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This
Beauty Is No Beast!
By
Jan Aaron
Got
those post holiday blues? Here’s a quick picker-upper. Grab the
kids and go to Beauty and The Beast. Hold it. No yawning,
please! This is a new special edition Beauty and the Beast...the
10th anniversary Giant Screen edition! See it at Loews
Imax Theatre. Now there’s a mammoth treat!
Originally released in 1991 to great acclaim and still a big hit
on Broadway, the timeless classic has been painstakingly reformatted
one frame at a time to make its debut on the Giant Screen. Adding
excitement to this new release is the introduction of a newly
animated six-minute musical sequence that features the song, “Human
Again.”
The Giant Screen format brings fresh drama to this beloved fairy
tale. It makes you feel part of the movie. Expect sighs from the
little ones as Belle whirls in her gorgeous gown in the beautiful
ballroom six stories high or chooses her book from the castle’s
Everest-high library. Little girls will notice Belle’s fashionable
manicured fingernails, and everyone will be enchanted by the Alan
Menken score and songs by him and the late Howard Ashman and intricate
animated choreography.
The timeless story, embellished for the film, follows beautiful
Belle (voiced by Paige O’Hara) who finds escape from her ho-hum
life and the unwelcome advances of the boorish Gaston (voiced
by Richard White) — by reading books (to the delight of parents
and teachers everywhere!). When her bumbling dad stumbles onto
the castle of a hideous beast
(voiced by Robby Benson), he is taken prisoner. Brave Belle comes
to rescue him and takes her dad’s place. With the help of the
castle’s bewitched staff — a candelabrum, teapot, and clock —
Belle sees beneath Beast’s boorish exterior to discover the tender
heart of a human prince. Meanwhile, Gaston proves to be the real
beast leading to a dramatic confrontation and ultimately happy
ending.
The films’ star-studded cast also includes Angela Lansbury, Jerry
Orbach, David Alan Stiers and Jo Anne Worley. As a result of their
talents and the gazillions behind-the-scenes Disney wizards, this
Giant Screen Beauty and the Beast is Huge Entertainment!#
(90 minutes, G, presented by Walt Disney Pictures, at Loews Cineplex
Lincoln Square and Imax; call 50-Loews).
Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel:
(212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2001.
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