Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical-fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period, the film is based on the fairy tale La Belle et la Bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont[3] and uses some ideas from the 1946 film of the same name.[4] The film centers around a prince who is transformed into a Beast and a young woman named Belle whom he imprisons in his castle. To become a prince again, the Beast must love Belle and win her love in return, or he will remain a Beast forever.

The film’s animation screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton with story written by Roger Allers, Brenda Chapman, Chris Sanders, Burny Mattinson, Kevin Harkey, Brian Pimental, Bruce Woodside, Joe Ranft, Tom Ellery, Kelly Ashbury, and Robert Lence, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn. The music of the film was composed by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, both of whom had written the music and songs for Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

Plot
An enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman offers a young prince a rose in exchange for a night’s shelter. When he turns her away, she punishes him by transforming him into an ugly Beast and turning his servants into furniture and other household items. She gives him a magic mirror that will enable him to view faraway events, and she gives him the rose, which will bloom until his twenty-first birthday. He must love and be loved in return before all the rose’s petals have fallen off, or he will remain a Beast forever. Years later, a young, beautiful woman known as Belle comes along, living in a nearby French village with her father Maurice, who is an inventor. Belle loves reading and yearns for a life beyond the village. She is pursued by the arrogant local hero, Gaston, but has no interest in him, despite the fact that he is the most handsome man in town, is sought after by all the single females and is considered godlike in perfection by the male population of the castle.

At the castle, the Beast orders Belle to dine with him, but she refuses, and Lumiere disobeys his order not to let her eat. After Cogsworth gives her a tour of the castle, she finds the rose in the forbidden west wing and the Beast angrily chases her away. Frightened, she tries to escape, but she and her horse are attacked by wolves. After the Beast rescues her, she nurses his wounds, and he begins to develop feelings for her. He decides to make it up to her and show her the library at Lumiere’s suggestion, which impresses Belle and they become friends. They grow closer as they spend more time together and the servants take it upon themselves to clean up the castle and create a romantic evening for them.

Belle finds her father and takes him home, but Gaston arrives with a mob. Unless she agrees to marry Gaston, the manager of the local madhouse will lock up her father. Eventually, Belle proves Maurice sane by showing them the Beast with the magic mirror, but when she says the Beast is her friend and calls Gaston a “monster”, he becomes jealous. Gaston arouses the mob’s anger against the Beast, and leads them to the castle to kill him. Gaston locks Belle and Maurice in the basement, though Chip, who had hidden himself in Belle’s baggage, is able to chop the basement door apart with Maurice’s machine.

While the Beast is dying from his injuries, Belle whispers that she loves him, breaking the spell just before the last petal drops from the rose. The Beast comes back to life and he becomes human again. As he and Belle kiss, the castle and its grounds return to their previous beautiful state while the servants become human again. Belle and the prince dance in the ballroom with her father and the humanized servants happily watching.