Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Beauty and the Beast (2017)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

I always say it’s a little unfair to review a remake when you watch it close in time to the original.  With that in mind I don’t want to do a full review of the live action Beauty and the Beast.  The movie wasn't bad but and under different circumstances I think I might have enjoyed it more.  But with things as they are I’m just going to point out a few things in the live action version that made me realize how great the animated version really is. 

For me there are two scenes in the live action version that just feel like poor imitations of the same scenes in the animated version.  The two scenes are the Be Our Guest scene and the fight scene at the end where the objects are fighting the townsfolk. In the animated film the Be Our Guest scene is fun, bright, and a bit trippy.  The live action version just feels dull in comparison.  Some of that could be because Ewan McGregor has an awful French accent and his singing isn’t that great.  But I think the special effects just didn’t capture the fun and mesmerizing quality that the animated version had.  See for yourself here https://youtu.be/Fub_t22bK1w . Another problem is that trying to make a singing candlestick look realistic just doesn’t work.  Which is the major problem with the battle scene at the end. Trying to have a realistic looking objects fight in unrealistic ways really confuses the brain. While there are some funny bits in the fight scenes most of the time you are just looking like WTF? How can a clock throw books? How can a harpsichord shoot out his keys? How can a tea pot hang on a chandelier? Having the film fully animated helps with the suspension of disbelief.  And some of the objects just look awful.  For me the most worst looking object is the wardrobe.  Not sure what they were going for but it just comes off as kind of disturbing.  

A few quick things that also didn’t work well in the live action version.  

-Lumière and Cogsworth have a better friendship in animation. The banter in the animated version just works better. 

-Not sure why Disney feels everyone needs a backstory in the live action remake but some of it feels unnecessary and makes the film feel bloated.  Also the backstory about Belle’s mother dying  of the plague gave my kid nightmares. 

-New songs are fine but didn’t add much. 

For an interesting look at remakes check out this video from Cracked https://fb.watch/3a7maY_qix/

Overall:

I don’t want to bash the film.  Besides for Ewan McGregor the acting was fine.  Josh Gad as LeFou is probably the best casting in the film.  Also, the movie does give LeFou a bit more depth and an arc which is kind of cool.  I would like to revisit the film after more time has passed since I watched the animated version.  

Disney Movie Challenge: Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Disney Movie Challenge

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

After a little hiatus I am back with more Disney Films.  Starting off the second half of the Disney Canon is one of their most beloved and lauded films Beauty and the Beast.  Hard to know where to start writing about this one.  So much has been said, not sure I can offer any new insight to the film.  I could go the cynical way and talk about how the movie is a bizarre story about Stockholm Syndrome and bestiality but the world is so dark right now and I don't want to go down that road.  So, I will just start by saying when everything comes together just right Disney can make truly great films and this is the kind of movie Disney was born to make.     

 What’s the film about? Well it’s a tale as old as time of course.  A girl, Belle, dreams of leaving a small town and wants adventure.  When her dad gets captured by a beast, Belle agrees to become a prisoner in his enchanted castle so her dad can be free.  Inside the enchanted castle lives things that were once human but now live as common household items including a candelabra, a clock, and a teapot.   The curse over the castle will only be lifted if the Beast can make Belle fall in love with him, but can he control his temper enough to show his true feelings? Of course he can, this is a happy ever after film.  

Beauty and the Beast had been a property that Disney wanted to turn into a film since the 30’s but never had a story they liked.  After the success of The Little Mermaid they decided to go all in on the film.  At first it was not going to be a musical but eventually Jeffrey Katzenberg brought in the Oscar winning duo Howard Ashman and Alan Menken to change that.  Ashman was so instrumental in the story telling of the film he was given a producer credit.  Once Ashman and Menken were brought in it was decided that the film would be written like a Broadway musical with long (5-6 minutes) musical numbers integral to the plot.  Merging animation with Broadway turned out to be a perfect match.  

After the success of using CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) on The Rescuers Down Under they brought it back for Beauty and the Beast and tried to push it further. Scenes like the “Be Our Guest” number look amazing and I feel like it really shows off what CAPS can add to a scene.  CAPS also helps with the integration of CGI.  The ballroom scene had all CGI animation integrated with traditional animation of Belle and the Beast.  While they had planned to use CGI for other scenes (like Beast's transformation) the rushed timeline didn’t allow it.  

On top of the great music and great looking animation Disney has assembled a great cast.  Since the movie was being made like a Broadway show they cast actors with stage experience that could bring that to the film.  And everyone works perfectly.  I didn’t realize that Jerry Orbach was the voice of Lumière till last year.  Who knew Lennie Briscoe could sing and with a French accent? There was something special about the way Lumière and Cogsworth interacted and that antagonistic friendship worked so well because of chemistry between Jerry Orbach and David Ogden Stiers.  

Last thing I want to mention is how important The Beast is to the story.  Obviously he is in the title so he will play a pivotal role but it’s truly unique for a Disney Princess movie.  Prior to this the princes in these films had barely anything to do.  The princes in Snow White and Cinderella did nothing in their films.  Prince in Sleeping Beauty at least had something to do but wasn’t in the story till the end.  While we don’t know much about the Beast’s backstory (we don’t even know his name) we get enough to get to know him as much as we get to know Belle.  

