Extraordinary animated musical

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2017)

Disney's Academy Award nominated film, Beauty in the Beast tells the tale of a selfish prince and bookworm who form a relationship after the beastly prince (Robby Benson) captures Belle (Paige O'Hara). After a quick prologue on the background on how the prince was cursed to look like a beast, we are introduced to Belle who proclaims her love of books and her boredom with the provincial town she lives in. Bell is courted by a rude hunter Gaston (Richard White) who depends on his companion Lefou (Jesse Corti) for periodic confidence boosts. Belle's father Maurice (Rex Everhart) is an inventor who is excited to premiere his new woodchopping device at the festival but on his way, he becomes lost and stumbles into a dark wood where wolves attack him. Fleeing the wolves, he pushes into an enchanted caster where at first, he is a welcome guest by the enchanted objects until the Beast shows up angry and imprisons him.
Meanwhile, Belle fends off a marriage proposal from Gaston and worries for her father when his horse Phillipe returns without him. Concerned, Belle sets out on Phillipe's back to find her father leading her back to the castle. She comes inside and is spotted by Lumiere (Jerry Orbach) and Cogsworth (David Ogden Stiers), a candlestick and a clock. The two items follow her as she discovers her father locked up and is accosted by the Beast. Seeing that her father is sick, she trades places with him and is imprisoned herself. Maurice flees the enchanted castle and rushes back to the pub where he tries to explain the situation to an incredulous Gaston and skeptical townspeople who throw him out.
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