Last week, I had the opportunity to see Beauty and the Beast on the big, big, big screen. It was quite an experience, too, especially since Fantasia 2000 didn't come to our area in IMAX. Also, I believe what we saw was one of those "other large format screens" that are mentioned in the advertisements, because I never saw anything specifically stating it was an IMAX auditorium. We do have an IMAX screen in the area, but it is at a museum and shows the standard IMAX fare.

I eagerly anticipated Beauty and the Beast way back in 1991, because it was the follow-up to The Little Mermaid, complete with several new songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. I had bought the soundtrack the day it came out, which was about three weeks before the release of the movie, so by the time we got to the theater, I already knew all the songs, as well as the score that had been released. Even with as much anticipation as I had, I was not disappointed by the movie, as sometimes happens. Everything worked together perfectly to present an exciting and emotional story. Beauty and the Beast quickly became the highest-grossing animated film in history, a record that has since been passed by other films. It is also the only animated film to date to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.

Once the video of Beauty and the Beast was released, I watched it several more times, always noticing something new. Unlike some films, it held up well to repeated viewing, and I never really grew tired of watching it. But as the years have passed and new films have been released, I haven't watched it as much as before, even though it still has a prominent place on our video shelf. So it had been a few years since I had seen the film, until last week. And once again, it was still as enjoyable as ever.

Of course, with the new presentation one of the first things you notice is the size. The last time I saw an IMAX film was 15 years ago, so I had forgotten about how big the screen is. The second thing I noticed was the quality of the sound system in the theater, which was quite impressive. But as I settled in to the presentation, I was once again drawn into the story. On the big screen, the animation of the Beast by Glen Keane is even more impressive. I am always amazed that he did not have a live-action model to base the movements on, because the animation is quite realistic. The shot early in the film of moving through the woods to the Beast's castle was also quite spectacular on the large screen.

Also receiving much publicity in this new release is the added song, "Human Again." This song was originally written by Ashman and Menken along with the others for the film. However, they felt that the song was slowing down the movie and putting more focus on the household objects instead of on the Beast, where they thought the main focus should be. They instead replaced the song with "Something There." "Human Again" was later placed in the Broadway show based on the movie. Before seeing the new version of the film, I had some questions. Would the new song drag down the story? Would it seem strange to have both "Something There" and "Human Again" in the film? Would it be an obvious change from the old animation to the new stuff? So to answer, the song may have slowed down the story slightly, and the two songs may have overlapped some, but I quickly forgot about that and enjoyed seeing something new. And the animation and backgrounds perfectly matched the original.

So after seeing the film, I have no objections at all to the new scenes. And despite what I had heard from some people around the Internet, I thought it looked great on such a large screen. Some have complained about the backgrounds being grainy, or some of the background characters being underanimated, but that didn't bother me a bit. The main thing Beauty and the Beast has going for it is still the compelling story. No matter if you see it on a 20-inch television screen or a 40-foot-high movie screen, Beauty and the Beast is still a remarkable animated film.

-Review by Steve Burns; Graphic ©Disney
Steve is a three-time Disney Store National Trivia finalist and webmaster of BurnsLand, home of Steve's Disney Railroad Adventures.

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