Was nationally released on 11/23/91. Cost $30 million to produce. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman returned to make what is still widely considered to be the best animated movie ever. It again won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song (title track), and was the first and so far only animated film to be nominated for Best Picture.
In the first 42 weeks of its US release, this film grossed $144.725 million, and sold 1 million copies of the video nationwide by the end of its first day of release (10/30/92).
A "Work in Progress" version was shown at the New York Film Festival prior to its official release. It was only partially completed, many scenes were still in the rough or even storyboard only. It is very educating to see, and helps understand the process of animation. This version was also released on video, but due to a faulty pressing, many copies of the Laserdisc developed laser rot, and few intact copies remain.
Ma chere Mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride
and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight.
And now we invite you to relax, let us pull up a
chair as the dining room proudly presents - your
dinner!
Be our guest
Be our guest
Put our service to the test
Tie your napkin 'round your neck, cherie
And we provide the rest
Soup du jour
Hot hors d'oeuvres
hy, we only live to serve
Try the grey stuff, it's delicious
Don't believe me? Ask the dishes
They can sing
They can dance
After all, Miss, this is France
And a dinner here is never second b...
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[Belle:] Little town
It's a quiet village
Ev'ry day
Like the one before
Little town
Full of little people
Waking up to say:
[Townsfolk:] Bonjour!
Bonjour!
Bonjour! Bonjour! Bonjour!
[Belle:] There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Ev'ry morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial to...
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[Belle:] Is he gone? Can you imagine? He asked me to marry him.
Me, the wife of that boorish, brainless . . .
"Madame Gaston!"
Can't you just see it?
"Madame Gaston!"
His "little wife"
No sir! Not me!
I guarantee it
I want much more than this provincial life
I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand
To have someone...
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[Gaston:] Who does she think she is? That girl has tangled with
the wrong man! No one says "no" to Gaston!
[LeFou:] Heh heh. Darn right.
[Gaston:] Dismissed! Rejected! Publicly Humiliated! Why, it's
more than I can bear.
[LeFou:] More beer?
[Gaston:] What for? Nothing helps. I'm disgraced.
[LeFou:] Who, you? Never! Gaston, you've got to pull yourself
together.
Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy...
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[Maurice:] Help! Someone help me!
[Tavern keeper:] Maurice?
[Maurice:] Please! Please, I need your help. He's got her - he's
got her locked in the dungeon!
[LeFou:] Who?
[Maurice:] Belle. We must go. N-not a minute to lose!
[Gaston:] Whoa! Slow down, Maurice. Who's got Belle locked in a
dungeon?
[Maurice:] A beast! A horrible, monstrous beast!
[Patron I:] Is it a big beast?
[Maurice:] Huge!
[Patron II:] With a long, ugly snout?
[Maurice:] Hideously ugly!
[Drinker III:] And sharp, cruel f...
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 Glen Keane was the supervising animator of Beast. In the early concept art, Beast was mandrill-inspired, later developing to incorporate elements of the bear and wolf, but with most of the inspiration drawn from the buffalo. Only his horns were, as Keane says, '..just something we gave him ourselves.'
Determined to go to considerable lengths to find inspiration for his character, Keane asked to be allowed into a zoo cage with a temperamental gorilla, in order to get a feeling for what is was like to be so close to the huge beast. Fortunately, he was denied the opportunity...
Of a...
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[Gaston:] The Beast will make off with your children.
[Mob:] {gasp}
[Gaston:] He'll come after them in the night.
[Belle:] No!
[Gaston:] We're not safe till his head is mounted on my wall! I
say we kill the Beast!
[Mob:] Kill him!
[Man I:] We're not safe until he's dead
[Man II:] He'll come stalking us at night
[Woman:] Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite
[Man III:] He'll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free
[Gaston:] So it's tim...
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 Belle, the go-it-alone, independent heroine and salvation of Beast was animated by James Baxter. Receiving a series of 'battlefield promotions' during production on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and later on Beauty and the Beast, this moved Baxter into the animation of a major character.
Belle's appearance was developed from a sketch by story man Roger Allers, slightly modified to give her 'a more European look' - the shape and angle of her eyes, in particular, were intended to give her a more mature appearance than earlier heroines. Inspiration for angle and perspective - cruc...
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 Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly
Just a little change
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast
Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise
Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
B...
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