Disney's Hercules

If you know me, then you know that I love history. Not ancient history though, with one exception: Greek Mythology. I have always found Greek Mythology fascinating. So I suppose you could chalk up my love of Hercules to that fact. I don't think it's just that though. Hercules is an incredibly funny movie, definitely the most since Aladdin. Its got tons of pop culture references and jokes that only someone who knows Greek Mythology would get. In other words, it's well researched and clever. My old Hercules CD is probably the most scratched up CD I own thanks to how much I listened to it as a kid. I just really liked the songs from this film and I still do. For me this film gives a perfect blend of humor and drama. It's not overly dramatic, but you still feel tension at the end of the film and feel that the relationship between Hercules and Megara is real. There's deception, anger, love, baby-stealing, fight scenes, and like I have mentioned, a lot of humor. I just don't see how anyone couldn't love this movie! The movie also contains my favorite Disney hero, Hercules. To me, Hercules is a symbol of the ultimate good, someone incorruptible....like Batman! I've always seen a little bit of myself in the character too, however cheesy that may sound. We're both naive, awkward, and generally really nice guys. I unfortunately don't have the super human strength, but hey, we can't have everything. Hercules focuses on the age old question: What does it mean to be a true hero? What does it entail and how can someone achieve such a title?

Production started on Hercules as early as 1994 and lasted through 1997. I'm guessing that the studio wanted to tackle something a little different. Disney in the past has generally gone with stories based on books or fairy tales, but hadn't delved into any specific mythology, unless you count the "Pastoral" segment of Fantasia. So, this was a little bit of a change for Disney. Disney realized early on that when people thought of Greek Mythology, they generally thought of academic books and a bunch of other boring stuff that wouldn't interest most people. So, they gave the story their own spin, made it a little more contemporary and made the characters more Americanized and relateable. No cartoon about gods philandering about or being extremely devious (unless we're talking about Hades). Instead Disney watered down Greek Mythology to make it acceptable for children, because if you've read Greek Mythology, then you know some of the stories are pretty messed up. Another thing that makes this movie different from any other Disney film is the animation style. To get a unique style for the movie, Disney hired Gerald Scarfe to be their animation adviser. Scarfe is best known for his artwork in Pink Flyod's The Wall. With his direction and further inspiration from Greek artwork and architecture, the movie has a distinct look that sets it apart from all the others.

In terms of character designs and mannerisms, some artists had a little bit of trouble. Andreas Deja, who was the primary animator for Scar, Gaston, and Jafar decided that he would this time tackle a protagonist instead of a antagonist. He found the task hard but got a lot of help from watching Tate Donovan (the voice of adult Hercules) act out his lines. Meg's design and mannerisms were based off a 40's screwball comedienne and now that I've learned that, I can really see it in the character. Hades character was meant to be a very menacing, slow talking villain, but once James Wood auditioned, they decided to change the character to a easy to anger, fast talking Hollywood agent/used car salesman sort of villain. I'm glad they made the change, because Hades is one of my favorite villains because of his demeanor. And finally, the character of Phil was based off of Grumpy from Snow White and Bacchus from Fantasia.

Half the fun of this movie is the voice cast. Notable voices include some that I already mentioned like Tate Donovan (Love Potion No. 9) as the voice of the adult Hercules and James Woods (Casino) as god of the underworld, Hades. Woods incidentally pulled a Robin Williams and ended up ad-libbing almost all of his lines. Woods must of really liked the role, because he has basically promised Disney that whenever they need him to reprise his role as Hades, he'll do it. And he has, voicing him in the animated series and in the Kingdom Hearts video games. Other voice talents included Danny DeVito (Big Fish, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Philoctetes, Susan Egan (Spirited Away) as Megara, Rip Torn (Men In Black) as Zeus, Bobcat Goldthwait (Police Academy 2,3,4) as Pain, Matt Frewer (50/50) as Panic, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park) as Demetrius, Hal Holbrook (All The President's Men) as Amphitryon, Paul Shaffer (Late Show with David Letterman) as Hermes, and the late, great, Charlston Heston (Planet of the Apes, Ben-Hur) as the narrator. This is probably the only chance you'll get to hear Heston say: "You go girls." I'm not sure though, he may have also said it in The Ten Commandments. Needless to say, the movie as an all-star cast, from old stars like Holbrook and Heston, to newer ones like Donovan and DeVito (not new anymore). Everyone is perfect for the roles, too. It would literally blow my mind if they had someone else voice Hades in something Hercules related. I'm also glad they got Tate Donovan to do the voice of Hercules in the animated series.

In Greek Mythology, Hercules, or Heracles, or Herakles, is the son of Zeus and a mortal named Alcmene. That is the reason he is a demi-god, not because he was poisoned by Hades. Zeus however was married to Hera at the time, and you can imagine that Hera was pretty pissed. Hera was also pretty mad when she found out that Zeus had been using Hera to breast feed Hercules while she was asleep. The breast feeding allowed Hercules to become partially immortal and gave him super human strength. Hera decided to hold a grudge against Hercules for the rest of his partially immortal life and eventually sent him into a blind frenzy that caused him to murder his wife and kids. After he became sane again he sought the Oracle of Delphi to make atonement for what he had done. The Oracle told Hercules that he must serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae. Eurystheus in turn gave him the tasks known as the Labors of Hercules. There were twelve in all, and if you watch or listen closely during the movie, Hercules completes five of the tasks while two more are mentioned by Phil when Hercules is posing. The tasks he completes in the film are: Kill the Nemean Lion, destroy the Lernaean Hydra, trap the Erymanthian Boar, butcher the Stymphalian Birds, and capture Cerberus. The two Phil mentions are cleaning the Augean Stables and retreiving the Gold Girdle from "some Amazons."

Interestingly enough, the battle between Hercules and the centaur, Nessus, in the movie is almost the same story as how he saved his second wife, Deianeira. Nessus offers to ferry them across a river, though one at a time. Nessus uses this ploy to kidnap Deianeira. When Hercules sees what's going on, he shoots Nessus with an arrow poisoned with Hydra blood. Before Nessus dies, he tells Deianeira to take some of his blood, for it was a very powerful medicine. He claimed that if Hercules ever became unfaithful, that his blood would make him fall in love with her again. She believes her would be kidnapper for some reason and takes some of his blood. Years later, Deianeira started to get the inkling that Hercules had fallen in love with another, so she covered his robe with Nessus' blood and sent a servant to give the robe to Hercules. The servant spilled some of the blood on the floor and when the sun rays hit the blood, it started to burn. Deianeira knew something was up so she sent someone to stop the first servant. It was too late however, as Hercules had already put on the robe. The blood, still poisoned by the Hydra's blood made the robe burn into Hercules flesh. He threw himself into water to quell the burning but it only made it worse. He ripped the robe off himself and took most of his internal organs with it. Furious, he threw the first servant into the sea. He then told his good friend Philoctetes to build him a pyre on the mountain of Oata. He was then burned to death on the pyre and made into a god by Zeus. Deianeira committed suicide after she found out what she had done. Great ending, right? Sanitation was definitely needed. I don't think it would have been wise of Disney to show Hercules ripping his own organs out.

