Perfection (almost)

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 2015)

This is one of the great animated feature films of all time plain and simple. To say that it is anything short of great would be an insult.
Winning two Oscars and being nominated for four others (including being nominated for best picture), this film truly broke the bounds of what animation can really do and put Disney on the map as a production company not only for kids but for all audiences.
The music is fantastic, some of the best I've ever heard. All of the songs succeed in not only being catchy and whimsical but also with developing the plot and furthering the development of both the characters and the story. The songs run through different genres of tune and pitch while still maintaining a central sound and general feel.
The characters are also some of Disney's best. Belle will always be my favorite Disney princess, she has too many good qualities to not be. Her character, despite her name being the French word for beauty, isn't focused around her looks entirely, instead focusing more so on her existential feelings of just wanting to find something greater than herself. This along with Paige O'Hara's terrific job as the voice, bringing the character to life and performing excellently in all of her musical numbers. The Beast, voiced by Robby Benson, is wonderful too in his journey that takes him to understand compassion which is done beautifully. Gaston, voiced by Opera singer Richard White, is fantastic as the movie's villain. Normally in any other Disney movie Gaston would play the part of the dashing handsome man who woos the heart of the main heroin, but this movie takes a delightful twist that may be painfully obvious to some, but to me is wonderful nonetheless. The supporting cast is great too. Legends like Jerry Orbach(Lumiere), Angela Lansbury(Mrs. Potts), and David Ogden Stiers(Cogsworth) add their talents to the film and just make it all the more grand.
The animation is also so wonderful. The town looks great, the castle looks great, the woods look great, the people, the animals and everything else just looks beautiful and still can manage to take my breath away.
Now with all of my seemingly endless praise for the film out of the way I have to address the films one flaw. The one thing holding this film back from being perfect is one thing that I absolutely can't stand. The ending.
For those that haven't seen the film please don't read the rest of this review.
The ending scene where the beast turns human just could've been done better. If the movie had ended the same way as Shrek (another great movie) and the beast would've stayed a monster, the movie would've been so much stronger. The whole movie is trying to convey a message of "beauty isn't skin deep" and all that jazz but if this is what they are trying to convey, then why does the beast have to become handsome for there to be a happy ever after? Wasn't the fact that a beautiful young woman could fall in love with a giant hairy monster the driving emphasis behind the whole freaking movie?
But in conclusion, this movie is wonderful. I would without a doubt recommend checking it out and seeing for yourself what a great piece of animation this really is.