Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)

Astonished to find the Beast has a deep-seeded hatred for the Christmas season, Belle endeavors to change his mind on the matter.

Director:

Andrew Knight (as Andy Knight)

Writers:

Flip Kobler, Cindy Marcus

Stars:

Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Jerry Orbach

2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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 (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)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Judith Blazer	...	Chorus (singing voice)
Jeff Blumenkrantz	...	Chorus (singing voice)

Storyline

Belle prepares the castle for Christmas against Beast's wishes, trying to bring him happiness for the season. Forte, a pipe organ, fears that Belle's plans may eventually bring about an end to the curse... the curse that brought him more importance in the Master's life. Forte uses Fife, a flute who desperately wants a solo, to destroy Belle's plans and get rid of her.

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Plot Keywords:

told in flashback | anger | bad temper | talking object | temper | 

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Fantasy | Music | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

official site

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beauty and the Beast 2

Company Credits

Production Co:

Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Television Animation, Disneytoon Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters reunite (vocally), 15 years later, in this film, after previously appearing as boyfriend/girlfriend in 1982's "Annie" movie musical adaptation.

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Goofs

Throughout the film the chip in Chip's cup form switches from left to right.

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Quotes

Beast: [bellows] Christmas? She's planning Christmas?
Forte: Yeees. Awful, isn't it?
Beast: [sitting down at his chair in front of the fireplace] Perhaps she doesn't *know* how I feel about Christmas.
Forte: But she *does* know. She just doesn't care, like *I* do. She's actually trying to bring Christmas back to the castle. And you know how much we despise Christmas.
Beast: [sighs] The day my life ended.

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Alternate Versions

When the film was re-released on Blu-Ray and DVD in 2011, the following edits for the remastered version brought some small changes from previous releases of the film:

• The film is matted to match widescreen formats, while the original release was held in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio.
• The colors obviously, are slightly pale.
• When Belle sings "It'll stay up until July..." in the original release, the camera is at a Dutch angle, where as in the later release, it is straight.
• When Forte introduces himself to Belle ("I am Miestro Forte, court composer...") the sound appears to be slightly out of synchronization and there is a slight pause focusing on the steps before the camera pans up to Forte.
• When Forte shouts "I THINK NOT!" there is a keyhole cutaway when the camera zooms out, in the earlier releases, there is none.
• The Christmas angel on the tree at the end of the flashback is replaced by one resembling Angelique.
• The end credits are golden yellow like the end credits of the first movie instead of chalk white like in the earlier releases.

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Connections

Referenced in Nostalgia Critic: Doug's 1st Movie (2011)

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Soundtracks

Belle's Magical Gift
Written by Rachel Portman

User Reviews

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