Beauty and the Beast

Annotation for KRRR! 2022 by Tomáš Uzel

Although Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) is not the only or oldest film adaptation of the famous fairy tale, it can be safely said to be the most famous. It was the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and represents one of the peaks of the legendary film studio's work.

Although the connection between The Walt Disney Studios and animation may seem like the most obvious thing, it was not always so. In the 1960s to 1980s, the studio's focus was mainly on live-action production, and the studio management essentially lost interest in animation. However, towards the end of the 1980s, the studio's animated film experienced its "renaissance period", which mainly meant a return to the classic model. The creators took the well-known story and set it in a new world full of colors and cute singing characters. The story of Beauty and the Beast was thus transformed into a comedy musical for the whole family, a concept quite distant from its previous adaptations. The French film Beauty and the Beast (1946) by Jean Cocteau or the Czech film The Maiden and the Beast (1978) by Juraj Herz are rather mysterious, disturbing… even horror-like.

However, the mood itself is not the only thing that makes the Disney interpretation significantly different from the others. The Beast in this animated version is not a mystery, but thanks to the prologue that reveals his past and the origin of the curse, we immediately understand the reasons for his behavior, what he needs to achieve and what is at stake. This is further reinforced by the fact that the film constantly reminds us of the passing of time with the help of a magical rose and its falling petals, as if they were a ticking clock. A new character, Gaston, was also created for the film, who is the clear antagonist of the story. Gaston’s appearance corresponds to the prototype of the handsome prince, which on the one hand serves as a comparison with the Beast. On the other hand, it helps frame the heroine not only as a country girl who loves her father, but also as a courageous girl with an adventurous nature. As a girl who defies the cultural conventions of her world, she does not allow herself to be objectified and put into the role of a housewife, so to speak. As she sings, she wants “more than this small-town world”.

Details about the past of the titular beast, Gaston’s plots and the father’s efforts to save his daughter from the castle help move the film forward and motivate certain actions. Compared to previous conceptions of Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s version leans towards the standards of a Hollywood film as a clearly told and concise story in the best sense of the word. However, the film is not only a captivating narrative, but also makes full use of its animation and does not allow itself to be shackled by imitating the real world. You can enjoy the goofiness with expressive colors and shapes, in the spirit of classic slapstick comedy, with violence and fantastic musical inserts. Goofiness that a live-action film can hardly match. And that's despite the fact that it can otherwise follow the animated version almost scene for scene, as the recent live-action remake showed us.