Rich T
Well-Known Member
We’re talking movies, and—as in any art—all that really matters is the final product, not the inspiration. Beauty and the Beast is (in my opinion) a much better film than Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty has incredibly strong design and clever use of a classic score. It also features a title character who does nothing and learns nothing while the film spends a ridiculous amount of time on three fairies bickering, saccharine forest critters and a “wacky” drunk minstrel.It's a question of Broadway vs the opera or ballet. While I do love Broadway, to say it's a higher art than the ballet is just silly.
Beauty and the Beast is a mixed bag visually, but the end result isn’t just a great animated film, it’s one of the most solid examples of tight, effective storytelling in film history. The end result is a better movie. As a bonus, its opening number is as close to an animated Gilbert snd Sullivan as we’re ever going to get.
But, again, when you’re judging a movie, the final product is what matters, not the base source material.