"The Most Beautiful Love Story Ever Told"<br /><br />Beauty and the Beast is undoubtedly my favorite animated film of all time, and one of my favorite films of all time. I grew up with this movie along with the other classics, and I love it now just the same. <br /><br />The story is about a prince (Robby Benson) who is cursed, one a cold night, to become a beast by a beautiful enchantress. The prince was visited by her disguised as an ugly old woman who asks for shelter for the night. All she had to offer in return was a single red rose. With a cold heart he turned the old lady away, ounce and again after she warned him to not be fooled by appearances. The enchantress saw no love in his arrogant heart, and cast a powerful spell on the castle, cursing all who live within it. The rose was to become the core of the curse, for before the last peddle falls, the prince must learn to love and be loved in return. "But who could ever learn to love a beast?" <br /><br />Belle (Paige O'Hara) is a beautiful and misunderstood girl who is always distracted by the chanting wonders of a good fairy tale book. She has no one to relate to; even the arrogant and good-looking hunk named Gaston (Richard White) isn't her type. Belle dreams of living more than a provincial life, like a fairy tale. Her father Maurice (Rex Everhart) is an inventor who heads off to an inventing fair, but gets lost in the woods and ends up prisoner in the Beast's castle. As her father is imprisoned and sick to the bone, Belle makes a deal with the Beast to take his place instead. She is now a forever prisoner in the cursed castle, unknowing that she is the key to ending the Beast's torment. Through months of time both Belle and the Beast have learned their misunderstandings for each other. They gain a special friendship that is hoped to become love. <br /><br />"Crazy old Maurice" pleads to the town for the rescue of his daughter from the horrible ten- foot tall monster. Gaston plots to get Belle's interest by bargaining her father's freedom for marriage. The Beast has learned to love and gives Belle away to rescue her father. And the ending begins....<br /><br />Whatever did happen to the classic wonders of Disney? I don't know, and it all seemed to go downhill when Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney for DreamWorks with Spielberg. I think the best Disney films are the ones that Disney didn't make. I think Jungle Book was his last film, and that was the end of what I call the old generation Disney movies. Then you have your middle generation of movies that consisted of the less successful films such as The Black Cauldron and Oliver and Company. It wasn't until The Little Mermaid that the new generation took hold. If I'm not mistaken The Lion King was Katzenberg's last Disney film. Now we have the more recent and sometimes sucky films. Which consist of Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan and so on. This is too bad, because theses other films only come close to being as good as Beauty and the Beast.<br /><br />This masterpiece has more heart and emotion than another animated film. It is still astounding to me that this is the only animated film to be nominated for best picture. I think it's good and bad that they brought the category of best-animated picture. Animation will never have a chance to become the best picture of the year. On the other hand what are the chances of that happening really? Beauty and the Beast is the best not because it was nominated for best picture, or because it was listed third in Roger Ebert's top ten list, but because it is the best. Simple, yes?<br /><br />****/**** Stars <br /><br />Two Thumbs Way Up<br /><br />Beauty and the Beast (1991): Rated PG for some mild frightening and violent images