farerb wrote:I disagree about adding the songs as well. I like Human Again in and out of itself, but adding it 10 years after the film and the score were completed really ruined the pacing of the film and made the score disjointed. For example, after each major song there's a playoff in the next scene, so what we got when they added Human Again was Something There -> Human Again -> Something There playoff. I'm sure if they had found a way to add it back then, it would have felt more organic to the film. The reason it worked with Pocahontas was because the song was cut really late in production and the score is filled with If I Never Knew You theme many times.
Nandor wrote:Agreed. The changes in animation also really stand out to me in Beauty. Mrs. Potts spout is just a tad too long, Cogsworth's glass panel doesn't reflect light that often during the rest of the film, Belle's eyes!, etc. I hate how they added yet another version of Belle to the film. And why did they change the book to Romeo and Juliette? That's a bit too on the nose... Also agreed the film doesn't flow too well with Something There -> Human Again -> Beauty and the Beast.
JeanGreyForever wrote:The animation errors didn't bother me very much since the original film is already fraught with inconsistencies so piling a few more on doesn't make that big of a difference, although Belle's eyes definitely needed to be reduced. They look more like Jasmine's eyes than her own there. I know King Arthur was the book that they read in the Broadway musical but I can't remember what book they read in the original deleted Human Again song. I do think King Arthur worked better just because it fit more with the stories of magic spells and daring sword fights that she talks about at the beginning of the film. The songs do pile on one after another although I suppose that was bound to happen considering that Something There replaced Human Again and all the Something There scenes (teaching the Beast how to eat, going out in the snow) were originally part of Human Again alongside the book reading scene.
I agree it can be too much to have three songs so close in succession (
Frozen had the same issue with "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?", "For the First Time in Forever" and "Love is an Open Door" AND then also "Let It Go" being piled one on top of another.), but they flow into each other well and they're great songs on top of that so I don't mind. Especially since I feel the lyrical themes of "Something There" and "Beauty and the Beast" are similar, so having "Human Again" in-between them keeps things from being repetitive. I also think the original playoff of "Something There" works for "Human Again" as well, as the castle is being cleaned up and decorated for the big ballroom sequence, and so is the Beast just minutes afterwards. The new animation is a bit wonky compared to the original, true, and them reading
Romeo & Juliet is a bit of a cliché, but I can overlook the inconsistencies and I really enjoy the way Belle and the Beast are interacting in that scene.
farerb wrote:I hated how the Beast didn't know how to read. He's a nobleman, he should know how to read.
See, I really liked that. He did know how to read though, he just had difficulties with it. I doubt it was the original intention, but I assumed it was because he was becoming progressively more beast-like, so forgetting how to read was just another way to show the consequences of the curse. He also communicated with roars and grunts with the castle staff throughout the movie, so him not being able to read well wasn't that far off.
farerb wrote:I disagree about DTV sequels. I thought they were unnecessary, especially the BatB ones, it was a self contained story (unlike the rest which you can play either with what happened before or what happened after), with only one conflict which can't be overplayed like how they did with the sequels. Belle and the Beaast can't argue about stupid things (like a bird) over and over, and the Beast can't repeatedly learn not to be a jerk all the time, that's redundant and abusive.
JeanGreyForever wrote:I know BATB: The Enchanted Christmas was at one point meant to be a full-fledged sequel set after the events of the first with Gaston's brother, Avenant, as the villain. I know Disney was afraid that no one was interested in the characters after their transformations, hence why all BATB related spin-offs were set during the time of the curse, but I think it severely constrained the franchise as well. Belle and Beast's relationship became watered down since there were only so many times that he could scream at her and she would forgive him after singing a sad song.
Ugh, I would have hated that. I loathe when they bring out never-before-seen-or-mentioned siblings or relatives and we have to pretend they were there off-screen during the events of original films (a bunch of Disney and non-Disney sequels did that). They could have gotten around those limitations by doing what
Swan Princess sequels did: have the third BatB see the return of the curse, even more severe than the last one, cast by a new villain this time, have the prince revert to the Beast (but not the rest of the castle staff), lose every trace of his intelligence and humanity and be used as the villain's pawn or a true secondary villain, and the rest of the plot would see the characters trying to save him.
The Enchanted Christmas was really dark in places, so this third movie could have continued the same pattern. The "moral lesson of the week" approach could have been used for the BatB TV show instead -- basically
Belle's Magical World but with several additional episodes.
Sotiris wrote:DisneyFan09 wrote:So you like the DTV sequels? Don't take this the wrong way, cause I don't mind if you actually do.
I have come to appreciate them more nowadays. My biggest pet peeve about them was their low-quality animation which used to really bother and frustrate me. However, after experiencing the digital 2D animation of today, I now find them decent-looking in comparison and wish animation still looked liked that. Let's face it, Disney's still making DTV sequels; they just premier on TV instead on DVD. Tangled Before Ever After, Big Hero 6: Baymax Returns, The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar etc. look worse than any of the DTV projects Disney ever made and yet people are eating them up while still criticizing the DTV sequels of the past which I find unfair, biased, and nonsensical.
Exactly. Of course they range from mediocre to terrible when compared to the originals and most of the plots are rehashed, but it was the only chance of seeing familiar characters in new adventures and new settings. Most of the time characters were also true to their original incarnations and sometimes even more developed (Anastasia in
Cinderella II and
Cinderella III, and Prince Charming in
Cinderella III).
Aladdin sequels were truly wonderful for what they were and how they came to be, and if it weren't for inferior animation they could be placed comfortably next to the original film. Granted, it could also be that the lack of new hand-drawn animation from Disney makes me see them through nostalgia-colored glass, but right now, I'd rather have DTV sequels than, say, this never-ending stream of live-action remakes or all those meta cameos in
Wreck-It Ralph 2. At least DTVs didn't pretend they had some artistic motives rather than being obvious cash grabs, corporate promotion and fan service.
I forgot to write this earlier, but another way we could have had DTVs (and hand-drawn animation!) continue was through movies like
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers. That was really fun and I don't know why DisneyToon never attempted anything similar. It also continued the tradition of
Mickey's Christmas Carol and
The Prince and the Pauper. Stories like
The Wizard of Oz,
The Man in the Iron Mask,
Tom Sawyer,
Gulliver's Travels and
Treasure Island could all have been adapted for this format.