Something There: Beauty and the Beast at 30
Once upon a time, in the year 1987, Disney was in production of their big animated project, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Then chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and vice president Peter Schneider asked the associate producer of the film, Don Hahn to produce a new animated film.
The story that was chosen was Beauty and the Beast.
At first, the studio asked Richard Williams, who was the director of animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, to direct this new film. But he then suggested his friend, Richard Purdum to do it.
As with most Disney animated films, this had a troubled production. This was because the fairy tale the film is based on is very mundane since it’s essentially about Belle and the Beast at dinner. Under Purdum’s direction, he wanted to be close to that as possible.
Changes
After working on this version for version for some time, the crew showed the first twenty minutes to Jeffrey Katzenberg and Peter Schnider. They saw that it wasn’t working and ordered the early version to be shelved and the crew had to start over. It was then they decided to make it into a musical.
It was then they asked the song writing team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken to work on the film. The two would eventually become excited to work on this new project after their success with The Little Mermaid. After Purdum left the film, they choose story artist, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to direct.
Characters
As with Ariel, the character of Belle had to be a different leading lady than the past ones.
For inspiration, the story team based her on Kathern Hepburn’s interpretation of Jo March in the 1933 version of Little Women. But they also added more to her, which includes her enjoyment of reading.
For the voice, after hearing 500 women audition for the part, they chose Paige O’Hara. Part of it was the Judy Garland quality to her voice.
The Beast was a difficult character to both design and to find a voice. But after artist Chris Sander drew very strange looks for the character, he soon came up with what animator Glen Keane refined for the final film. What it was a combination of different animals.
Then after bringing in people with giant voices, the crew decided to hire Robby Benson to do the voice. This was because of how people can hear the tortured soul underneath the hideous appearance.
Early on, the animation team wanted to put enchanted objects into the story. But instead of having them be objects that float around, they were given distinct personalities. They also help guide the audience through the story.
When it came down to create the villain, the Disney artist decided to do something different. They took a character that would be the handsome hero in other fairy tales and made him a bad person.
Music
Just as they had recently done with The Little Mermaid, lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken approached Beauty and the Beast as a Broadway musical. Not only are the songs excellent, they also help the story.
For example, the first song, Belle, tells a tremendous amount of story in five minutes. Not only does it introduce Belle, but also tells that she wants more in life and what the town’s opinion of her and introduces the villain.
Unfortunately, production was done when Howard was very ill. He soon died in March of 1991 and the film would be dedicated to him.
Release
Two months before the movie’s release, the New York Film Festival invited Disney to show the film for the festival. They decided to show a work in progress version that had pencil tests and storyboards. At first they were worried what the audience would think but the audience was very enchanted by the film that it was given a standing ovation.
After all that, Beauty and the Beast was released during Thanksgiving of 1991 to universal acclaim and would be a significant success. Critics praised the film for the maturity of the story and how it touched people emotionally. During the award season, the movie would make history.
First it would win the newly introduced Annie Award for Best Animated Film. But at the Golden Globes, not only did it win both Best Score and Best Song, it would be the first animated film to win Best Picture (Musical or Comedy). It would also become the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Picture.
Thirty years later, the tale as old as time will continue to be new for audiences as it did when it first came out.