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Beauty and the Beast (Disney Special Platinum Edition)
- Animated
- Color
- Closed-captioned
- Widescreen
- Dolby
Avg. Customer Review: 
 Pure Magic!
Bringing this classic fairy tail to life is one of the best things that Disney has ever done. Every second of this film is full to the brim with wonder and magic. More than ten years after first seeing it, there are still some scenes that make me gasp at their beauty.
The movie provides all of the usual Disney elements of gorgeous animation, skilled voice actors, awesome original songs, and non-stop entertainment, but there's something special in the mix. We get one of the most believable and heart felt romances to ever grace the animated world. As a child every time I read a picture book of this Fairy Tail I found it impossible to believe that a woman could love a beast, but Disney found a way to make it happen. You truly believe that it's possible, and feel her pain when she thinks she's lost him.
In the classic Disney fashion, Beauty and the Beast brings along a message for the kids to learn. We see the value of intelligence and compassion, learn to look beyond the superficial, and discover that love knows no boundaries.
DVD Perfection: Beauty And The Beast Is Back
On DVD, the Platinum Special Edition of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is a refreshing and aesthetic experience. The DVD comes loaded with special features- theatrical trailers, three versions of the film, soundtrack, Broadway musical and interactive games. Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991. It was Disney's most enduring classic, and one of the first to use computer generated effects which would pave the way for later films. The romantic, quasi Gothic tale revolves around a haughty prince, transformed into a hideous Beast, who must love a woman and earn her love in return. "But who could ever learn to love a beast ?." That would be Belle, the book-smart, beautiful, courageous and vibrant young heroine and one of the few Disney heroines who is not vain, vapid and helpless. Belle's father becomes imprisoned in the Beast's dungeon and Belle offers to take his place. During her stay in the Beast's castle, she becomes acquianted with the enchanted host of objects and furniture- Lumiere, the candelabra who speaks French like Maurice Chevalier, Cogsworth the uptight British clock, Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury) as the warm, motherly teapot an Chip the rambunctious tea cup. Belle saves the Beast with her love- and he is transformed into a handsome, human prince.The villain in the film is Gaston, a ruggedly handsome, but self-centered and vainglorious hunter. Gaston is determined to make Belle his trophy wife, but his machinations (including locking up her inventor father, Maurice, in an insane asylum). The special effects are computer enhanced- particularily striking is the ballroom scene. Beauty and the Beast is full of memorable and catchy songs by Alan Menken and Tim Rice- "Beauty and the Beast", "Be Our Guest" "Belle", "Gaston" "Something There" "Kill the Beast" and the never before heard song "Human again". There is no wonder why the movie was made into a popular and successful Broadway musical.
After A While One Doesn't Notice It Is Animated
It is quite rare for any animated film to be treated with the same respect as any other honored non-animated one. In BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale take the time-worn fairy tale of the outwardly loathsome beast who impossibly enough allows his inner nobility to shine forth sufficiently to cause the beauty to fall in love with him. Robby Benson is the voice of the Beast and Paige O'Hara is Beauty. Even for those readers familiar with the spoken tale or the revamped music video with Meatloaf as the Beast cannot help but allow themselves to be entranced with the seamless melding of sight to sound. The plot is simplicity itself with the Beast as the archetypal symbol of the rebirth of nobility long hidden by the evil spell of a unnamed wizard. There is nothing childish is the unfolding of the tale of Belle the Beauty who chooses to sacrifice herself in marriage to save the life of her doddering inventor father. Enter the Beast who is initially presented as the roaring brute that his tormenting wizard clearly intended him to be. Yet, as Belle ministers to his psychic wounds of self-loathing and his physical wounds incurred in defending her against a pack of wolves, the viewer can see a competing spell at work, one that is older than time itself--the power of love that the film's many songs allude to and function as as subtext that imbues it with timeless energy. There is, of course, some needed plot complications of unwanted attention heaped on Belle by the handsome but warped Gaston, who plots to snare Belle in marriage as firmly as he would stalk a reindeer for its antlers. As Gaston leads the villagers in an assault on the Beast's manor, one is reminded in reverse of the cliched villagers pounding at the walls of Doctor Frankenstein's castle, but in this case the attack in presented in comic tones that keep the real world of harm at bay. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has no down moments, with each fresh plot advancement heralded by stunningly effective animation and song. This film was a deserved nominee for Best Picture in 1991, and with repeated viewings, one may rest assured that the alternately gloomy and resplendent halls of the Beast will eternally resonate with the same cachet that gives Tara, Oz, or Rick's Cafe a ticket that allows the bearer to see just how awesome the human spirit can be.
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