Animated Magic: Why Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Shines on Valentine’s Day

in Disney, Movies

Belle and the Beast inlove

Credit: Disney

Although mediums, audiences, and tastes have changed over the years, Disney is still responsible for some of the most romantic movies in cinematic history. In the studio’s century-long existence, one animated masterpiece remains the studio’s perfect love story. A tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast (1991).

beauty-and-the-beast-lumiere
Credit: Disney

The Walt Disney Company built its foundation on fairytales and fantasy, but very few have reached the acclaim of the original animated Beauty and the Beast. Not only did the studio adapt the classic story for a modern audience, but it also reinvented many of its own established tropes.

Related: Disney Animation Is Trying Too Hard, Needs to Tone It Down

As much as Disney relies on far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, and princes/princesses in disguise, this jewel of the Disney Renaissance continues to be the gold standard for many works that follow, in and out of the House of Mouse.

Why Beauty and the Beast Is Still Disney’s Perfect Love Story

Belle and Beast dance during ballroom scene
Credit: Disney

Disney is no stranger to iconic romances, and what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day or any regular date night than with this transformative tale? It’s true that the studio has crafted several heartfelt stories from Cinderella (1950) to Elemental (2023), but Beauty and the Beast has had such a cultural impact on both the genre and Disney’s fairytale narrative that it remains untouchable even to this day.

Related: Voice of Belle, Paige O’Hara, Reads a Disney Princess Bedtime Story!

Disney’s version of the story has been adapted for film, the Broadway stage, and a live-action remake, but the influence of the animated version can still be felt across multiple retellings of the original tale. The question is, why has it still been the gold standard even after over thirty years?

Walt Disney Helped Make It Happen

Walt Disney in front of the Griffith park Merry-Go-Round that inspired Disneyland
Credit: FindingWalt.com

Along with being one of the most iconic fairytales in literature, the Beauty and the Beast narrative was also one of the original animated fairytales Walt Disney tried to get off the ground after the success of Snow White (1937) and Pinocchio (1940). As described in Disney’s “Making Of” featurette on the film, Walt laid the foundations, but the Disney artists in the late ’80s and early ’90s “completed the second act.”

Related: Moana Teams up With Belle, The Incredibles in New Disney Project

As demonstrated by iconic films like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp, Walt and his team knew how to tell a great love story. Of course, it’s also beneficial when said inspiration helped influence other titans of the genre like Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

It should also be noted that the 1991 film also brought together many of Disney’s best and brightest at the time. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, the film’s story team included some of Disney’s biggest creators like Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch), Don Hahn (The Lion King) and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, and Maleficent), as well as original Disney artist Joe Grant who all came together to finish what Walt began.

Reworking the Disneyfied Fairytale

Snow White's true love's kiss
Credit: Disney

As much as Disney did in bringing such iconic stories to life, they were also responsible for creating a certain stereotype surrounding films in that genre. Pretty princesses, dashing heroes, over-the-top villains, and happy endings where someone gets kissed are all roads that lead to the Disney fairytale, but Beauty and the Beast greatly undid that stereotype while still keeping the core narrative of the original tale.

Producer Don Hahn stated,

“Sometimes we say “The secret to Disney Animation is story, story, story” and I think it’s actually character, character, character… You want to create characters who are compelling and whose story you want to follow.”

Image of the Beast covered in birds
Credit: Disney

By that logic, the film is a major success as it reimagines the traditional Disney princess narrative by putting both characters in the protagonist role, whereas past films like Snow White and Cinderella render the prince as an afterthought and focus primarily on the feminine lead.

Related: Disney+ Reveals Plans for Violent New R-Rated Series

At its core, the film is a transformative story where both characters go through significant development, inside and out. It’s not just about Belle loving the Beast to break the spell, it’s also about the Beast softening his heart and rediscovering his humanity.

Belle (Paige O'Hara) and Beast (Robby Benson) in 'Beauty and the Beast'
Credit: Disney

On the other side of the coin, Belle has to learn how to love the Beast just as much as he has to learn how to love her and others around him. It’s one of the very few Disney productions in which both love interests have a more realistic approach to their relationship as they grow closer as the film progresses.

