Beauty and the Beast 3D (Disney)
Rated G.
Starring (voices of) Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury.
Written by Linda Woolverton, Roger Allers, Brenda Chapman, Burny Mattinson, Brian Pimental, Joe Ranft, Kelly Asbury, Chris Sanders, Kevin Harkey, Bruce Woodside, Tom Ellery, Robert Lence, Bradley Pierce, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti.
Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise.
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
It's hard to improve on an original, but that never stopped anyone from trying. Such is the case with Beauty and the Beast 3D, hitting theaters again, a little more than 20 years after its original debut.
There is nothing new to the basic story of Belle (Paige O'Hara), the beautiful daughter of Maurice the inventor (Rex Everhart) who rescues her dad after he becomes the prisoner of a beast (Robbie Benson) in a castle. The Beast is actually a man cursed by an enchantress who discovered that he had no love in his heart. The Beast's castle and all living there fall under the same curse, including a butler/clock named Cogsworth (David Ogden Stiers), a candelabra named Lumiere (Jerry Orbach) and hostess/teapot named Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury).
When Belle arrives at the castle, she offers herself in exchange for her father, providing hope that the curse might be broken if the Beast can learn to love. The pair do begin to fall in love, but in the meantime, the town bully Gaston (Richard White) plots to have Maurice thrown into an insane asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him. When Gaston discovers that Belle has feelings for the Beast, he riles up the town folk into a mob, bent on killing the Beast. Belle rushes to the castle to try and save the Beast, and to finally confess her tru feelings for him.
But will she get there in time to erase the curse and save him?
Besides the animated 3-dimensional aspects of the film, the new version of Beauty and the Beast 3D is a little sharper and brighter than the original, but other than that, it's still the same delightful film I remember the first time I saw it 20 years ago with all its fantastic songs and animated beauty. The 3D doesn't really make the film much better, but not much could.
It's important to remember that Beauty and the Beast was the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture in the Academy Awards. It was also the first animated feature film to use Pixar's computerized animation technology, which helped launch their group into greatness.
There's another treat that makes seeing Beauty and the Beast again on the big screen worthwhile. It's the new short film sequel called Tangled Ever After, a sequel to the 2010 Disney smash hit Tangled.
