BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
A film review by Kathy Li
Copyright 1991 Kathy Li
All the reviews are true. It's *won*derful. Rush to see it on the 22nd, it is *more* than worth the $7.50 I paid to see it at the El Capitan in LA. It deserves to be nominated for Best Picture.
The animation is amazing. Pixar's done a marvelous job of background generations, giving us scenes that are a perfect marriage of generated and hand-drawn animation. It blends beautifully. The ballroom is breathtaking, the chandelier is wonderful, and if someone hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known about Maurice's carriage.
The score's got everything from beautiful soaring ballads to get-'em-on-their-feet showstoppers.
It's poignant, touching, charming, exhilarating, and all that good stuff. Prepare for tears, choking up, belly laughs--it's not often you get touched like this by a movie. THE LITTLE MERMAID was just the warm up. :-) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is chock full of Moments.
And, of course, the characters are *great*! Robby Benson was the perfect choice for the Beast's voice--he manages to convey both the ferocity of a wild beast with immense power (combine a bear-sized wolverine with a panther, and you get the movement and build) and the utter vulnerability of a man discovering love for the first time. And yes, his voice is deep, and yes he sings. Paige O'Hara's voice for Belle, while similar to Jodie Benson's in range, conveys a very different character, more worldly, confident and mature. The opening scene draws her character for you, so I won't ruin it with long descriptive sentences.
I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone (and I especially want to warn anyone with the Disney Channel that "The Making of" special has lots of spoiler scenes), so I'm not going to mention fave lines (other than the one in my .sig I can't resist) or moments, but I did want to say there's one piece of trivia that should delight fans of the TV BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (you remember Linda Hamilton? :-)--look at the castlist to see who plays the asylum keeper.
Even the credits are wonderful; someone finally did things right, and listed the credits by character, naming the voice actor, animating director and animators for each main character as a group. And especially throat-lump-inducing was the final dedication:
To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice
and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful.
Howard Ashman
1950-1991
Go see it. After you've seen it; we'll talk.
--Kathy Li aka the Rev. Mom -- kathy@fps.com ucsd.edu!celit!kathy
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