Oh, I am most certainly enjoying these Disney animation reissues so much. The 3D doesn't bother me that much; it certainly doesn't impede the blissful experience of seeing these landmark films again gorgeously restored on the big screen again. In fact, I think the 3D on 1991's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is better than the work done on last year's THE LION KING reissue, perhaps because a few of sequences include early examples of digital animation, and that material looks much better converted into 3D.
Add to that the fact that Disney has had years to perfect this conversion, since BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was supposed to be released a couple of years ago, but pulled when the TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2 3D reissues (in advance of TOY STORY 3's release) didn't do well at the box office. But thankfully, THE LION KING changed all that by unexpectedly making a ton of money, and so Disney dusted off BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, probably my favorite of the studio's animated fare of that era. (Get ready for FINDING NEMO's 3D reissue in the back half of 2012 and THE LITTLE MERMAID next year; wheeeee!!!).
The thing that struck me watching BEAUTY AND THE BEAST again is how grown up it is compared to, for example, THE LITTLE MERMAID. There are bloody battles, stabbings, an adult love story, and a couple of wolf attacks that preface and rival similar scenes in the upcoming film The Grey. Nearly all of the lead characters are adults, including our leads Belle (voiced by Broadway star Paige O'Hara) and the cursed prince turned monster (Robby Benson), who must find a woman to love and who loves him back to break the curse. I fell in love all over again with the Beast's castle of furniture servants, including David Ogden Stiers' Cogsworth, Angela Lansbury's Mrs. Potts, and my favorite, the candlestick Lumiere, voiced as a suave Frenchman by the late Jerry Orbach (the tale is set in France, but I always wondered why he was the only character with an actual French accent).
But the one enchanting element of the film I never forgot were the songs. My God, the songs in Beauty and the Beast are flawless, from Angela Lansbury's rendition of the title track (the Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson version can kiss my ass), Orbach leading the charge through "Be Our Guest," and the funny, furniture chorus, falling-in-love song "Something There." I still miss lyricist Howard Ashman, who died the same year the film came out, because of his work in this movie with Alan Menken, credited with the original music.
The only story element that ever bugged me about BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was the character of Gaston (Richard White), who tries to force Belle to marry him by sending an insane asylum doctor to commit her father against his will. I think the character is a blast, and his theme song is a riot, but the story doesn't need him as a villain. Time and the Beast's temper are the true villains of this work. Still, the final showdown between Gaston and Beast is epic and so much more violent and dark than I'd remembered.
As many times as you may have seen BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the singular experience of seeing it on a big screen cannot be matched, and I can't applaud Disney enough for allowed kids (and one or two adults) the opportunity to do just that. I can take or leave the 3D, which is almost unnoticeable for much of the film, although I did like the way the snow felt like it was right in my face. Imagine the snowflakes-before-your-eyes 3D effect of HUGO turned into blizzard-like conditions. But if your kids (or you) have never seen BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at all, you wouldn't be doing your job as a parent unless you took them to see this glorious reissue. Keep these restored reissues coming, studio types. You don't have to change a thing, just clean them up and let us hand you our money to see them. I'm in.
