The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the Beast (a prince whose heart is too hard to love anyone besides himself), Belle boldly takes her father's place, imprisoned in the Beast's gloomy mansion. Naturally, Belle teaches the Beast to love. What makes this such a dazzler, besides the amazingly accomplished animation and the winning coterie of supporting characters (the Beast's mansion is overrun by quipping, dancing household items) is the array of beautiful and hilarious songs by composer Alan Menken and the late, lamented lyricist Howard Ashman. (The title song won the 1991 Best Song Oscar, and Menken's score scored a trophy as well.) The downright funniest song is "Gaston," a lout's paean to himself (including the immortal line, "I use antlers in all of my de-co-ra-ting"). "Be Our Guest" is transformed into an inspired Busby Berkeley homage. Since Ashman's passing, animated musicals haven't quite reached the same exhilarating level of wit, sophistication, and pure joy. --David Kronke --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Rating:
Summary: excellent condition .
Comment: beauty and the beast arrived in excellent condition .my grandson loves to watch it . picture and sound are perfect .no complaints at all

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Comment: I love this movie it remind me of my childhood, awsome movie to watch with your children.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Comment: This product was in great condition! Was like new! Would buy from this seller again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: fast and perfect
Comment: this is exactly what my girlfriend wanted, and being that it is currently out of print, was tricky to track down. The dvd got here fast and in perfect condition. great seller.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Liars!
Comment: This vendor stated by email that they shipped the product by first class mail on the 16th of December. They did not. They actually did not ship it until January 2, 2009. This is a perfect example of a vendor who did not have a product marketing an unavailable product online, taking people's money under a agreement that it would be shipped immediately, lying about the ship date and ignoring requests for information. I would not buy anything from this vendor. I believe what they did was in violation of Amazon.com's vendor agreement.

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