Film

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Disney animation enters the '90s, embraces the stunning technical advances of computer-generated imagery, and updates the traditional dependent heroine. Belle, besides representing a move away from the usual Barbie Doll looks, is resourceful, bookish, and vigorous in resisting the chauvinist advances of Gaston, the character who turns out to bear the true mark of the beast. Gaston was based on LA's Medallion Man narcissists, and is well and truly lampooned in the barroom waltz. Beast, based on a menagerie of brooding buffalo, bear, boar and gorilla, learns to master his temper, and his growing relationship with Belle is infinitely touching. His bewitched castle is enlivened by an antic household including a candelabra with the panache of a French maître d', a neurotic clock, and a mother-and-son teapot and cup. The six musical numbers either reveal character or push the action, with 'Be Our Guest' an outstanding example of cartoon choreography. Dazzlingly good.

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