"Tale as old as time ..."
Hello everyone!
Or, the OG as my generation knows it, at least.
This past weekend, I was playing Dreamlight Valley and working my butt off to get the two main characters from tonight's movie choice to my village. After succeeding, I felt so inspired and nostalgic that I had to pull up Disney+ just to watch the movie.
... I did then follow it with the live-action from 2017 as well, but who's counting?
In any event, make sure you have your tissues ready, that you've locked the doors from any and all silly suitors, and that you're prepared for adventure that you can't find anywhere else but in this story.
Because we're headed to an enchanted castle to meet a beast, and free him from his curse. Beauty and the Beast a la 1991, everyone!
Links to previous related posts (and there's a fair few of them, actually) can be found at the bottom of this page, as per usual!
We all know the story: a handsome, but cruel prince lived in a beautiful castle, when one night an old woman came to beg for shelter. She offered him a single red rose as payment, and when he refused her, warned him that beauty is more than outward appearances. When he refused her again, she revealed herself to be a beautiful enchantress, and because she'd seen his true nature, she cursed him to a beastly form, and placed a powerful spell on the castle.
He has until his 21st birthday to learn to love, and have someone love him in return, to turn back, otherwise he'll remain a beast forever.
Charming beginning, eh?
The cartoon then segues into the first magical number, during which we meet our heroine, who explains how she and her father moved to this quiet village, where every day is basically the same. We also get to meet Gaston, who just so happens to want to marry our girl, but she's having NONE of it, because he's vain, conceited, and doesn't read at all.
The village doesn't just make fun of her, but of her father, an inventor, as well, though Belle defends him to the best of her abilities, and when at home she helps him with his inventions, or at the very least boosts his morale.
He finally finishes his wood-chopping machine, packs it up, and heads off to the fair ... only to not listen to his horse Philippe, who knows a thing or two about which paths to pick through dark forests, and land them both in trouble.
Philippe runs off into the blue, while Maurice runs to an old castle while pursued by wolves. There, he's enchanted to meet Lumiere and Cogsworth, as well as Mrs. Potts and Chip, who try and make him feel comfortable, only for their master to shove him in a dungeon for their efforts.
Even MORE charming, I say.
Philippe, being a smart horse, runs home to Belle, and she rides to the castle post haste to try and free her father. She achieves this by offering to take his place so the Beast will set him free, despite seeing the towering menace that her captor is.
Lumiere, ever persuasive, convinces the Beast to give Belle an actual room in the castle rather than keep her in the tower cell, and then our motley crew ATTEMPTS to have their master play nice and ask her to dinner. This quickly turns into a sparring match because Belle wants nothing to do with him, and Beast has about zero patience, so of course things go south.
Later on, Belle sneaks down to the kitchens because she's hungry, and gets the performance of a lifetime because neither Lumiere nor Mrs. Potts will let this stand - equally, however, the servants try to discourage her from going to the West Wing, the only place in the castle forbidden to her.
But as this story wouldn't be a story if drama didn't happen, Belle does exactly the opposite, and then tries to touch the enchanted rose out of curiosity.
This doesn't happen, because the Beast finds her before she can, loses it completely, and frightens her off to run into the snowstorm. I'm not sure whether his servants convince him to go after her, or his conscience does, but luckily that's what happens, seeing as she's attacked by wolves as soon as she's off the castle grounds. Beast shows up to establish his territory, but gets wounded in the process, so Belle takes him back home.
Once there, they argue a little more, but he eventually gives in and lets her tend those wounds, then afterwards their actual bonding can begin, and we see him slowly lose the beastly qualities he starts the movie with (moving on all fours, almost no clothing, eating ... very badly) and remember the man he used to be, through his efforts to show Belle she has nothing to fear here.
It leads to the evening dinner date that we all know and love, where they dance the night away to the movie's title song, and he at the very least establishes Belle seems happy with him - but misses her father.
He shows her the magic mirror which will show her Maurice - who's in a bad spot, actually. After the villages didn't believe him there was a beast lurking about, he set off to find Belle on his own, and is currently lost in the middle of nowhere. Belle panics, desperate to get to him, and Beast lets her go, sending her away with the mirror so she can look back on him from time to time.
This unfortunately means the curse will probably never be broken, but at the very least he's learned to love, and Belle brings her father back home to nurse him to health (why she didn't grab him and drag him to Mrs. Potts is beyond me!).
Which is where trouble really begins.
See, Gaston hatched up a plan to have Maurice locked up in the looney bin unless Belle married him, and this beast tale is the perfect excuse, so they come to take him away. Belle, desperate to save her father, makes matters worse by showing everyone the Beast through the mirror, and Gaston turns the villagers against her and incites a riot that leads to both her and her father getting locked up, while he leads a mob to attack the castle.
Why?
People are very, very easily convinced something's bad for them, and Gaston's great at manipulation.
Belle escapes, with the help of Chip, her stove-away passenger, and the trip rush off to try and stop the attack, which is already happening in full force, as the castle residents engage the villagers and kick them out.
One is rather determined, however: Gaston, who's correctly deduced that Belle loves the Beast, will never choose him, and decided that the riot is the perfect cover-up to get rid of his rival, who's currently so upset over his turn of fate he doesn't even fight back until he sees Belle in the castle courtyard.
... at which point he stops Gaston's hit with one hand, rises to his full height, and the look on Gaston's face at what he's actually facing is PRICELESS.
But, having regained his humanity, the Beast doesn't kill him which he so easily could have, and instead sends him away, while he rushes to reunite with Belle. This is a capital mistake, as Gaston fatally stabs him moments later, and then falls off the parapets to his death. Beast gets dragged up onto the balcony by Belle, but it's too late for him, and he doesn't hear her sobbing 'I love you' because he's already gone.
She beats the clock, though, saying it JUST before the last rose petal falls, and thus reversing the curse, bringing him back to live as a human again (you gotta listen to this deleted song, by the way, because it's HILARIOUS), and their subsequent kiss reverses the entire curse placed on the castle, reuniting them all as their human selves.
The movie ends with Belle dancing with her prince, as everyone else rejoices around them that love and order have been established once more!
Ugh I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. This is my favourite Disney movie, bar none, which I got on VHS for my birthday when I was about three or four years old, and that's still my go-to comfort movie when I want something shorter than the epic saga of LOTR. It's beautiful in telling the story of how loving someone can bring out your very best traits, helping you become the most amazing version of yourself. And it's not just Belle who helps the Beast, but him who helps her, as well, both by gifting her the castle library, and simply showing her there IS more to the world than what everyone is trying to convince her there is, and she has the right to reach for it.
These two empower each other and raise each other up, and together they're amazing. If you ever have an hour and a half to spare, watch the original cartoon, please. You won't regret it.
xx
*images and video not mine
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