Disney attempted to have Hercules premiere at Pynx Hill in Greece, but the government forbid it. In fact Greece basically considered the whole thing an insult due to the fact that it wasn't even close to the real myth. My opinion: who the hell cares? Did they really expect Disney to do a faithful adaption of Hercules' life? The story is super violent and inappropriate for children! Yes, they Americanized the hell out of it, but why did the Greek government have to be such sticks in the mud? Hercules got its wide release on June 27th, 1997. The movie did not do that well in comparison to the other Disney movies released during the Renaissance. In fact, it did the worst of all save for The Rescuers Down Under. I literally have no idea how that is possible. How could people not want to see this movie?! It's hip, it's got a good mixture of R&B/Soul music with a classical soundtrack, it's funny, and it's got the battle with the hydra! That freaked me out as a kid but it was still freaking cool! Disney blamed it on competition, which I guess could have been it. Face/Off, Men in Black, Contact, and George of the Jungle all came out around the same time and could have stolen a few people. But here is the question of the day: Does having competition cause your movie not to get seen? If I want to see a movie, I see it, no matter how many other movies are out. And besides George of the Jungle, it's the only children's movie that was out at the time. I don't know, maybe people decided to just spend their money on Men in Black. Hercules only grossed $99 million domestically, while earning $252 million in all, so it did much better overseas. Critical reviews were positive to mixed. Siskel and Ebert gave it one thumb up, Ebert liking it and Siskel not. It has an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Things you may have missed/interesting tid-bits:

• When Hercules hits his head on the mast of the Argo, Phil tells him to watch it. Jason, captain of the Argo, was killed when the mast struck his head.
• Hermes delivers flowers to Hera, a nod to FTD Florists whose registered trademark is a picture of Hermes.
  
• The Spice Girls were considered for the parts of the muses.
  
• The first film since Oliver and Company where the villain doesn't sing.
  
• "Air Herc" is a parody of Nike/Air Jordans. Nike was the Greek goddess who personified triumph.
  
• Phil's line, "I'm walking here!" after he almost gets hit by a chariot is a direct reference to the movie Midnight Cowboy.
• During "Zero to Hero," when Hercules flies on top of Pegasus in front of star constellations, one is of Marilyn Monroe doing her famous scene from The Seven Year Itch.
• Thebes is meant to be a Greek version of New York City, even so far as calling it "The Big Olive."
• During Meg's song, "I Won't Say I'm in Love," the muses sing while appearing as marble busts. The way they are arranged, they match the singing marble busts from The Haunted Mansion at Disney World/Land.
• Ricky Martin does the voice of Hercules in the Spanish version.
• Pain and Panic are named for two of the four henchmen of Ares, Phobos and Deimos. The names roughly translate into Pain and Panic. Phobos and Deimos are also the two moons of Mars, Mars being the Roman name for Ares.
  
• When Pain and Panic are pretending to be the kids trapped beneath the rock, one shouts, "Someone call IX-I-I, otherwise known as 9-1-1 in Roman Numerals.
  
• Paul Shaffer, who is best known as the keyboard playing band leader on Late Night with David Letterman, voices Hermes, who at the end of the film is seen playing the keyboard.
• And finally, Scar from The Lion King makes an appearance as the lion's skin that Hercules is wearing when he is posing for a painting.
  

I can't say enough on why I love this movie. From the epic battle with the hydra, to the emotional ending, to the complicated relationships, this movie has everything. This movie shows us what it means to be a true hero, and that is to be willing to risk/give up your life in order to save someone you care about. In other words, it takes sacrifice. While many might consider themselves hero's, they might not be, just for the simple fact that they put themselves before others. Please watch this movie again if you haven't in a while. You won't be disappointed.

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Hunchback is perhaps the most serious and adult cartoon film Disney has ever come out with. While not terrifying to younger kids like The Black Cauldron may have been, Hunchback delves into very mature matters that go over kid's heads. While being extremely watered down to make it a G movie, the film still deals with lust, infanticide, sin, profanity, religious hypocrisy, the concept of Hell, prejudice, and social injustice, as well as the acceptance that Quasimodo longs for. As a child I understood the main concept of the movie; don't judge a book by its cover and to not be prejudice. Almost everything else didn't really hit me. But I knew, even then, that this was a far darker film than any I had seen, at least in the Disney realm. Now, Bluth films, that's another story. The Secret of NIMH freaked me the hell out when I was young. How is this film dark? Well, for starters, the beginning has Frollo about to drop a baby down a well. Frollo has that whole song about his messed up love for Esmeralda. Then you have Clopin who seems all nice until they go underground and then he gets all sinister. I still don't like Clopin to this day. The guard burn down those people's house, Esmeralda is almost burned at the stake, and the whole Court of Miracles is guarded by a bunch of people in skeleton costumes. Not exactly kid stuff. Now, that doesn't make the film bad. I do like it a lot. More now then I did when I was young. It definitely has one of the best openings of any Disney film. Also, have you ever noticed that evil characters also have evil horses? Just saying.

So how did Disney get the bright idea to adapt a depressing book into a children's movie? Well, development executive David Stain had apparently been reading the Classics Illustrated comic book edition of the story and decided to pitch it to the Disney higher ups. Disney liked the idea and wanted Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise to direct. They were looking at a few other projects but they didn't seem to be working so they decided to drop what they were doing and join up. This was the second time Trousdale and Wise directed a Disney film, the first being Beauty and the Beast. Both had read the story and knew they had to do something to make the story more child friendly. So, they added three talking gargoyles, make Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus kinder than they are in the novel, and making Frollo a judge instead of an archdeacon. I'm guessing they didn't want an evil religious character. To get some inspiration, animators and many others in the crew traveled to Paris to get some detailed looks at Notre Dame itself and make the film as accurate as possible. A small note about the animation. Remember the song Topsy Turvy? If you look at the crowd during it, and in fact at any other time there is a large crowd, you'll notice that there aren't that many different looking people. Disney basically created a group and had their computers regenerate them a bunch of different times to make it look like Paris is packed. I remember seeing a thing about it on the Disney Channel a long time ago, but can't find the clip now.

