|
 Movie A+ |
Video A- | Audio A
| Extras A+ | Recommended!
voice talents of Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson,
Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Rex Everhart, Angela
Lansbury, and Bradley Michael Pierce
director Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
Walt Disney (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
1991 | Disney Animation - Fairy Tale | G | 90 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
| THX-certified
anamorphic
widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio |
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Beauty and the Beast is
Disney's adaptation of the classic fairy tale that is "a tale as old
as time" with versions spanning many different cultures. Belle
is a fair maiden who is the daughter of an inventor. Unlike many
other young women in her provincial town, she dreams of far away places,
daring adventures, and fairy-tale romances. She wants more than what
this provincial town can offer. Her life takes an unexpected turn
when her father loses his way to a inventor's fair and is imprisoned by a
monstrous Beast. The Beast was actually once a young human prince,
who was transformed into this hideous form when he turned away an
enchantress when she appeared as an old hag asking for shelter at his
lavish castle. All of his subjects were turned into enchanted
objects in the castle. These included Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs.
Potts, and Chip, an enchanted candlestick, clock, tea pot, and tea cup who
were once butlers, the head maid, and a young boy, respectively.
When Belle stumbles onto
her imprisoned father at the Beast's castle, she offered to trade places
with him, for her father's freedom. The Beast quickly agreed.
Though Belle and the Beast were off to a rough start, Belle's beautiful
personality, charm, and intellect gradually and magically transform the
bitter and lonesome Beast into someone who learns to love and care for
another again. But will Beauty return the Beast's love before the
enchantress' spell becomes forever irreversible?
This beautiful piece of
Disney full-length feature animation has got to be one of the best works
to ever come out of Disney Feature Animation. And that's saying a
lot! It's a stunningly awesome combination of animation magic,
beautiful songs and score, character development, and story telling.
I think it's up there with Snow White,
Sleeping Beauty, and The Lion King. This DVD offers
three versions of the film: the Original Theatrical version as debuted in
December 1991, the Work-In-Progress edition that was shown at the 1991 New
York Film Festival prior to its theatrical release to the public, and the
Special Edition version that was released in 2001 to Imax™ and other
large format theaters which includes the newly incorporated musical
sequence and song entitled "Human Again". The DVD defaults
to the Special Edition version, but you can select from among the three
choices by going to the "Bonus Material" menu (a rather odd
place to put this).
The picture quality is
restored to its original brilliance and clarity, and a THX-certified
transfer process ensures the best possible picture and audio quality was
achieved. How does it look and sound? The picture quality is
very good, but not exceptional and not quite the best I've seen from
Disney using the THX-certified process. There were occasional
digital compression artifacts. I think this is partly due to
Disney's decision to squeeze three versions of a 90-minute film on the
first disc. The sound is also very good thanks to an excellent sound
design and re-mastering to 5.1-channel surround
sound. The audio quality is much closer to what I had expected
from the THX process.
How good is this two-disc
Platinum Edition release? It's rich in bonus materials that would
satisfy most Disney film addicts. Taken by itself, the amount of
stand-alone bonus features is already bountiful. Then throw in three
versions of this film. This Beauty and the Beast Platinum
Edition is at least the equal of the last year's Snow
White Platinum Edition DVD.
I strongly recommend it. It's a Disney masterpiece and is a
monstrous entertainment value. Even if you only buy a handful of
DVDs a year, make this Platinum Edition one of them. It's virtually
guaranteed to be a gem in your collection.
Special Features:
Disc 1 contains three versions of the film
(defaulting to the Special Edition of the film) and an introduction to the
"Break the Spell" game (you'll need to do this part first get
the secret password for the door which unlocks the main part of the game
on disc 2).
Disc 2 offers four major areas. The
first section is "Cogsworth and Lumiere's Library" which
features "Origins of Beauty and the Beast",
"Development", "Story", "Music", "The
Characters", "Production Design", "Animation",
"Tricks of the Trade", "Release and Reaction", and
"The Broadway Musical" featurettes. Second is "Chip's
Fun and Games" section with "Disney's Animation Magic",
"Chip's Musical Challenge Game", and an all-new Beauty and
the Beast music video performed by Jump 5. Third is
"Mrs. Pott's Engaging Treats" which includes "The Making of
Beauty and the Beast", "The Story Behind The Story",
"Mrs. Potts Personality Profile Game" (quite interesting!), and
"Beauty and the Beast" music video performed by Celine Dion and
Peabo Bryson. The last section is "The Secret West Wing"
which basically features the main part of the "Break The Spell"
adventure game (you'll need to do this game's introduction on disc 1 first
to get the secret password to unlock the game on disc 2).
Finally, there is a 16-page guidebook, with a fold
out navigational menu of the bountiful bonus materials.
DVD released on 10/8/2002 | Reviewed 10/6/2002
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Editor@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
