New dimension for Belle and Beast
Disney’s march toward re-releasing its animated library in three dimensions resumes this week with Beauty and the Beast 3-D, a wonderful film that deserves to be seen again on the big screen. Whether it’s worth the few extra dollars for the third dimension depends on your need to see it with stereoscopic snowflakes.
It follows the successful remounting of The Lion King in 3-D, and comes ahead of 3-D versions of Finding Nemo (coming in September), Monsters Inc. (next June) and The Little Mermaid (September 2013). The mythic world here — the dark forest, the enchanted castle — is richer and fuller when seen through the special glasses. It’s also probably unnecessary: Beauty and the Beast, which was released in 1991, was a landmark, the first animated movie ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It stands up very well in two dimensions.
It tells the story of a handsome prince who is turned into a raging beast (voiced by Robby Benson) who can be restored to his original form only if he finds true love. She comes along in the person of Belle (Paige O’hara), a beautiful bookworm from a nearby village.
The fairy tale was the basis of a tender and poetic 1946 movie by Jean Cocteau, La belle et la bete. The Disney version sacrifices poetry for playfulness: talking teapots, an ambulatory clock, a romantic candlestick whose insouciance pays tribute to Maurice Chevalier. Still, it remains a treat, one enriched by a short film (or early trailer?) called
Tangled Ever After, a hilarious story of mayhem at the wedding of Rapunzel and Eugene. It doesn’t have Beauty and
the Beast’s great score, but it gets more laughs and it highlights the advances in computer animation.