As a lifelong "Disneyphile", when I try to choose my favorite it's a struggle between "Beauty" and "Snow White" for animation ... with "Mary Poppins" also a strong contender. I love this film. This is an eloquent film ... and there's so much here. The late lamented Howard Ashman ("Little Shop of Horrors" as well as "Little Mermaid" and other works) put a great deal of his personal stamp on the characters and storytelling of this picture, and all the animators agree helped make it great. The dedication at film's end reads: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul." Worth remembering that Ashman's life-partner paid tribute to him when he accepted the posthumous oscar. I can't help but feel that the complexity of the Beast, the ego/beautiful surface turned evil of Gaston, and the intelligence that can see beneath surfaces to realities of Belle (not to mention the blind prejudice/fear against the "different" of the villagers) gained much of its power and durability of Ashman's own gay identity and struggle with AIDS. For those who haven't seen "Beauty" lately ... you may be in for a revelation. (not to mention the humor from the couple that don't seem to know they're a couple ... Lumiere and Cogsworth!)
As a lifelong "Disneyphile", when I try to choose my favorite it's a struggle between "Beauty" and "Snow White" for animation ... with "Mary Poppins" also a strong contender. I love this film. This is an eloquent film ... and there's so much here. The late lamented Howard Ashman ("Little Shop of Horrors" as well as "Little Mermaid" and other works) put a great deal of his personal stamp on the characters and storytelling of this picture, and all the animators agree helped make it great. The dedication at film's end reads: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul." Worth remembering that Ashman's life-partner paid tribute to him when he accepted the posthumous oscar. I can't help but feel that the complexity of the Beast, the ego/beautiful surface turned evil of Gaston, and the intelligence that can see beneath surfaces to realities of Belle (not to mention the blind prejudice/fear against the "different" of the villagers) gained much of its power and durability of Ashman's own gay identity and struggle with AIDS. For those who haven't seen "Beauty" lately ... you may be in for a revelation. (not to mention the humor from the couple that don't seem to know they're a couple ... Lumiere and Cogsworth!)
ReplyDelete... also ... for an alternate take on the French original: Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bette" is a poetic masterpiece.
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