Beauty and the Beast (1991)
In our opinion, this is the best film Disney has ever made. We might have hardly anything negative to say about the original theatrical release (we won't even discuss the atrocity that is the special edition, since, much like the Star Wars prequels, it does not exist in our universe). You should be familiar with our 'retrospectively' format if you have read our previous post.
The characters
Belle is probably the first fully independent female character from their animated repertoire. We've already described some of her traits here since she is one of our favourites. She gets bad rap for standing up for herself and "being too mean". We don't really understand this. Apparently what women should be, is Jasmine; to have attitude and be hot, but have zero significance or impact storywise, except through the man's merits (this is not a diss on Jasmine's character, but more on that in our next 'retrospectively'). There's a reason she's on our favourite characters list, and that is because she's awesome. She's really mature, and it's refreshing that her goal was not to get married, but to have adventures. Romance was just a by-product of that for her. The only criticism we have has nothing to do with her persona, but with her character design, or more appropriately, the design of all Disney heroines. All the women are drawn in the same generic, interchangeable way, to a T (more on this in a later blogpost).
Beast can also be found from a favourite list. His character's arc reminds us that of Mr. Darcy's, as his journey is in some respects similar to his (more on that later). He's definitely the most intricate and interesting hero from Disney, as his storyline is more complicated than the others'. Not only does he undergo a literal transformation but more importantly, his character experiences a change as well. He has received some unjustified criticism of being abusive, but we perceive that his abrasiveness emanates from his self-loathing and is not a part of his personality. His character is particularly magnificent when contrasted with the next dude.
Gaston can be found from our list of villains, that's how much we love this movie: the three main characters are on all of our favourites lists. He's the quintessential entitled asshole. It comes across in so many ways, for example how he constantly keeps touching Belle without permission, and even at one point almost molests her by trying to forcefully kiss her. Another scene where his entitlement is perfectly demonstrated is before the proposal when Gaston has invited the whole village to the wedding, and has single-handedly arranged it without Belle's knowledge or consent. It's a scene of Austenesque proportions, and the similarities between Gaston and the high-handed Mr. Thorpe are striking. But what gives Gaston some more edge as a villain is how far he will go in his entitlement.
The minor characters add valuable and needed light-heartedness, comic relief and heart to the story. They also act as important catalysts in the story. We love each and everyone of them.
The story
At its core it is a love story, and a pretty great one at that. There has been much commentary on the alleged 'Stockholm syndrome issue'. It's total BS. Perhaps this conviction is based on the odious midquel (we urge you to stay away from it) that completely destroys everything that is so brilliant about the original . First things first, Belle does not put up with Beast's shit, nor is she obsessed about fixing him. The minute he scares her, she's gone. She only returns because she's a decent human being (she could've just left him wounded in the woods). Even then, she doesn't take any of his crap, and that is exactly what triggers the change in Beast. That's when Belle begins to like him and see him in a new light. Now what does that remind you of? Could it possibly be Austen's masterpiece?
We absolutely love that they took a different approach to the original fairytale. We never liked how Beast guilt-tripped and kept pestering Belle in the original story and in the subsequent adaptations of the fairytale. Those are things that Gaston would do, and in fact, does do. Here we come to one of our favourite themes in the film: the contrast between Gaston and Beast. There's the obvious allegory concerning their appearances and characters (how society perceives beauty etc.) but it's quite self-evident and has been widely understood so we didn't think to expand on it.
The contrast we would like to focus on is regarding the issue of entitlement. Although initially Beast literally has Belle in captivity, in the end, he has to let her go because of the change he has gone through and because he loves her, and love isn't supposed to manifest itself as ownership. Gaston, on the other hand, grows more and more possessive as the story progresses. As a result, he would not let Belle go, but metaphorically would rather force her to captivity as his trophy.
Miscellaneous
The music is amazing, Menken and Ashman really outdid themselves. The animation is breathtaking too, and the opening sequence is probably as picturesque as it can get. Also, the animation gets so vivid at times that you forget it's not live-action. We're sorry y'all English speakers, but we think the Finnish dub is simply superior (as it is the case with 90s Disney animations for us). The most notable improvements would be Gaston, Beast and Mrs. Potts. Plus they made the very smart choice of not disclosing the age of Beast when he was first transformed (10 years?? WTF, Disney?!)
