THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996) dir. gary trousdale & kirk wise

Claudia Christian as Helga Sinclair ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE (2001) dir. Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Scared Shrekless (2010)

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

On June 15, 2001 Disney released Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was the first tradionally drawn Disney animated feature to recieve a PG rating since The Black Cauldron (1985). Marc Okrand developed a language specifically for this film. The film takes place in 1914, involving academic Milo Thatch (Michael J Fox) and a group of mercenaries (voiced by Jim Varney, Corey Burton, Claudia Christian, James Garner, Jaqueline Obradors, Don Novello, and Phil Morris) sent in search of the lost city of Atlantis. When they actually find the futuristic place, they meet the king (Leonard Nimoy) and his daughter Kida (Cree Summer). ("Atlantis: The Lost Empire", Animated Flm, Event)

Gae Aulenti, Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, Italy, 2007-2012 VS Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, Beauty and the Beast, 1991

Beauty and the Beast: You Can’t Save Someone from Themselves

The Disney version of Beauty and the Beast from 1991 is my favourite movie and I must have watched it twenty-five times, if not more.

But when you watch a piece of media so often, you naturally discover inconsistencies in the plot, or simply details that you don’t understand or don’t quite like.

For me, I was critical for a long time about how naïve Belle is: she never knows the nature of the spell the Beast’s castle is under, she never asks and no one tells her. My point about this was that she remained oblivious to the things going on around her, trying to make the best of a situation that was out of the ordinary but never quite knowing why. I found that this detail somewhat made Belle look like a fool.

Looking back now, I see things differently. The fact that Belle is not aware of the enchantresses’ spell is a major plot point and one of the most interesting and positive characteristics of the story’s heroine.

Women often believe they can or must “fix” a guy who’s in some kind of trouble, with their love, their wisdom etc. And it never works. If a person has some problem that needs to be fixed, they must do so themselves willingly; someone else can only be by their side.

We learn early on that the Beast / Prince is not actually evil, but “selfish, spoilt and unkind”. Belle is the antithesis to this, being generous, altruistic and kind. Most of all, she’s not scheming.

Belle never tries to redeem the Beast. At first, she fears and resents him; then, seeing that he’s making an effort, she gives him a second chance. The actual change comes from the Beast himself, who is well-aware that it is in his hands to break the spell, for himself and also for the people who live with him and depend on him.

For all her maturity and independence, Bell is an innocent girl. She does not imagine that the Beast is a prince, and that he might actually be the right partner for her.

That is why their relationship develops in a natural way: the Beast at first tries to control their relationship and fails, and Belle never tries to control it. She does not search for self-validation by trying to influence someone who obviously has a long way to go. Belle never feels superior to the Beast; when she resents him it’s a pure act of self-protection, untainted by any attitude of the kind “I know better than he does”.

Beauty and the Beast contains a lot of beautiful messages, and this is maybe the most important one if you’re a female watching it: don’t ever try to change a man, or anyone else for that matter. Loving someone means being ready to forgive and giving them a second chance; wanting to “fix” someone is an act of power.

Love and power are opposite to one another. If one partner controls or tries to control the relationship, it’s doomed.

That is why the story of Beauty and the Beast feels so genuine: it’s pure and untainted by the unnecessary drama that is part of so many stories which are allegedly about “love” but lack the most important essence of any healthy relationship: trust.

I find it personally annoying when people talk about Disney movies like the company manifested them out of nowhere.

Like, Ron Clements and John Musker directed The Little Mermaid. They also did Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet and Moana.

Kevin Lima and Chris Buck did Tarzan, Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff did The Lion King, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise did Hunchback of Notre Damé.

Even if their styles are similar, these were still movies made by people. I wish we talked more about the people behind our childhood memories, especially when they do work for other companies. Chris Buck did Surf's Up for example.

Beauty and the Beast (1991, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)

08/02/2024

Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 animated film directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

It is the 30th Disney Classic, it is the third film of the Disney Renaissance, and is based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, taking some ideas from the 1946 film of the same name. The film's music was composed by Alan Menken, while Howard Ashman, to whom the film is dedicated (he died a few months before the film's release), was the author of the lyrics.

Beauty and the Beast was released in the United States of America on November 13, 1991. The film grossed $331 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $25 million, and received widespread acclaim for its romantic narrative, animation (particularly the ballroom scene), the characters and the musical numbers. It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and remained the only one until 2010 and 2011 when, after the number of possible nominations for the statuette had been increased from five to ten, it was joined by Pixar's films Up and Toy Story 3. It ended up winning two, for best soundtrack and best song (the famous Beauty and the Beast, sung by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson in the final duet). The film was also awarded three Golden Globes: best comedy/musical film, soundtrack and original song, as well as other international awards.

After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King in 2011, the film returned to cinemas in 3D on 13 January 2012 in American cinemas, while in Italy it was released on 13 June of the same year.

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress because it was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

A long time ago, in a distant country in France, there lived in a magnificent castle a prince with a handsome and charming app9, but with a spoiled, selfish and bad character.

One winter night, an older beggar woman arrived at the castle asking for asylum from the cold and offering a rose in exchange. At that point, the beggar woman transformed into a fairy; seeing the prince's selfishness, the fairy transformed him into a horrible Beast, and his servants into furnishing objects. Despite everything, however, she also granted him a chance at redemption: the rose was enchanted and would remain in bloom until the prince's twenty-first birthday.

God bless Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise for letting Howard Ashman, a gay man, keep this lyric in "Gaston":

Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny!

That's right! And every last inch of me's covered with hair!

And letting Andreas Deja, a gay man, keep in the wink that Gaston does when he says the word "inch":

Men who love men, appreciating the only good thing that Gaston has going for him