eauty and the Beast is the thirtieth full-length animated feature film in the Disney canon.

The
thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is based on the fairy tale La
Belle et la Bte by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, (which was based on a more detailed
story of the same name and plot, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve) and uses
some ideas from the 1946 film of the same name. The film centers around a prince who is
transformed into a Beast and a young woman named Belle whom he imprisons in his castle. To
become a prince again, the Beast must love Belle and win her love in return, or he will remain a
Beast forever.
The film's animation screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton with story written by Roger
Allers, Brenda Chapman, Chris Sanders, Burny Mattinson, Kevin Harkey, Brian Pimental, Bruce
Woodside, Joe Ranft, Tom Ellery, Kelly Ashbury, and Robert Lence, directed by Gary Trousdale
and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn. The music of the film was composed by Alan Menken
and Howard Ashman, both of whom had written the music and songs for Disney's The Little
Mermaid.

Beauty and the Beast was released on November 13, 1991. The film was a significant
commercial and critical success, earning $403 million in box office earnings throughout the world.
Beauty and the Beast was also nominated for several awards, and won the Golden Globe Award
for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (For the first time to an animated movie), with two
other awards for its music. Famously, Beauty and the Beast was the first ever animated film to be
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and was the only animated film to hold this
honor until 2009, when the Academy Awards switched from 5 Best Picture nominations to 10, and
Pixar's animated film Up was nominated. Beauty and the Beast received a total of six
nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and three nominations for
its song. It ended up winning two, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for the songs
"Beauty and the Beast".

A direct-to-video midquel called Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas was released in
1997. It was followed in 1998 by another midquel, Belle's Magical World, and later by a stage
production of the same name and a television spin-off series, Sing Me a Story with Belle. An
IMAX special edition version of the original film was released in 2002, with a new five-minute
musical sequence included. After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King in 2011,
Disney announced the film will return to theaters for a limited time in 3-D on January 13, 2012

Contents [show]
Plot
The film takes place presumably in the late 18th century,[1] (i.e., during Gaston's proposal to
Belle, he wears a red tailcoat, waistcoat, breeches and black boots, which is men's fashion
indicative of the 17th to 18th centuries). In the film's prologue, an enchantress disguised as an old
beggar woman offers a selfish young prince a rose in exchange for a night's shelter from the
extreme cold (during Christmas as we later find out in the film's midquel), as a test of his heart
and emotion. When he turns her away, repulsed by her old and ugly appearance and sneering at
the simple but lovely gift, she turns into an Enchantress and punishes him by transforming him
into an ugly Beast and turns his servants into furniture and other household items. She gives him
a magic mirror that will enable him to view faraway events, and also gives him the rose, which will
bloom until his 21st birthday. He must love and be loved in return before all the rose's petals have
fallen off, or he will remain a beast forever.
Years later, a beautiful but unusual young woman named Belle lives in a nearby but unnamed
French village with her father Maurice, who is an inventor. Belle loves reading and yearns for a
life beyond the village. She is also the object of frequent unwanted attention and lust from the
arrogant local hero, Gaston, who wants to marry her and make her his "little wife" who will bear
him handsome sons, cook the food and scrub the floors. (The film gives no clear explanation as
to why Gaston wants Belle as his wife other than because of her good looks.)

Maurice's latest invention is a wood-chopping machine. When he rides off to display the machine
at the fair, he loses his way in the woods and stumbles upon the Beast's castle, where he meets
the transformed servants Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, her son Chip, and Cogsworth. The Beast imprisons
Maurice, but Belle is led back to the castle by Maurice's horse, Phillipe, and offers to take her
father's place. When the Beast agrees to this and sends him home, Maurice tells Gaston and the
other villagers what happened, but they think he has lost his mind, so he goes to rescue her
alone.

Meanwhile, Belle refuses the Beast's "invitation" to dinner, and the Beast orders his servants not
to let her eat, but Lumiere serves her dinner anyway (in the song Be Our Guest ) and Cogsworth
gives her a tour of the castle. However, she wanders off on her own and finds the West Wing,
which The Beast had forbidden her to go into. She goes in anyway, discovering many broken
items, including a shredded portrait of a young Prince Adam, and the enchanted rose. Before she
can touch it, The Beast sees her and angrily screams at her to get out.

Frightened, Belle tries to escape, but she and Phillipe are attacked by wolves. Suddenly, the
Beast miraculously arrives to her rescue and fends off the wolves. After Belle nurses his wounds,
he gives her the castle library as a gift, and they become friends. Later, they have an elegant
dinner and a romantic ballroom dance. When he lets her use the Enchanted Mirror, she sees her
father dying in the woods, and, with only hours left before the rose wilts, the Beast allows her to
leave, giving her the mirror to remember him by. This horrifies the servants, who fear they will
never be human again.

Belle finds Maurice and takes him home, but Gaston arrives with a lynch mob. Unless she agrees
to marry Gaston, the manager of the local madhouse will lock her father up. Belle proves Maurice
sane by showing them the beast with the magic mirror, but Gaston arouses the mob's anger
against the Beast and leads them to the castle to kill him. He locks Belle and Maurice in a
basement, but Chip, who hid himself in Belle's luggage, chops the basement door apart with
Maurice's machine.

While the servants and the mob battle for control of the castle, Gaston wanders off on his own
and, finding the Beast, attacks him. The Beast is initially too depressed to fight back, but regains
his will when he sees Belle arriving at the castle. After winning a heated battle, the Beast spares
Gaston's life and climbs up to a balcony where Belle is waiting. Unbeknownst to them, Gaston
has secretly followed the Beast and stabs him from behind, but loses his footing and falls off the
balcony to his death.

As the Beast lies on the ground, apparently dead from his injuries, Belle sadly whispers that she
loves him, just as the final petal from the rose falls off, breaking the spell. Belle watches in
amazement as The Beast is revived and turned back into his human form. Belle studies him
carefully, recognizing him as the man from the portrait in the West Wing, and seeing that he still
has the same eyes, she says "It is you!" The two kiss, turning the servants human and
transforming the castle back into its original elegance. The last scene shows Belle and the prince
dancing in the ballroom as her father, the villagers, and the servants happily watch them, while
Lumiere and Cogsworth enter a feud.