she meets a pack of wolves. The Beast rescues Belle from this dangerous situation but gets hurt in the ensuring fight. He begins to develop true feelings for her when she takes care of him after the injury, and he delights her by showing his extensive library, which Belle, a true bookworm, adores.

Meanwhile Gaston pays Monsieur D’Arque to send Maurice to his asylum if Belle refuses Gaston’s proposal again.

In the castle Belle and the Beast are sharing the romantic evening together when Belle confess that she misses her father. The Beast tells her to use his magic mirror to see him which reveals a dying Maurice alone in the forest, looking for his daughter. The Beast lets go to save him, giving her the mirror to remember him by. Belle saves the father and she brings him home. However, they are met by Gaston and Mr D’Arque who tries to take her father away. In desperation, Belle proves to everyone that her father is telling the true about the Beast by showing them the Beast in the magic mirror. Gaston, realizing that Belle loves the Beast, convinces the villagers that the Beast is a man-eating monster and he leads the people to the castle to kill him.
When Belle and her father, after escaping confinement with the help of Chip, arrive to the castle, the villagers are being fended off by the servants and Gaston is fighting with a depressed Beast who believes that Belle is not returning. Upon seeing Belle has returned for him, he fights back for the woman he loves and orders Gaston to leave his castle. However, when the Beast turns to Belle, a mad Gaston fatally stabs him only to then lose his footing and falls to his death. Belle confesses her love for the Beast just in time to save not only his life but also break the enchantment before the last petal falls. With the spell broken, the Beast comes back to life in his human form. The servants also resume their human forms. The movie ends with Belle dancing with the prince in the ballroom as everyone watches in delight.

Did you know…?

1. Belle is the only one person in her village who wears blue, which means to symbolize how different she is from everyone else?

2. Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture?

3. Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film to earn more than $100 million at the box office.

4. Beauty and the Beast became Disney’s first animated film to be adopted into a Broadway musical.