Now I can easily tell you it has been about 15 years if not more since I last have seen Beauty & The Beast, but considering the day it fits perfectly. I am resoundingly impressed by Disney on this project, I mean this was the film that pretty much birthed the Best Animated Feature award and still to this day is heavily discussed and analyzed the internet over. From shot one it is iconic so do I really have to recount the plot of this movie? I'm pretty sure even if you have lived under a rock for the subsequent 30 odd years since this movie came out you know the story, so instead I shall discuss the myriad of qualities it possesses. Absolutely fascinating this animation style, the prominent use of multi-layered backgrounds giving you that depth of vision is very unique to Disney, this honestly might be the most gothic looking of the catalogue as well especially in terms of the castle, but it effortlessly captures that classic fairy tale look and time period. Cast could not be better with many theater actors granting a strong performance for each character. Paige O'Hara is like quintessential Disney nostalgia and is as blissful as love's first kiss, and she is the reason Belle is probably the most well received and beloved of all the Princesses if not female leads in general which I can attribute to one simple aspect, she feels real. There's nothing special about her, she's just this intelligent, simple, sweet girl that makes it ridiculously easy to grasp onto and you can put yourself in her shoes and understand why she reacts and does the things she does, she is a great character. Robby Benson as the Beast, wow man! I scarcely know where to begin here, phenomenal voice no doubt, lot of depth present in his actions and certainly even more his reactions, outstanding design as well, he is the reason people delve so deep into this story and breakdown the relationship presented. Hell the way he can flip between being scary, then slightly shy, to feeling undeserving of love, then to caring is something I have yet to see elsewhere. Richard White as Gaston, absolute bastard of a man but what a great performance! Which is hilarious because seeing clips of Gaston at the parks he is so entertaining and funny, how they took this womanizing son of a bitch and made him kind of likable is a feat in and of itself, but that juxtaposition is exactly what we need for the story and sometimes it is just fun to love to hate somebody. Also just want to shoutout Angela Lansbury, because I love that woman to the moon and back and if acting royalty is a thing she can be counted upon the high echelons of that hierarchy. Onto the romance! You're not gonna believe me when I say this but I timed it, by the time Belle gets to the castle there is one hour of film left before credits. One. Hour. It should be physically and statistically impossible for them to achieve this level of romance in such a short time, but the animators know the golden rule, show don't tell. I am kinda at a loss for words truth be told on how to break this down, it is much easier to feel it than to think about it, but it works. I'd be stunned shitless if I ever met anyone who liked the human version of the beast better, I mean not to kink shame or anything but y'all are dangerously close to crossing some legal and ethical boundaries with this monster of a fella. Now am I saying that I could so very easily see a dark romance version of this story in the future? And I do fully mean like Nosferatu this bitch up? The vision is clear. Oh God what I have just created? I'm only encouraging this debauchery saying such things. We gotta go, moving swiftly on, don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain! Just for the record by the by I laugh in pure derision and uproariously at the individuals who claim this movie promotes Stockholm Syndrome, oh darling your idiocy never fails to amuse me. Wow, lost my train of thought. This got way off track, I may have gone too far in a few places. I very much enjoyed it, the appeal still holds strong, may not have went super in depth with the romance and the characters but there's only about 1.6 million videos on Youtube for that, so I'll just wrap up by saying 4 stars, 8.5/10, thank God we went out on a high note and I hope you get some real nice goodies of....various types this Valentine's Day. And just for the hell of it we're gonna keep the animated Disney train rolling next week so stick around.
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