A Tale As Old As Time But Never Gets Old

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2012)

Much like Lion King, Disney is releasing another of their traditionally animated films to the 3D big screen. Three guesses which one. Anyway, I figured this was as good a time as any to give this a review.
Beauty and the Beast is a tale of a beautiful woman who meets a horrible beast and changes his attitude for the better. Simple, but Disney takes this tale to new heights. First of all, Belle(the beauty) is a very pretty young woman but is seen as an outcast in her village because she doesn't put out like the other girls and rather prefers to spend her time reading books. The most popular man in the village, Gaston, wants to marry Belle because he considers himself the most beautiful creature to ever enter the Earth and Belle to be as beautiful as him. But Belle can't stand him and keeps refusing his attempts at courtship.
The plot really kicks off when Belle's eccentric father, Maurice, travels to a fair to show off his new invention. He get's lost along the way and is chased by a pack of wolves to a mysterious castle. There he finds that the household objects are all enchanted. There's Cogsworth(a clock), Lumiere(a candlestick), Mrs. Potts(A teapot) you get the gist. The master of the castle however, is a beast with a serious attitude problem. He locks Maurice in his dungeon and a few days later Belle finds the castle while looking for him. Belle opts to take Maurice's place as Beast's prisoner.
What follows is the typical romance formula of two people who can't stand each other at first but slowly come to care and love for one another. Only this is one of those times where it's done perfectly. First of all they don't start really building a relationship until Belle chews Beast out on his temper and Beast saves Belle from a pack of wolves when she tries to leave. You start to see Beast's attitude really change for the better. He starts wearing better clothes, his voice becomes softer even his animation seems a little lighter.
Near the end of the film Belle leaves to attend her sick father and Gaston finds out about the Beast and Belle's feelings toward him. He leads an assault on his castle which leads to an entertaining climax with the enchanted objects and a pretty intense fight between Beast and Gaston.
This movie is great. The animation is great, the characters are well written, everything is great. And I don't think I have to mention the songs. I'm sure we're all familiar with "Be Our Guest" or "Beauty and the Beast" and they're great every time I hear them. Much like Lion King the only bad thing about the movie comes from an edit in the special edition. "Human Again" was designed for the original release but was cut probably for time purposes. It saw the light of day on Broadway and was added to the ten year anniversary edition in 2002. Well it's not a terrible song but it does interrupt the flow of the film.
I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone of all ages. I'll probably go see it when it hits the big screen and I suggest you do the same.