Some of the voice actors were picked because they had already worked with Trousdale and Wise on Beauty and the Beast, namely Tony Jay and David Odgen Stiers who voice Judge Claude Frollo and the Archdeacon, respectively, and who had voiced Monsieur D'arque and Cogsworth, respectively, in Beauty and the Beast. Others were picked because they had a unique voice, namely Demi Moore, who voiced Esmeralda. The producers wanted a non-traditional voice for Esmeralda and apparently Moore had the right kind of unusual voice! The voice of Clopin was found when the directors saw Paul Kandel playing a role in a stage version of Tommy. Quasimodo was voiced by Tom Hulce who is best known for portraying Mozart in Amadeus. Kevin Kline voiced Captain Phoebus, Kline best known for...well he's in a lot of weird movies, but I'm sure you've seen Wild Wild West. No? Good for you! If you were more fortunate you saw him in Dave or A Fish Called Wanda. The most recognizable of the gargoyles is probably Jason Alexander, who was in this little show that you probably haven't heard of called Seinfeld. The music was again tackled by Alan Menken. I really like the music for this film. The whole thing reminds me more of a Broadway musical than any other Disney movie. From "The Bells of Notre Dame," to "God Save the Outcasts," to "Topsy Turvy," this movie has Broadway written all over it.

Victor Hugo's novel, in which the film is based off of, has been widely portrayed in different mediums, whether in movies, television, plays, or comic books. So it's safe to say that it's a fairly popular story. But unless you've read the book or seen one of the other movies that is more faithful to the book, then you don't know what really happens. The story begins at the feast of fools, where Quasimodo is crowned King of Fools. The gypsy Esmeralda shows up and Quasimodo, along with Captain Phoebus, and Archdeacon of Notre Dame Claude Frollo. Frollo, like in the movie, is torn between his obsession with Esmeralda and his dedication to wiping Paris clean of sin. He orders Quasimodo to capture Esmeralda, but Quasimodo is quickly captured by Phoebus and his guards who save Esmeralda. Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and put out in the middle of the square for humiliation. Bounded, Quasimodo is dying of thirst, and Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water, thus saving him. He is now completely smitten.

Esmeralda is later charged with the attempted murder of Captain Phoebus, though it was actually Frollo who tried to kill him, seeing that he was about to score with Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging and is only saved from the noose when Quasimodo swings down and spirits her away to Notre Dame, invoking the law of sanctuary. Clopin, a street performer, and a bunch of Paris' criminals attempt to save Esmeralda by storming Notre Dame. Frollo convinces the King to help him get Esmeralda out of Notre Dame, basically breaking the law. Quasimodo is confused and drives Clopin and the riff-raff away, thinking they are there to hurt Esmeralda. He then decides to help the King's men find her, thinking they are there to help. Frollo "rescues" Esmeralda but is unsuccessful in winning her heart, so he does what any reasonable person would do: he has her hanged. Frollo laughs as Esmeralda is hung which sends Quasimodo into a fury. Quasimodo pushes Frollo off of the high reaches of Notre Dame in anger, then goes to the vault where they threw Esmeralda's corpse. He lays down with it until he starves to death. When people open the vault later and find the skeletons, Quasimodo's bones turn to dust upon trying to remove them. Happy ending right? Almost everybody dies! Hooray! An interesting note is that the book's true protagonist was Esmeralda, not Quasimodo. If you think about it, this movie is one of the only ones, besides maybe Pocahantas, where the guy doesn't get the gal. Depressing! At least they both don't die though. I always didn't like the ending of this movie though. I though Quasimodo deserved a little more hapiness! Oh well. At least Frollo died at the hands of what I can only assume was God's will. Coincidence that the gargoyles head just happend to fall off when he was on it? I think not.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released on June 21st, 1996 with the premiere coming two days before, screening at the New Orleans Superdome. The film went on to gross just a little over $100 million domestically, making it not one of the better money making Disney films of the Renaissance era. It did however do pretty well overseas, as one can imagine. Most critics gave the movie mixed reviews, claiming that it was too adult for kids and thus not appropriate for them. Others, mostly ones that were diehard fans of the novel, claimed that the film was too watered down and that the characters fell back on cliches. In other words, Disney couldn't win. While it may not be the very best of the Renaissance era, it still is one of the most breathtaking. The songs alone are worth seeing the movie for. So, if you haven't seen this one in awhile, dust it off and give it a watch.

Disney's Pocahontas

Pocahontas is one of those films that I didn't really appreciate when I was younger. It's still not my favorite Disney movie, but now that I'm older I can understand a few more concepts of the movie. When I was younger it just seemed like a Disney history lesson. Kids do not want history lessons in their movies. Trust me, I have to try and teach kids the stuff. Fortunately for me, I wasn't learning anything for real because almost everything that happens in the movie didn't actually happen. I'll get to that later. While some of the events may have been a bit different, Pocahontas still has its feet stuck in the ground of history. After all, this was the first Disney movie to be based on a real person (No, the Little Mermaid was not real). You don't have to love or to have studied history to enjoy this movie, though. Pocahontas is a beautifully animated and moral story about what can happen when you put yourself in someone else's shoes. It has great songs, and though it has a serious tone, it still has plenty of humor in it. All this makes for a classic Disney movie that is still loved by kids and adults alike.

I honestly wasn't able to find too much on the production of Pocahontas, so I'll just list the things I found out. Like I said in the last post, Pocahontas was started around the same time as The Lion King, with a lot of the more distinguished animators choosing to work on it, finding it more prestigious. They were right and wrong. If they wanted to work on a film that was successful and would be cited as one of the best of all time, then they bet on the wrong horse. If they wanted to work on a film that was expertly stylized and had a more serious tone, then they did choose the right project. Production took a good five years because of the way they chose to animate the movie. In fact, Pocahontas is labelled one of the hardest movies to animate for the Disney studios. With its complex color schemes, angular shapes, and facial expressions, it took the animators quite a bit of time to really get it all finished. It paid off however, as Pocahontas is cited as one of the most beautifully and realistically drawn of any character in the Disney canon. If you want a type of animation to compare it to, just think about 101 Dalmatians or Sleeping Beauty. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz took on the music for Pocahontas. Together they wrote such stand outs like "Just Around the River Bend," "Colors of the Wind,""Mine, Mine, Mine" and "Savages." The songs dealt with life choices, appreciating things that you don't understand, mindless greed, and jaded perspectives, respectively. Howard Ashman had planned on writing the songs for the movie with Menken but unfortunately passed away partway into Aladdin's production. The song "If I Never Knew You" was cut from the film, even though it had been fully animated and only lacked color. Disney had done a test screening and kids apparently found it boring. It found it's way back into the movie when the 10th anniversary DVD was released.

Since this was Disney's first historical account, they went all out to try and get an accurate representation of what things were like back then. They researched guns, clothing, boats, Native American culture, and a bit about Pocahontas herself. In an attempt to make it as accurate as possible, Disney hired Native Americans to help them get the history and culture right. This apparently didn't help since the movie was still labeled a complete fabrication by prominent Native American activist who claimed Disney watered down the wrongs done to the Native American people and how Disney stuck to basic Native American stereotypes in the movie. That's the problem with doing anything history based: someone will always say that it's wrong. Have you heard of a historical movie where everyone was happy with the end result? Nope! Some historian has to point out that there weren't those types of guns in that decade or that the word "Radical" was not uttered by Joan of Arc. Details, details. So, if you decide to someday make a historical movie, prepare to get dumped on by someone.

