Disney’s near perfect adaptation of the classic fairy tale

I remember when I first saw this movie. I came out of the theatre thinking
to myself “That was pretty good, but I think I liked Little Mermaid
better.” Then I saw the movie again, and it grew on me. And then I saw it
again and it grew some more (if you haven’t figured it out yet, I have 2
daughters that just have to watch that movie over and over again :-).

##So what’s in there for adults anyway?

The more I saw this movie, the more I was amazed at how much the folks at
Disney paid attention to incredibly minute details.

Let’s start at the beginning. In the opening musical number where Belle
goes to the bookshop to get her favorite book, sits down and explains to a
sheep why it’s her favorite, she describes the story and the fact that the
girl meets prince charming in chapter 1, but doesn’t know it’s him until
chapter 3. This is in fact a description of the story that we’re about to
see unfold on the screen. Chapter 1 is the opening act, and chapter 3 the
closing act where the true nature of the beast is revealed. Also, pay close
attention to the melody line Belle sings at this point, because its the
same melody (with different lyrics) she sings later in the movie when she
starts to fall in love with the Beast.

There’s also the little subtleties that the animators put into the
characters to bring them to life without you even noticing. For instance,
how many times does Belle brush the hair out of her eyes? This little
gesture makes her more real (we all have little quirks in our behaviour).