Beauty and the Beast, IMAXimized

[IronParrot]

I went to see it today. My take:

SUMMARY

A re-release of the 1991 Disney animated feature, featuring a new number from the Broadway stage show ("Human Again").

RECOMMENDED FOR:

Anyone who at least likes the movie. If you haven't seen it before, definitely give it a whirl.

REVIEW

If there's an IMAX theatre in town, go see this beauty of a film on a beast of a screen. It is an unquestionably enchanting experience for anyone who doesn't already hate it for whatever reason. The giant-screen transfer is mesmerizing in detail and clarity, and serves to amplify the majesty that already embodies this gem of animation. The tremendously bass-heavy sound systems characteristic of IMAX theatres make the Beast's roar as shattering as the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park. Existing fans of Beauty and the Beast will certainly enjoy the new number - while not at all a necessity to the flow of the film, and including a not-so-sly reference to Romeo and Juliet, the slightly expanded roles of the household furniture pieces can only be a good thing.

If you haven't seen this film before, then allow me to persuade you to do so.

I like to call Moulin Rouge the first great live-action movie musical in thirty years. The words "live-action" are there for a reason. This is it. Beauty and the Beast is, without question, my personal favourite of everything I've seen that has come out of the Mouse House. In terms of pure artistic achievement it currently stands as the crown jewel of the post-Mermaid era, and is arguably up to the level of the early Disney features. It currently stands as the only animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture, an honour it deserves to the fullest.

There are several reasons for this. First of all, as a musical, it has no parallel in the world of animation. No other animated film so boldly captures the spirit of the classic musical with its glorious career-best score by Alan Menken that interlocks with the visual choreography seamlessly. The "Be Our Guest" number is, in all respects and without the slightest exaggeration, the greatest animated musical number in cinema's short history. Not only that, but the design of the Beast's palace both interior and exterior is jawdroppingly beautiful, combining traditional animation blended with the occasional CG background to create environments that equal what live-action films could provide. The library, the ballroom... just see it.

What really holds this movie up is a marvelous supporting cast. The whole idea of animation is founded on the movement of the immobile; and in that respect, Beauty and the Beast provides a menagerie of enchanted objects that are, in sheer memorability, second only to those of Pixar's Toy Story films. Lumière, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip - all of them more lively and human than the human characters in the film. All marvels of animation. Lumière... if there was an award for Best Acting from an Animated Character - and I think there should be - he would be one of its most deserving winners.

Yes, the entire film is founded on a cliché - but that's an inevitable result of adapting a source that is of archetypal status. It's the presentation of the cliché that makes this film wonderful. Each of the cookie-cutter characters with cookie-cutter motives take on distinct and believable personalities that remain consistent with those motives throughout. This movie is one of the best examples of life being breathed into an otherwise thin skeleton of a concept. For some reason, Belle stands apart from the mold of Disney fairy-tale princesses; considering her scenario and the way she is written, she shouldn't. But she does nonetheless.

Yes, LeFou adds an unwelcome contemporary element that is no funnier than Jar Jar Binks, though not nearly to the ludicrous extents found in Aladdin or Hercules. Yes, a real introverted girl seeking escape and adventure wouldn't fall for a real Beast, not that there's such a thing as the latter. Yes, it's almost a crime that the Celine Dion soft-rock rendition of the title song in the end credits has been permitted to overshadow the infinitely more appropriate rendition by Mrs. Potts in the body of the film. Yes, the presence of direct-to-video sequels to this masterpiece is as vomit-inducing as the bastardization of The Land Before Time. Yes, the very end is blatantly hypocritical - but hey, this isn't Shrek, you know. Do these factors detract from the magic of the movie? Well, for some people they do; for others, they don't. You'll have to see for yourself.

To this very day, Beauty and the Beast is a testament to the fact that traditional animation is still capable of going beyond what live-action can offer, that it can still enchant, and that the vision of Walt Disney has not been entirely vanquished under the patronizingly commercial Eisner regime. The IMAX version only serves to prove this.

Be our guest.

[galadriel88]

Well written, Iron Parrot! It seems I am not alone in my enthusiasm for this movie. I only wish I could now see the IMAX version, because although I live near an IMAX theater, they are either not showing it or they're just not advertising it and I don't know that they're showing it. Oh well. I got to see the play in October, though! There is a company called the Broadway Theatre League that comes to a city very close to me every year and puts on 3 or 4 Broadway plays, and my Dad gets season tickets, so he took my whole family to see it. I LOVED it! There's something about theatre that draws you in, that makes you just sit there in awe. 'Course, there was probably a bit of Disney magic sprinkled in there, too.
I absolutely love all the Disney songs! They are so perfect for the movies, and I go around singing them all the time. I've also done a few of them with my voice teacher - Belle, Beauty & the Beast, Chim Chim Cheroo, that song that Ariel sings in The Little Mermaid (can't think of it's name...Part of that World or something like that???), etc. I would really like to get a couple of CD's of Disney songs, just to have.