To help in authenticity, Disney also hired Native Americans to do the voices for most of the characters in the movie. Irene Bedard provided both the voice and the physical model for Pocahontas. John Smith was voiced by none other than Mel Gibson. Strangely this was something I didn't know about until many years later. This was the first film that Gibson actually sang in. Batman...er...Christian Bale voiced Thomas, and would later go on to play John Rolfe in The New World. David Ogden Stiers, though not a very recognizable name, voiced Ratcliffe, along with many other characters in Disney movies such as Cogsworth, the Archdeacon in The Hunchback, and Mr. Harcourt in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Flit the hummingbird and Meeko the raccoon were supposed to be talking characters, but in an attempt to make a more serious film, they became mute. Instead, Meeko is "voiced" by John Kassir, best known as the voice of the Crypt Keeper, and Flit is voiced by the legend himself, Frank Welker. A sad note is that John Candy had done a bunch of lines for a Pocahontas sidekick named Redfeather, a turkey. Unfortunately, Candy passed away in 1994 and the idea was scrapped.

So remember when I said that the story isn't exactly accurate? Well, here is the real story of Pocahontas. Well, at least a shortened version. John Smith and his fellow Englishmen land in the new world in 1607. Like with most expeditions in the new world, the Europeans have a few encounters with the natives, some friendly and some not so friendly. Smith was apparently minding his own business, floating down a river, when he was captured by a relative of Chief Powhatan. Smith describes in his journal talking to Powhatan and a large feast that takes place. And that's about it. It's not until a later letter about the capture that he mentions the chief's daughter Pocahantas saving him from execution. Many historians express doubt as to the Pocahantas saving him part of his story, mainly because he had a similar thing happen when he was captured by Turks in Hungary. Smith was most likely remembering the earlier event and reused the story to make Pocahontas more infamous. The first account of him just talking to Powhatan is probably all that is accurate about his many accounts, as Powhatan would want to speak to the settlers about why they were there. There is proof that Smith was friends with Pocahontas before the episode however, as she and a few others would come by every once and awhile and bring food to the settlers. This was before the people of Jamestown got greedy and attempted to take more land and food. Some have the theory that the event did happen but Smith misunderstood it. Historians argue that he was part of a ritual of death and rebirth and didn't know it. Smith "died" and was reborn as part of the tribe. This theory, along with many others, has a lot of holes in it, so no one is really quite sure what really happened. Darn you, History! Smith was later injured in a gunpowder explosion and taken back to England. Pocahontas thought he was dead until she found him years later in England, she being already married to John Rolfe.

The important thing to take from this is that Pocahontas was likely around ten years old when this all happened, so she and John Smith were not lovers in any way. Her interest in John Smith would of been nothing but childhood curiosity. Smith would have been around 27 and sporting a full beard. Sorry ladies, but he didn't look like the Disney John Smith. She apparently married Kocoum in 1612, but that probably ended when she was captured by the English in 1613. So, let's go over this: Pocahontas was not a woman in her late teens, early 20's, she did in fact marry Kocoum, she and John Smith did not have a romantic relationship, and her saving John Smith probably didn't happen. Sorry if I ruined the Disney version for you. So, you can see how Disney took a few liberties with their story. It's not entirely their fault, as there were versions of the Pocahontas story with John Smith and her as love interests for quite a long time before Disney came around. The one thing the movie did get right, besides some character names and places, was the fact that John Smith is hurt and is taken back to England in the end. No happy ending for Pocahontas. That seems a bit odd for a Disney movie. Also, the villain doesn't die. That is a rarity in the newer Disney movies. A bunch in the older ones don't meet their end, but it seems Disney is getting a little darker as the years go by.

Pocahontas premiered at Central Park in New York City attracting a crowd of 100,000 people. It still holds the record for attendance at a premiere. The movie came out in theaters June, 16th 1995, garnering good reviews and became a box office success. In the end, the movie made $141 million domestically, which isn't bad for a Disney movie, but paled in comparison to The Lion King. Fortunately, no one expected Pocahontas to beat The Lion King. The reviews were alright, but not stellar. Critics praised the fantastic animation but didn't like the story as much. The much publicized reaction from Native Americans probably didn't help with some of the reviews. It's still up there in the Disney Renaissance, though. I think it was the more serious tone that hurt the film, as I know I really didn't care for it as a kid. Disney apparently didn't learn its lesson as it took on another serious film in The Hunchback of Notre Dame the very next year.

Disney's The Lion King

The Lion King is probably the most beloved Disney film of my generation. When I saw the movie in theaters again for the 3-D release, everyone was going nuts during the whole movie. There was laughter, crying, and all around awe of seeing a classic put back on the big screen. There's just something about this movie that makes it so appealing to everyone. The characters, the songs, the overall story; it's just perfect. It came out at the perfect time, too. I was just nine years old and distinctly remember going to school and seeing every kid with a Lion King backpack, a Lion King lunchbox, and even Lion King folders and pencils. We even watched it at school when it came out on video in early 1995. I remember begging my parents to buy the movie when it came out on VHS. This movie was the coolest. I even had the Sega Genesis game that came out a little while after. I still feel bad for kids these days. They don't have the luxury that my generation had, growing up with outstanding animated films from Disney. Sure, Tangled and The Princess and the Frog have gotten Disney back on track, but for awhile there, kids had Home on the Range, Chicken Little, and Brother Bear. Yuck.

Disney's biggest hit of all time was first thought up when Disney was on its way to promote Oliver & Company in Europe. Katzenberg, Roy Disney, and Peter Schneider were on a plane going over the pond when the idea of a movie set in Africa came up. Katzenberg loved the idea and they started coming up with ideas for this film. Thomas Schumacher, the producer of The Rescuers Down Under, immediately latched onto the project "because lions are cool." Katzenberg put his ideas into it, basically putting in parts of his own life story. He wanted the movie to be about coming of age and death and mirror some of the events of his own life, especially his life in politics. The earliest draft of the story was penned by The Brave Little Toaster author, Thomas Disch, with the story being called King of the Kalahari. Linda Woolverton spent a year writing up a script and the name changed from King of the Kalahari, to King of the Beasts and King of the Jungle. Woolverton's story was a little bit different from the one we know today. "The plot was centered in a battle being between lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons, Rafiki being a cheetah, and Timon and Pumbaa being Simba's childhood friends. Simba would also not leave the kingdom, but become a 'lazy, slovenly, horrible character' due to manipulations from Scar, so Simba could be overthrown after coming of age." Yep. That sounds like a winner.

Directors and producers came and went and tried to retool the story, and it wasn't til Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff became the directors and Don Hahn the producer that things really took off. In two weeks they came up with a new story which had a better central theme, something Hahn felt was missing from the first draft. Along the way they realized that they could not call the movie, King of the Jungle. Why? Because lions do not live in the jungle but the savannah. The title was then changed to The Lion King. The Lion King became the first Disney animated film that wasn't directly based off something (sort of). The filmmakers claimed that the story was inspired by the story of Jospeh and Moses in the Bible and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Now, the Hamlet one I can see in the story, but the story of Joseph and Moses is a little harder to pick out. Rewrites continued to be made, namely making Timon, Pumbaa, and the hyenas more comic characters. Once the filmmakers teamed up with Tim Rice, who had done the songs for Aladdin along with Alan Menken, they had a real production coming together.

Part of what makes this movie so great is the voice actors. It's funny because for some reason I could recognize a bunch of the voices even at my young age. Mufasa was Darth Vader, young Simba was Randy from Home Improvement, grown up Simba was Ferris Bueller, Zazu was Mr. Bean, and Shenzi was Sister Mary Clarence. I didn't know their real names at the time, just their other character's names. Well, maybe Jonathan Taylor Thomas, because every kid knew who he was. James Earl Jones is Mufasa to me. Sure he was Darth Vader but when I hear his voice, I immediately go back to Mufasa. Other well known actors that did voice roles: Nathan Lane as Timon, Jeremy Irons as Scar, Cheech Marin as Banzai, and Jim Cummings as Ed. Nathan Lane had originally auditioned for Zazu while Ernie Sabella, who voiced Pumbaa, auditioned for one of the hyenas. They ended up meeting at the recording studio, and being current co-stars in a production of Guys and Dolls, wanted to audition together for parts as the hyenas. The did so well together that Disney instead decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa. Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were meant to play the hyenas but Chong was unavailable so they made the second hyena a girl and gave the part to Whoopi Goldberg.

Production on The Lion King started concurrently with Pocahontas and many of the animators wanted to work on Pocahontas because they felt that it was the more prestigious of the two. Even the story artists were hesitant to work on The Lion King because some felt that "the story wasn't very good." It's funny when people are proven wrong on a monumental scale. As it turns out, most of the animators for The Lion King were doing main characters for the first time. In the end, over 600 animators contributed to animating The Lion King. Disney harkened back to Bambi and many of their other realistic animal movies by bringing in live representations. Lions and other savannah animals were brought to the studios for inspiration with a trainer explaining each animals mannerisms. Part of the production team even went to Hell's Gate National Park to help give them a feel for what their backgrounds and environment should look like. The Pride Lands are modeled after the park. One of the most tedious parts of the animation process for the film was the wildebeest stampede. "Several distinct wildebeest characters were created in a 3D computer program, multiplied into hundreds cel shaded to look like drawn animation, and given randomized paths down a mountainside to simulate the real, unpredictable movement of a herd. Five specially trained animators and technicians spent more than two years creating the two-and-a-half minute stampede sequence." Yeah, its a good thing this film didn't bomb.

The Lion King was released on June 24th, 1994 to rave reviews. Most praised the story along with the superb animation. Then you had others who compared it to other Disney films and felt it didn't match up. Namely Siskel and Ebert, who felt that Beauty and the Beast was a better film, and that The Lion King was just a good film. What can I say, you can't make everyone happy, and it's hard when you release a string of extremely good movies. Someone's going to complain that one is weaker than the other. Critically, The Lion King is considered one of the best animated films of all time. It didn't do that bad in the box office either. With foreign grosses added in, the film made $772.6 million in its first run. With the re-releases, it's up to $951 million. It still stands as the highest grossing traditionally animated film of all time with The Simpsons Movie behind it. The Lion King also went on to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture for a Musical or Comedy and Best Original Score. It also won Best Original Score and Best Original Song (Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John) at the Academy Awards. So, I guess The Lion King did pretty well for itself. Did I mention it's also a smash hit as a Broadway musical?

Like every Disney movie in the 90's, there seems to be a little bit of controversy connected to the movie. The Lion King actually has two, and they are both very entertaining. The first claim is that The Lion King is one big rip off of Kimba the White Lion, a 60's anime TV show from Japan. Similarities include: The name of the title character, certain scenes being the exact same, and similar characters and situations. Matthew Broderick thought he was auditioning for a remake of the Japanese TV show, as he was familiar with it beforehand. Disney has officially said that all similarities are coincidental. Yoshihiro Shimizu, of Tezuka Productions, who created Kimba the White Lion, has refuted claims that Disney paid him and Tezuka Productions to use their ideas for the movie. He also explains the reason why he and Tezuka Productions has not tried to sue Disney: "we're a small, weak company. It wouldn't be worth it anyway... Disney's lawyers are among the top twenty in the world!" I have not personally seen any episodes of Kimba so I can't weigh in on this one but I'm sure there are scenes on YouTube if you are curious. The second claim against the movie is a sexual one. Remember the scene where Simba doesn't know what to do and flops down on that cliff and a bunch of leaves fly up? Well, as it turns out, the leaves form the word SEX, or at least that's what it looks like to a lot of people. As it turns out, it spells out SFX, a common abbreviation for special effects. It was intended as a innocent signature from the effects team and nothing more.

The Lion King is still one of my all around favorite Disney films, ranking up there with Aladdin, Hercules, and many of the classic films of the 40's and 50's. It's got one of the best openings of any animated film, some of the best and most catchy songs, and even some of the best characters. Who doesn't love Timon and Pumbaa? And for that matter, Ed? Who hasn't found themselves singing "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" or "Hakuna Matata?" If you didn't get to see the film again in 3-D, pop it in your VCR/DVD/Blu-ray player and prepare to be taken back to Elementary School.

Disney's Aladdin

We've finally made it to one of my favorite Disney movies of all time (the other being Hercules). This film was the first one that I saw more than once in theaters. For me as a child, that was huge. It had great songs, funny lines, larger than life characters, and a big snake that scared the crap out of me (I made a vow not to call any bully a snake, as I feared they would in turn say, "lets see how snake like I can be!" and proceed to morph into my worst nightmare. I had a very active imagination). Though something that stuck with me after watching it those two times, more than the songs and characters, was the ultimate moral of the story: be yourself and everything will be fine. Aladdin tried, through a mystical being, to change himself into what he thought would be acceptable to others, when in the end, he was accepted more for being himself. In fact, the princess Jasmine doesn't quite fall completely in love with Aladdin until the truth comes out about his real character. Besides the overarching moral, the movie struck on the very real struggle with feeling trapped. Aladdin was trapped in what he perceived as an inescapable life as a "street rat." Jasmine was trapped in her life as a princess, unable to do what she really wanted in life. Genie was trapped not really by a situation so much as a responsibility to the lamp, tethered to it until someone wished his freedom. Even Jafar was trapped in his role as the royal vizier, doing the sultan's bidding. The movie showed that even though you may feel trapped by your current situation, there is a way out, as long as you get out the right way.

This movie wouldn't of been possible had it not been for Howard Ashman, the lyricist that had worked on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Ashman, way back in 1988, pitched the idea of doing a musical adaptation of the story of Aladdin. There was a little bit of interest, so he and fellow lyricist Alan Menken started to write songs for their proposed Arabian Nights adaptation. Linda Wooverton eventually hashed out a screenplay and even The Little Mermaid's directors, Ron Clements and John Musker signed on to direct. The directors had the choice between three projects, the others being Swan Lake and King of the Jungle, and they picked Aladdin (I'll give you one guess what King of the Jungle eventually turned into). Musker and Clements worked on the screenplay and eventually handed it in to Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg looked it over and determined that it "didn't engage." Katzenberg did eventually greenlight the production, but it was only after the screenwriting duo of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio rewrote it. Clements and Musker, along with everyone that had worked for quite a long time on the storyboards and screenplay affectionately called the period during the rewrite as "Black Friday."

Many things were thrown out of the first draft, namely about characters and not about plot. Aladdin, who was modeled after Michael J. Fox was changed into more of a Tom Cruise looking character with a rougher attitude like a young Harrison Ford. Katzenberg stated that in no concievable world would Jasmine be interested in Aladdin if he was a Michael J. Fox type character. He remarked that what they had was Julia Roberts and Michael J. Fox, which doesn't work. What they needed was Julia Roberts and Tom Cruse. The crew still didn't want Aladdin to be a big buff looking idiot, so they made him just a big older and athletic looking. They wanted to retain the boy like charm that was going to make the character likeable. Jasmine's character was also changed, becoming a stronger and more bold character. I figure that after Beauty and the Beast, Disney couldn't bear to have a female lead be a passive damsel in distress like they had in the past. Iago, initially meant to be a proper, British accented bird, was changed after the crew had seen Beverly Hills Cop II and seen Gilbert Gottfried's performance. Iago would ultimately become a loud, annoying bird. Aladdin's mother was a big part of the original screenplay, but the new writers found her to be unnecessary, so Aladdin became an orphan. So sad. There were minor changes to the story however, as some plot points changed to be more like the 1940 film, The Thief of Baghdad.

The characters of Aladdin were, for the most part, all based off of work by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (trust me, you've seen his work). The production designer Richard Vander Wende found the style appropriate, as it bared similarities to the swooping lines of Persian miniatures and Arabic calligraphy. I said almost all were, as Jafar was not, his supervising animator, Andreas Deja, wanted Jafar to be contrasting. You can see by the picture to the left that they kept each character design to a specific geometrical shape, keeping with a more caricaturist drawing. Each character was animated alone, with animators working together when scenes called for it. This proved difficult as some animators were in California, and some in Florida, so some animators like the ones for Aladdin and Jasmine had to keep faxing or sending designs to each other. In terms of broad animation, the layout was based off of the layout supervisor's hometown of Isfahan, Iran. Inspiration for the rest of the scenery came from old Disney movies from the 50's and 60's, plus the movie The Thief of Baghdad. Coloring of the cells was once again done by the CAPS process and computer animation was used in several scenes, namely the tiger's head of the Cave of Wonders and the Cave of Wonders escape scene.

Aladdin really has more of a star-studded cast than the last couple of films. Beauty and the Beast had Angela Lansbury and a bunch of people you've never heard of. The Rescuers Down Under had three fantastic actors that you've probably heard a little about from your parents. And The Little Mermaid had...well....Buddy Hackett. All recognizable to our parents, but not for us, unless your parents made you watch Murder, She Wrote. For the most part, Aladdin's voice cast was recognizable to its young audience. Gilbert Gottfried, who voiced Iago, was in Problem Child, which I had seen a bunch of times before Aladdin came out. Scott Weinger, who voiced Aladdin, was D.J.'s boyfriend Steve on Full House. Frank Welker, who voiced Abu and Raja, voiced Fred in Scooby Doo plus a bunch of other characters from our childhood. And of course everyone recognized Robin Williams providing the voice of Genie. Jim Cummings provided the voice of Razoul, the palace guard, whom you may remember as the voice of Pete in Goof Troop and Winnie the Pooh from...well everything with Winnie the Pooh in it since the early 80's. The one casting I find humorous is the one for Jafar. Jonathan Freeman (left), who provides Jafar's voice, doesn't look like he could conceivably make that voice come out of his mouth. In fact, Jafar's supervising animator (right) looks much more like he should be the voice of Jafar. I mean just look at him! He's got the facial hair and everything. Maybe I'm just crazy.

A little refresher for all those not privy on how animation works: the voice actors do their lines, then the crew animates it. If it went the other way, then you wouldn't of seen such a great performance from Robin Williams. Most of his lines were ad-libbed, which was extremely rare for animated pictures. The crew just gave him a subject to work around and let him loose. The crew ended up having to go through hours of material from Williams and taking out the parts that were funny enough, or on topic enough to make it into the film. Williams was actually pretty hesitant to do the film, though the genie part was written with him in mind the whole time. It wasn't until Clements and Musker put one of his stand up routines to the genie animation did Williams agree. Things did not end to well between Disney and Williams however. Because Good Morning, Vietnam had done so well, it being a Touchtone film which is owned by Disney, Williams agreed to do Aladdin for SAG(Screen Actors Guild) scale pay ($75,000). He had a few conditions however: that his name not be used for marketing and his character not taking up more than 25% of advertising artwork. Disney, for financial reasons went back on the deal on both counts. As a result, Disney and Williams had a bitter falling out and Robins refused to do anything Disney. So, you can blame Disney for Williams not voicing Genie in Return of Jafar or the Aladdin TV series. After Katzenberg left however, the new president Joe Roth issued a public apology to Williams. Thus, Williams did provide the voice of Genie in the second Aladdin sequel, King of Theives, for considerably more than scale. Dan Casteleneta, who you may know as the voice of Homer on The Simpsons provided the voiced of Genie in Return of Jafar and the TV series. Castellaneta did all the voice work for Genie in King of Thieves, but after Williams agreed to do the film they erased all of Castellaneta's voice track. Don't feel too bad for Castellaneta as I'm sure he got paid for his work and I'm pretty sure he gets a pretty penny for doing The Simpsons.

The original story of Aladdin comes from Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. In the story, Aladdin lives in China as a young impoverished boy. Aladdin is tricked into following a sorcerer around since the guy claims to be his dad's brother. The sorcerer claims that he is going to take Aladdin away to make him into a wealthy merchant. Aladdin's mother falls for it and lets him go. The sorcerer's real motive however is to have Aladdin go into a magic cave of wonders full of booby-traps to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp. Aladdin finds out too late that he is being tricked and is trapped in the cave. Bummer. Luckily for Aladdin, the sorcerer unwittingly gave him a magic ring. When Aladdin happened to rub it for no conceivable reason, a genie sprang out of it. Carrying the lamp, Aladdin is whisked away back to his mother by the genie. His mother decides that she needs to clean that ruddy old lamp so she's going to rub it with some cloth. And of course a more powerful genie pops out of the lamp. I guess everything houses a genie in this story! Anyhoo, so Aladdin, without any limit to his wishes, becomes rich and powerful leading him to marry Princess Badroulbadour. Hmmm...OK from now on she is going to be referred to as Princess Bad.

The genie even builds Aladdin a palace more elegant and exquisite than the sultan's. The sorcerer's doesn't like that Aladdin's all rich and powerful now so he sets out to steal the lamp. He somehow gets to Princess Bad and convinces her to swap the magic lamp for a new one. Princess Bad doesn't know the significance of the lamp, because I guess she has been ignoring that big genie that her husbands been palling around with, and trades it away. I mean, really?! How would she not notice a genie building a palace?! That's it, her name is now Princess Brick, and for obvious reasons. The sorcerer orders the genie to take Aladdin's palace to his home in Maghreb. Aladdin, still having the magic ring, has the lesser genie take him to Maghreb, since the lesser genie cannot undue magic. Aladdin flies to Maghreb and totally gets Princess Brick and the lamp back. I'm not sure how, but I'm guessing that the story failed to mention that Aladdin was also a ninja. Oh, and Aladdin totally offs the sorcerer. Hey man, that's what happens when you mess with Aladdin. That's not the end however, as Princess Brick tries her hardest to screw everything up again. The sorcerer's older and more powerful brother seeks revenge, so he dresses like an old lady and tricks Princess Brick into letting him stay at the palace. Unfortunately for the guy, nobody told him about Aladdin having two genies. One of the genies tells Aladdin about the threat and Aladdin sneaks into the guys room and kills him ninja style, I would assume. Then Aladdin becomes sultan. The End. So, in summation, if you encounter a genie, the rest of your life will be cake.

The two stories are a bit different as you can tell. The book version is a little weird on the offset because it takes place in China and not in a Middle Eastern country like you would think. My only guess is that this is an alternate China where it is inhabited by Muslims instead of Buddhists and functions as an Islamic country. Also, the book version has a lot of annoying plot holes. Plot holes that make Aladdin seem invincible and the luckiest guy in the whole world. Disney realized that the original story's moral sucked. Ron Clements explains that, "the original story was sort of a winning the lottery kind of thing. When we got into it, particularly coming in at the end of 1980s, it seemed like an Eighties 'greed is good' movie. (...) Like having anything you could wish for would be the greatest thing in the world and having it taken away from you is bad, but having it back is great. We didn't really want that to be the message of the movie." Aladdin would of been a much different film if Aladdin literally got everything he wanted and there were no consequences. Instead, Aladdin only gets three wishes, two out of the three don't really bring him any happiness, and nobody actually likes him when he's pretending to be someone else. The only wish that does work out in the end is his decision to free the Genie and do something completely unselfish. Good job, Disney.

Aladdin premiered on November 13th, 1992 and didn't get a wide release until the 25th. It did reasonably well over its first weekend by grossing a little over $19 million, coming in second under Home Alone 2. With that competition, it didn't reach number one until eight weeks later. It hit number one five times during its twenty-two week run and ended up grossing $217 million domestically and over $500 million worldwide. It was then the highest grossing animated film of all time, and highest grossing film of 1992. It would later be beaten by The Lion King for highest gross for a traditionally animated film. It is now third behind The Lion King and The Simpson's Movie. Most critics praised Robin Williams' performance and the movie as a whole. Legendary animator Chuck Jones even called it "the funniest feature ever made." Aladdin is widely loved by critics and audiences but it is not without its detractors. Some found the characters to be too bland and just cookie-cutter characters. Roger Ebert praised the movie, but said its musical numbers were not as good as The Little Mermaid's and Beauty and the Beast's and that Aladdin and Jasmine were pale and routine.

Aladdin is also not without controversy. Though we may not have given the line a second thought as children, our parents probably thought the line, "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face," was pretty odd and just a bit racist. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee lobbied Disney to have the lyrics changed and all releases now have the line, "Where its flat and immense and the heat is intense." Animation fans have also pointed out the similarities between Aladdin and the long suffering production of The Thief and the Cobbler. Though The Thief and the Cobbler came out after Aladdin, it had been in production since the 60's and many find that some ideas and characters were lifted from the stalled production. Since The Thief and the Cobbler came out after Aladdin, it has now been labelled a poor copy of Aladdin, which is really too bad because the movie is really quite good. Some of you may have seen The Thief and the Cobbler when you were young, but don't know the messy history behind the animated masterpiece that was to be director Richard William's Magnum Opus. I'll get to the story here eventually, as I have to get through all these Disney films first. Next up is everyone's favorite, The Lion King!

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

I can confidently say that this was in fact the first Disney movie I saw in theaters. I remember entering a contest at the old Brighton movie theater and winning a big Beauty and the Beast gift basket. I was seven, and a boy, so I decided that my sister would like it better. For me, Beauty and the Beast has been something that has taken a while to grow on me. I'm sure I found it entertaining as a child, but in essence I found it to be more of a girl's movie, so I didn't watch it that many times. Same with The Little Mermaid. Those were my sister's favorites, not mine. I would have rather watched Aladdin or Hercules. That being said, it's much higher on my list now that I'm older. I may not of seen it when I was younger, but Beauty and the Beast is very much a masterpiece of storytelling. I'm not the only one who thinks so either, as evidenced by it's nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars in 1992. Whether you think it's a girl's movie or not, you have to admit that it's a great piece of film. I can guarantee that everyone in my generation has at least seen it once in their lives and can recount a funny scene or sing one of its many songs. I think it's up there with The Lion King in the nostalgia department.

Beauty and the Beast was yet another idea that Walt wanted to do in the early days of his full length motion pictures. Attempts to actually make the film in the 30's and 50's didn't pan out since they writers couldn't come up with a good enough draft. It's also thought that Disney was discouraged from making it in the 50's, as Jean Cocteau had just released a film version in 1947. Thanks a lot, France! After the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit however, Disney decided to give it another go. The first thing that makes Beauty and the Beast different from its predecessors is that it was made through a script instead of storyboards. So, it was written like any old live action movie by having a screenplay. Because of this fact, Beauty and the Beast has an unusual amount of writers. One might say that too many cooks would ruin the recipe, but as we have all found out, that wasn't the case for this movie. On seeing the original story in 1989, Jeffrey Katzenberg hated it so much that he ordered the process to be completely redone. Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale were hired on to direct the film, though the only thing they had ever directed was Cranium Command, a ride in EPCOT. Ron Clements and John Musker were asked to direct, but declined since they had just finished with The Little Mermaid and wanted a rest. Katzenberg wanted to make Beauty and the Beast a Broadway musical type performance, much in the same vein as The Little Mermaid, so he asked Mermaid's songwriter Alan Menken and other songwriter Howard Ashman to develop the music. Ashman, just learning that he was dying of AIDS, was reluctant to join the struggling production team, especially since he was already working on Disney's pet project, Aladdin. He ultimately decided to sign on, but due to his health, all pre-production had to be moved to his home in New York. Disney was finally on its way to delivering another hit. Now they just had to get a decent script made.

