The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 122 Days to go: 86
Movie #318: Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid is hands down my favorite Disney princess movie, for reasons personal to my heart and my experience. But Beauty and the Beast is easily the best one. It’s warm and rich and beautifully animated, plus it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar back when there were only five nominees and animated features didn’t get any recognition at all outside of Original Song. That pretty much seals the deal right there.
Belle (Paige O’Hara) is an independent and confident young woman. She’s friendly and she loves her father. She knows herself, too, knows she wants more out of life than the “small provincial town” she grew up in. (The songs in Beauty and the Beast are the best.) She loves to read, loves to imagine different worlds and different possibilities. She’s curious and she loves to learn. She’s brave, loyal and generous. When her father gets lost and stumbles onto an old forgotten cursed castle, the one that belongs to the Beast (Robby Benson), he becomes Beast’s prisoner because after the whole ordeal with the witch lady looking for shelter who cursed him for his lack of hospitality, he no longer simply turns people away. Naturally, Belle goes to find her father but, beyond that, she also offers to trade places with him. She will be Beast’s prisoner if Beast will set her father free. That’s a strong, courageous spirit right there.
And, of course, Belle and Beast fall in love because that’s how these princess stories work. I mean, Belle wouldn’t even be a princess if she didn’t marry Beast (post-broken-curse-transformation, of course), though I have to admit I think he’s a lot more attractive — as are almost all of his servants — in non-human form.
The true strength of Beauty and the Beast, however, is not the story (although that’s fine, as it returns to an old Disney staple of introducing the film through the framing of a tale being told, while updating it with a narrator and some gorgeous stained glass window cells). Nor is it the amazing, almost hypnotic it’s so beautiful, animation, although that’s obviously a strong selling point. The strength is in the characters. Belle is a role model; Beast is a tragic figure, lashing out at anyone and everyone around him in anger at his ruined life. In addition, Beast’s castle is filled with cursed servants living as animate inanimate objects, and despite strong showings by Angela Lansbury (as Mrs. Potts), David Ogden Stiers (as Cogsworth), and Jo Anne Worley (as the wardrobe), my favorite has always been and will always be Jerry Orbach as Lumiere, romancing all the feather dusters in the place. The most enjoyable character, however, is Gaston (Richard White). (“For there’s no man in town half as manly. Perfect, a pure paragon.”)
Gaston is a great comic villain — self-involved and self-deluded, arrogant, overbearing and brutish — and he has the absolute best villain song in any Disney film ever. (“No one’s got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston.”) It’s basically braggadocio and esteem set to music.
“For there’s no one as burly and brawny.”
“As you see I’ve got biceps to spare.”
“Not a bit of him’s scraggly or scrawny. (That’s right!)”
“And ev’ry last inch of me’s covered with hair!”
In the eyes of Gaston (and his followers), there is no skill at which he doesn’t excel, be it shooting or hitting or tromping or spitting. (“I’m especially good at expectorating!”) Even skills you wouldn’t think people would admire, Gaston makes sure you know how great he is at them, like biting or eating eggs or having a thick neck. He’s even good at underhanded dealings. (“No one plots like Gaston, takes cheap shots like Gaston, plans to persecute harmless crackpots like Gaston.”) He’s like a bottomless abyss of narcissism, and it’s the greatest. He’s the best at being the worst, he really is.
I kind of hope he survived that fall.
Viable Option 