Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) (V)

Director:

Andrew Knight

Writers:

Flip Kobler (writer) &
Cindy Marcus (writer) ...

Release Date:

11 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Music

Plot:

Belle prepares the castle for Christmas against Beast's wishes, trying to bring him happiness for the season...

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Sequel | Pipe Organ | Flute | Beauty And The Beast

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Paige O'Hara	...	Belle (voice)
Robby Benson	...	Beast (voice)
Jerry Orbach	...	Lumiere (voice)
David Ogden Stiers	...	Cogsworth (voice)
Bernadette Peters	...	Angelique (voice)
Tim Curry	...	Forte (voice)
Haley Joel Osment	...	Chip (speaking) (voice)
Frank Welker	...	Phillippe / Sultan (voice)
Jeff Bennett	...	Axe / Poke (voice)
Jim Cummings	...	Various (voice)
Kath Soucie	...	Enchantress (voice)
Paul Reubens	...	Fife (voice)
Angela Lansbury	...	Mrs. Potts (voice)

Also Known As:

Beauty and the Beast 2 (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Sweden:Btl | Germany:o.Al. | UK:U | USA:G | Iceland:L

Company:

Walt Disney Animation Canada

Trivia:

In the early stages of production, the film was planned to be a direct-to-video sequel to the original film, taking place after the events of the first film and featuring Gaston's vengeful younger brother, Avenant, as the villain. Interestingly, Avenant was the villain in the 1946 French film, and the inspiration of the Gaston character, but did not appear in any way in the 1991 film. As the film would no longer be "Beauty and the Beast", however, the filmmakers felt it would lack the magic of the original, and decided to change the story entirely, making it into a midquel. Avenant's goal (to ruin the lives of Belle and the Prince), however, was used in the final scenes of the movie for the film's antagonist, Forte the Pipe Organ (who decided to kill them both to stop the spell breaking).

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Beast enters Belle's cell, he leaves the door open. However, when Forte plays his tunes to bring the castle down, the door is closed and locked.

Quotes:

Belle: It's a... a Yule log.
Beast: Huh?
Belle: A Yule log. It's a wonderful tradition. One log is chosen, and everyone in the house touches it and makes a Christmas wish.
Beast: Wishes are stupid. You made a Christmas wish last year. Is this what you wished for?
[unleasehs a flock of bats, which promptly disappears]
Belle: No. But I will keep wishing. And when the log is burnt on Christmas morning...
Beast: There will BE no Christmas.
Belle: But...
Beast: [shouts] NO! I am the master here!
Belle: [horified] How can you be so selfish?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

Stories

Not as bad as most say

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a sequel to Beauty and the Beast obviously, I wasn't too sure if I had wanted to see this because I thought it was just going to be one of those cheesy Christmas special things. But it turns out that this was just a semi-prequel for the story, just going for the stories in between when the time where the beast was still a beast, Belle was still trying to figure out her place in the palace as well as the servants who are still objects in this story. I actually thought it was a nice addition to the story, now I do think that this was unnecessary, because of course we always have to have a villain to these stories and this one somehow in between all the drama of trying to get the beast to turn into a prince, we have an organ that is trying to break the beast's heart away from Belle, yeah, it's silly.

Belle is still a prisoner in the Beast's castle. All the servants are trying to figure out a way for them to fall in love with each other, but with Christmas coming up, they look at this as a great opportunity to bring them together. Belle is excited for Christmas, but the beast isn't happy seeing how it's the one year anniversary of his spell being cast upon him. The organ player though is not in the mood to be mortal again, so he decides to figure a way for the beast to steer clear of falling in love with Belle.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a decent sequel, it's a little silly, but I think it wasn't that bad. It was nice little story to add to the fairy tale, it's for the kids for sure, but it's a nice family film as well. There are some good songs in here as well, also we have Tim Currey who is always an awesome villain. Over all, I'd say to give this movie a chance, it has decent animation, a charming story, and the original voices, how rare is that when it comes to a Disney sequel? But I do recommend Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, it's a nice Disney film, even for the holidays as well.

6/10