The Disney Year: You can’t say no to “Beauty and the Beast”

Nathan Tucker, A&E Editor
December 5, 2015

The output of Walt Disney Animation Studios–currently totaling 54 full-length films–has been cherished by audiences young and old for almost 80 years. In this weekly online feature, arts and entertainment editor Nathan Tucker will review and rank each of them.

With Beauty and the Beast, the Disney Renaissance hinted at in The Little Mermaid blossoms into full bloom like a rose. Maintaining the confidence on display in Mermaid, Beauty gives it a steadier hand, a stronger focus. That it garnered an Oscar nod for Best Picture–a first for the animation medium–is fitting: it is exactly the brand of elegant craft that statuette rewards.

In the classic musical fashion it aspires towards, Beauty and the Beast features deft and gleaming characterization. Despite being an unfortunate prototype for the YA lit “I’m Not Like Other Girls” heroine, Belle remains both sympathetic and engaging. That is largely a result of Paige O’Hara’s performance, which lend her an awareness and maturity severely lacking in former princesses. She is ably matched by Robby Benson’s Beast, who walks a fine line between booming menace and gentle puppy dog. The supporting cast is equally aplomb and they deliver the broad strokes of the script with a ready charm and humor.

There is a general criticism that the story of Beauty and the Beast centers on an abusive relationship, that Belle gives into a sort of Stockholm Syndrome by marrying the monster that kidnapped her. While that is a valid reaction to the original fairy tale, this retelling goes out of its way to avoid this exact tonal fiasco. The almost fretful plotting makes it abundantly clear that the Beast, not Belle, has been induced to change their central character; furthermore, the boorish advances of Gaston (both towards Belle and against the Beast) are an effective foil showing what the Beast would be if he were indeed the monster critics claim.

As with Mermaid, the film is anchored by a marvelous Menken/Ashman book of concise and catchy songs. They are smart and they work: any attempt to further analyze the rapid-fire stage-setting of “Belle,” the smirking character work in “Gaston,” the Busby Berkeley bonanza “Be Our Guest,” or the archetypal title ballad is spelling out the obvious.

And that is largely how Beauty and the Beast feels: deliciously obvious. This was the right way to set up that plot, that was the correct line to lead into that musical number–it’s not rocket science. Just an elaborately polished animated musical extravaganza that makes the hard work of storytelling look easy.

The List: