Even after two decades, this classic remains strong!

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2017)

What a gorgeous and unique Disney movie this is.
When an inventor is imprisoned within a cursed castle, his daughter Belle goes to rescue him. But upon doing so she is trapped herself, and slowly learns of the castle's mysteries and its prince; a man under a monstrous spell.
1991's Beauty and the Beast walked away with two Academy Awards (for Original Score and Best Original Song) as well as the Golden Globes for the same awards but also for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and for me, as much as I love 1992's Aladdin, I would say Beauty and the Beast marks the end of the classic Disney era. What do I mean by that? Everything afterwards had a distinctly angular animation style, as well as an assortment of pop culture references or contemporary humour. This film however is heavily entrenched in the fairy tale, storybook formula that Disney-of-old relished in.
The film's greatest ingredients have got to be its three primary characters: the Beast, Belle and Gaston. They have such great layering and complexity for Disney characters. Belle may be "the girl wanting more from life" but we learn early on in the film that she is no fool; she sees straight through the narcissistic showboating Gaston instantly. She even bravely rescues her father from a monster, opposes Gaston at every turn and defends those she cares about from adversity. The Beast is a fantastic mix of incredible rage, sadness and childish stubbornness and reluctance. He is a great comedic foil with his assortment of servants-turned-household objects, a scary monster with a lovable buffoon inside. While Gaston he has comedic yet surprisingly human motivations for his actions; he isn't powered by magic or gadgets, he's just a thick-skulled jock. The perfect villain for such an intelligent girl and her sensitive love interest.
The film is lovingly animated. The castle is both grand and full of foreboding, the servants are lively and charmingly designed. Who doesn't love Lumiere? In fact there's a lot of evidence of inspiration from Disney's third cinematic event in 1940, Fantasia. What with the living mops cleaning the castle to the fantastical dining song with Lumiere where plates and dinnerware fly around creating patterns and abstract motions. The film even includes one of Disney's first CGI interventions (technically The Great Mouse Detective's clock sequence was first) the ambitiously grand ballroom scene. It is all very colourful and exciting.
The songs, even for me and my lack of enthusiasm for musicals, are all enjoyable and very memorable! Even the villain's song, which often in Disney is a point of contention, is very entertaining. I can absolutely see why the Academy and others awarded the film so highly. Belle and The Beast's relationship is great too. With Belle's incarceration answering the question as to "why she doesn't run away", the two are forced to mingle and interact, making for great comedic and dramatic chemistry as the story continues.
There is one point that sticks out amongst this chemistry and excitable pacing, upon the beginning of the final act, the tone radically shifts as the plot is forced to escalate suddenly. It isn't bad, and it gives us a great climax, but it is a tremendous gearshift in pacing for a film that's only eighty- four minutes long.
Beauty and the Beast is a gorgeous film and I hate myself a little for abandoning it for over two decades. But it remains true to itself, in that I had fond memories for all those years and it has withstood the test of time.