The original story of Beauty and the Beast basically just has the two eponymous characters, which wasn't really working out for Disney's version. They wanted to find a way to brighten up the gloomy story and make it fun to watch for the whole family. They decided the best way was to add a whole bunch of characters. The biggest additions were the household items that talked, and an actual villain in Gaston. The household items would function as the comedy relief for the somewhat dark tale, and Gaston would provide the suspense and pig-headed charm. This, unfortunately, was not pure genius dreamed up by the Disney writers, but a borrowing of ideas from the French film of 47', which had a oafish suitor and inanimate objects that come to life in the castle. The characters however, were given a life of their own and were apparently good enough to have the script accepted by Katzenberg in 1990. The production team started on the storyboards and had to fly back and forth from California to New York to have Ashman OK each one, though they were in the dark as to why.

Unfortunately for the production team, the film had to be done in two years instead of the usual four thanks to the two years wasted on the original script. Though the movie may have been rushed, the product came out exceptionally well. Beauty and the Beast is the second film to use the CAPS digital scanning, inking, painting, and compositing system of software developed for Disney by Pixar. Not only did the software allow the production team to cut a lot of time out on animation, but also added color, depth, and multiplane effects. Computer animation was not used extensively in the film, mostly taking place in the ballroom scene. This scene however, led many executives to jump on the computer animation bandwagon.

The music sequences went through a few changes throughout production. "Be Our Guest" was originally supposed to have the household objects singing to Maurice, Belle's father, instead of Belle herself. One of the story artists suggested that it would make more sense for Belle to be the recipient of the song and the directors had the sequence redone. "Human Again," which was a song sung by the household objects about what it will be like when they are back to normal, was written and recorded, but ultimately scrapped since it caused story problems about the timeline over which the story takes place. Menken and Ashman thus had to come up with a replacement song. "Something There" became that replacement song, one sung by Belle and the Beast on their growing affection for each other. This was added very late in the game and to save on time they made it a voice-over song. "Human Again" was later revised by Menken and used in the Broadway version of the musical and was included on the 2002 DVD release of the animated film. During pre-production, Ashman succumbed to his illness and passed away eight months before the film was released and before the film was even finished. Ashman's work on Aladdin had to be picked up by another songwriter, Tim Rice. Beauty and the Beast was dedicated to Ashman's memory.

Beauty and the Beast, AKA La Belle et la Bete, was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneve in 1740. The better known version was written a few years later by Jean-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Geez these French people have long names! Beaumont's version goes like this: There once was a man who had three daughters. The man was very wealthy and gave his daughters all they desired. The most beautiful and unselfish of the daughters was the youngest, named Belle. One day, the father learns that his fortune is gone since all of his ships were destroyed in a tempest, or a very big storm. The family is forced to move into a small cottage and all work to stay alive. The father then learns that one of his ships did in fact make it out of the storm and was arriving at a nearby port. Before the father set out, he asked his daughters if they desired a gift that he could bring back to them. The first two daughters, thinking that their father's riches had returned, asked for jewelry and expensive clothes. Belle asked for something far less extravagant: a simple rose, as they didn't grow in the area they lived. The father set out and arrived at the port, only to find that all his belongings and goods had been used to pay off his debts. He was basically no better off than he started. He relented that he was not able to buy his daughters their gifts but started on his way home. He, of course, got lost along the way and wandered into a majestic palace. There he found a large feast laid out. He assumed it was a gift from the non-present owner. He partook of the feast and then took a nap. When he woke, he went off again, but not before he took the lowliest rose out of the mysterious owner's rose garden.

Suddenly a beast appeared and scolded the man for taking one of his most prized possessions after he had gave him such a feast and hospitality. The beast is about the kill the poor father until the father explains that it was only a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast spares him, but tells him that the father, or the youngest daughter must come to palace and live there with the beast for the rest of their days. The father agrees and receives not only the rose for Belle, but the jewelry and expensive clothing for the other daughters. He returns home and gives the daughters their gifts, but Belle notices that something is troubling her father. He reveals his predicament and Belle volunteers to go to the palace in her father's place. She arrives at the palace and is received graciously by the beast who tells her that he is her servant from now one. The beast gave her all that he had to give and talked with her every day. Each night, he would ask her to marry him, but Belle would refuse. Each night, Belle would have odd dreams of a handsome prince asking Belle why she keeps refusing the Beast's proposal. Each time Belle responds that she only loves the beast as a friend. What guy hasn't heard that one before? Belle lives with the beast for several months, never connecting the beast with the prince in her dreams. She eventually gets extremely homesick and asks if she can go home. The beast relents, but asks her to come back to him in a week's time. She agrees and the beast gives her a mirror and a ring. The mirror will allow her to see the beast at any time, and the ring, when turned three times, will take her back to the palace instantly. She is welcomed back home by her family with much joy, but her sisters see how well fed and happy she is. They become incredibly jealous and decide they want to ruin everything for Belle. Knowing that Belle has only the week to spend with them, they attempt to have her say longer so hopefully the beast will become angry and gobble her up. They rub onions on their eyes to make it appear as if they are crying and beg Belle to stay just one more day. Belle is moved by her sister's (un)genuine feelings and stays an extra day. The next day, Belle checks on the beast with her mirror only to discover that the beast is dying from a broken heart by the rosebushes where the rose was taken. She uses the ring to get back to the palace and tries to save the beast. She weeps over the dying beast and tells him that she loves him. One of Belle's tears falls on the beast and he magically turns into the handsome prince that she recognizes from her dream. They get married and they live happily ever after. A lot of similarities between the two versions, though characters are omitted from each one. The beast is portrayed different ways in the book versions, some as a scaly gremlin creature, some as a hairy boar or Bigfoot looking beast.

Beauty and the Beast was released in November, 1991 to universal praise. Many named the ballroom scene as the highlight of the movie along with the many musical numbers. Others praised the way that Disney attempted to undo the female stereotypes of their previous films by making Belle a smart, independent woman who didn't do housework the whole movie. I have still heard nitpickers complain about the abusive relationship side of the movie. Some claim that the movie supports the notion that women should stay with an abusive male, because eventually they will change and become the perfect man. I, for one don't think that was the message that Disney was trying to get across, so I think those people are just trying to find something wrong with a great film and great story. Beauty and the Beast even went on to do the unthinkable and be the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It lost to Silence of the Lambs, but it's still a huge honor.

Beauty and the Beast has gone on to make 377 million overall, not counting the amount it's going to make with the 3-D release coming in January. Its also found an audience on Broadway, as it has become an extremely successful Broadway musical. Whether you love the movie for the characters, the story, or the songs, Beauty and the Beast is just Disney at its best and ranks up there with Snow White, The Lion King, and Bambi.