Overall: 

I went into this movie thinking it was overrated.  The first time I saw it was when I was 14 so just thought it was some girly kids movie and never gave it much attention.  But this viewing convinced me there is more to this movie than I initially thought.  It truly is a timeless classic.  And while “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” get a lot of the accolades I feel like “Belle” and “The Mob Song” are very underrated gems.  

Random Facts

First Animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture (only one to be nominated when there were only 5 nominees and before a Best Animated Feature category was added).

Third highest grossing film of 1991 behind Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  

A work in progress version was shown at the New York Film Festival in September of 1991.  It is the first and only time Disney showed an unfinished version of one of their films.  

First time one of Disney’s songs had an alternate “pop” version released as a single.  Beauty and the Beast was released as a duet between Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. The story behind the pop version is an interesting one. Disney didn’t want to pay a well known pop singer to do it so they got relatively unknown (at least in the U.S.) Celine Dion. Dion didn’t want to do it because a song she recorded for a different animated film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was just cut from the film.  But, also Disney didn’t trust Celine to make the song a hit so they got Peabo Bryson who was relatively known at the time to sing with her.  Of course in 6 years Celine Dion would have one of the largest hits ever from a film soundtrack and hardly anyone remembers who Peabo Bryson is.  

Ian McKellen was considered for the role of Cogsworth but passed.  He got to play Cogsworth in the 2017 live action version.  

Released the same day as An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Howard (2020)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Howard (2020)

I hate to say it that I had no idea who Howard Ashman was before I watched this documentary.  The fact that he was so integral to the Disney Renaissance and yet was only a part of it for such a small amount of time says a lot about how important he was.  When Disney first announced that the film was coming to Disney+ and I saw it was about a songwriter for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast I figured it would be a good Bonus post but didn’t think it would be that interesting.  Turns out it was very interesting and I learned a lot.  It also makes me sad that he is gone as I would have loved to see what else he would have written.  

So who was Howard Ashman? He was an up and coming songwriter in New York.  Before joining Disney he mostly worked on off Broadway plays.  He became Artistic Director of the WPA theatre in New York where a number of his plays were performed.  It was there he met up with composer Alan Menken who would become his most famous collaborator.  Ashman and Menken would go on to write the off Broadway play Little Shop of Horrors which would later become a movie.  It was after the success (and first Oscar nomination) of Little Shop of Horrors that Jeffrey Katzenberg contacted him to write a song for Oliver and Company.  Katzenberg then asked him to join the production of The Little Mermaid.  It was there that Ashman and Menken would go on to change Disney’s future.  After winning a couple of Oscars for The Little Mermaid they returned to Disney and helped turn Beauty and the Beast into one of the most beloved movie musicals and started working on songs for Aladdin.  

The movie delves into Ashman’s personal stories also.  From his time growing up telling stories with his siblings, to his early career in New York City, to his sometimes tumultuous relationships.  The story takes a tragic turn when he is diagnosed with AIDS.   As a gay man in New York City he had already lost friends to the disease and it was a devastating diagnoses to get as his career was starting to take off.  The disease proceeded quickly while he was working on The Little Mermaid. Fearful that Disney would not want word to get out that they had a gay man writing songs for their animated films aimed a children he tried to keep it a secret.  It wasn’t till after they had won Oscars that he told Alan Menken. When Jeffrey Katzenberg asked him to do Beauty and the Beast he was honest with him and told him he didn’t have the stamina to come to California. Katzenberg then had the animation team bring storyboards and animations to New York for him to review.  No one on the animation team knew the true reason that Ashman wouldn’t fly to California.  Also during this time Ashman and Menken were working on music for Aladdin which was Ashman’s passion project.  Ashman died shortly before the release of Beauty and the Beast.  He won a posthumous Oscar for the title song from the film.  The award was accepted by his long time partner.    

The movie is told in an interesting way.  It uses family, friends, colleagues telling his story but none of them are featured on screen.  Everything on screen is archive footage.  We get to see Ashman and those around him in action.  It’s a story told out of love and appreciation.  It’s not trying to uncover any dark secrets. There are no giant reveals that are meant to show him in a negative light.  At times it can be a bit surface level but it’s really all we need. It’s a story about how people remember him. It has his successes and his faults and that just leaves you feeling sad that we never got to hear all the stories he had to tell.  

Overall: The movie is an insightful look at a person I knew very little about.  I’m glad to have learned about him and how much influence he had on the Disney Renaissance.  Having the people talking over archived footage can seem disjointed at times but for the most part it works. While it’s not a very hard hitting film and I probably would have been underwhelmed if I saw it in the theatre I think it’s worth checking out on Disney+

Random Facts

After launching his career with Howard Ashman Alan Menken would go on to win a total of 8 Oscars over the years and currently holds the record for most wins by a living person. He also achieved EGOT status by also winning an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony.  

Director Don Hahn also directed a film about the beginning of the Disney Renaissance called Waking Sleeping Beauty.  I have not seen it but is now on my must watch list.