When Belle flees the enchanted castle and gets cornered by a
pack of wolves, the Beast rushes to her rescue. The two then slowly grow to
care for one another and as the Christmas season comes around, Belle plans to
put on a spectacular Christmas gala to rid the Beast of his foul mood towards
the holidays. But the castle’s sinister and deranged composer, now turned into
an organ Maestro Forte, does not want not want the enchantment to be broken so
he does everything he can to intervene and stop Belle from bringing cheer back
into the castle.
Of course it is nowhere near
as beautiful and moving as Disney’s original award-winning classic, but Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted
Christmas was a film that I loved as a child and still find joy in to this
day. One of the rare Disney sequels that features the voices of all the
original cast members as well as a few new ones, this holiday movie is packed
with a warm message of hope and good will toward men, as well as new and moving
songs and lovely animation.
When Belle flees the enchanted castle and gets
cornered by a pack of wolves, the Beast rushes to her rescue. The two then
slowly grow to care for one another and as the Christmas season comes around,
Belle plans to put on a spectacular Christmas gala to rid the Beast of his foul
mood towards the holidays. But the castle’s sinister and deranged composer, now
turned into an organ Maestro Forte, does not want not want the enchantment to
be broken so he does everything he can to intervene and stop Belle from bringing
cheer back into the castle.
The animation of this movie is worth an accolade
because, although it’s pretty much a replica of the first movie, there is a
change in the texture of animation used. This is particularly in the case of
the character of Maestro Forte, the evil organ, whose animation is richer and
more like that of Dreamworks or Pixar and much more striking than the basic
cartoon animation of the other characters. This different level and texture of
animation makes the character all the more scary and villainous and the fact
that he’s voiced by Tim Curry just makes him all the more mesmerising.
Featuring the voice talents of Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Jerry Orbach, David
Ogden Stiers, Bernadette Peters, Haley Joel Osment, Jim Cummings, Paul Reubens,
Jeff Bennett, Angela Lansbury, and Tim Curry, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a lovely little
holiday film that, by no means holds a candle to the charms of its 1991
predecessor, but still is a lovely family movie filled with new songs, heart
warming messages, romance, drama, and comedy. I loved it as a child and I still
love it to this day.
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