Disney animator Vera Lanpher shared,

“The whole goal with Belle was not to make her the most beautiful animated character ever done by Disney studios, it was to make her have heart and soul in her eyes… to make her as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside.”

Without her loving and selfless personality, nothing would be able to separate Belle from the rest of Disney’s princess lineup, just as the absence of the Beast’s soulful element would render him nothing more than the monster he appears to be.

It Breaks the Mold of Romanticized Ideals

Cinderella gets her dress in the animated film
Credit: D23

While many are quick to label the relationship between Belle and her Beast as Stockholm syndrome or some other form of nonconsensual arrangement, they completely miss the point of the story. Belle gives herself over to the Beast’s clutches to save her father’s life as an act of love, and it’s through that act of love that she begins to wear down the Beast’s monstrous nature.

As stated previously, both characters learn to love each other without the aid of fairy godmothers, enchanted spinning wheels, or even the Disney standard of True Love’s First Kiss. It’s Belle’s “I love you” line that undoes the curse; there is no other magic apart from that of the heart.

Related: The Best Disney Princesses Are Teaming Up in New Disney+ Special

While that might sound incredibly sentimental, it has much more to do with real relationships than most might think. Belle and the Beast establish their romance through acts of selflessness and sacrifices during their journeys of personal growth.

As Belle undoes the Beast’s monstrous nature, the Beast learns to be kind, patient, and gentle as the two begin to share their world. How many other Disney movies can say their romantic leads practically spend a year or more learning about each other before their iconic romantic sequence?

It’s Walt Disney Animation At Its Finest

Animated version of 'Beauty and the Beast' ballroom scene
Credit: Disney

The story is timeless, and the romance is realistic and relatable, but the magic that truly has audiences spellbound even after all this time is the music and the art direction. Walt Disney Animation Studio has always been the spearhead of the industry, but many fans would argue that few animated features are as beautiful as Beauty and the Beast.

The production had some of the best in the business, including Disney Legends and icons like Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, and James Baxter behind the pens and brushes. Needless to say, the results speak for themselves.

howard ashman over belle singing to sheep in beauty and the beast
Credit: Edited by Inside the Magic

Of course, we can’t talk about this film without mentioning the incredible contributions of Howard Ashman. Ashman was pivotal in the days of the Disney Renaissance, composing multiple Oscar-winning songs and soundtracks for the Walt Disney Company.

Related: Disney Is Remaking ‘Beauty & the Beast’ Once Again

The Disney+ documentary Howard (2018) goes into much more detail on how the composer shaped many of the studio’s finest films, but Disney director Bill Condon shared just how essential he was to Beauty and the Beast, as well as how personal his final performance with Disney was when he told Vanity Fair,

“It was his idea, not only to make it into a musical but also to make Beast one of the two central characters. Until then, it had mostly been Belle’s story that they had been telling. Specifically for him, it was a metaphor for AIDS. He was cursed, and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him, and maybe there was a chance for a miracle—and a way for the curse to be lifted. It was a very concrete thing that he was doing.”

Although Ashman never got to see the reception, legacy, and cultural impact the film had on audiences everywhere, Beauty and the Beast remains a testament to his abilities and understanding of the musical medium. After all, he was the one who “gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul.”

Beauty and the Beast Through a Modern Lens

Gaston strokes his chin and stares at his reflection in the mirror
Credit: Disney

Even with the film’s stellar reputation and glowing reception, there is still a lot to unpack, even all these years later. It’s a film that dives into gender roles, toxic masculinity, prejudices, and the complexities of relationships through the magic of Disney.

Related: The Disney Channel’s Best In-Universe Songs, Ranked

The critical element that has yet to change is the message of true love that overcomes struggles and conflict and encourages personal and emotional growth from both parties involved. Not all of us are going to sprout fur, horns, and a tail, but we can all learn to love our peers and significant others for the people they are on the inside instead of the creatures they are on the outside.

Will you spend Valentine’s Day with this tale as old as time? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!

 

in Disney, Movies

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