Friday 20 April 2012

Tale As Old As Time


4 comments:

aris.cs said...

Well, there is no other way of putting it, this is Disney's best film ever, and perhaps the best animated film of all time. Great choice! :)

I always loved it because of its stunning narrative; for instance the opening sequence introducing Belle, her politics and her context, as well as key characters and the film's villain, in a single narrative stroke. Great work by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (direction), Linda Woolverton (screenplay), and Alan Menkel and Howard Ashmam (music and lyrics).

But the film's politics were equally if not more important; the welcome, and long overdue, arrival of a strong and independent female character in Belle; the subversive take on gender stereotypes in terms of representing the villain as a conventional male figure; and the references to fascism, when the latter manipulates the townspeople to attack the castle.

And this dance, the film's visual centerpiece, has stood the test of time so well, to say the least...

Anonymous said...

Yes,I appreciate in this film all
the things you mention above and
also the message that all the kind
beasts deserve to be loved and that
true beauty lies within.
elastigirl

black symphony said...

@aris.cs

Beauty and The Beast is the only animated film that's been nominated for Best Picture in the Academy Awards. This fact only reveals the magnitude and the greatness of this film. The original score, the songs, the screenplay, the characters as well as the gender politics you mention are all so beautifully studied and presented. It definitely is one of Disney's masterpiece.

black symphony said...

@elastigirl

It's an ode to the acceptance of the different. We should never judge a book by its cover as beauty lies within us and everybody should be given a chance to reveal that beauty. Just like Belle gave that chance to the Beast.