Fine? They brushed over a pivotal part of the story. The one part that had the chance to do something amazing and it got paid lip service.
I rode Rat a few times 3 days ago and would still rank it higher.
Yes, so does Pinocchio's Daring Journey (no brave sacrifice), so does Mr. Toad (no winning back of the deed to Toad Hall), so does Alice in Wonderland (no... well, frankly the Alice movie is so darn episodic, there is no pivotal part to that story).
The difference is that Pinocchio, Mr. Toad, and Alice exclude elements of their Movies in the name of making a better Attraction. Beauty and the Beast excludes elements of the movie in the name of streamlining the story for a medium that offers only 8 minutes to tell it.
A whole 30 seconds of the ride time goes by from the button of Be Our Guest to Belle's first line in Something There. Truly nothing happens in that 30 seconds aside from you moving from one room to the next. In terms of pacing that's a pretty outrageous sin when you've only got 8 minutes (actually less, but I'm being kind).
In a more perfect world, the attraction would have focused less on replaying the pivotal beats of Belle and Beast's love story and focused more on giving you a tour of the Enchanted Castle, happily punctuated with some familiar aspirational moments. Instead of offering the moments from the movie that would make for the most exciting and dynamic attraction, they've focused on the moments that propel the narrative forward. Heads up, Disney; These are not automatically the same moments.
There's a reason the best Fantasyland Dark Rides often play with the timeline or focus of events relative to their movies - because the movies don't translate directly to the experiential medium.
"Something There" is the biggest sin here, if I had to pick one. It has no business being anything more than a footnote in an experiential medium. It's a lovely song, but watching Belle and Beast stand still and sing it is not an aspirational moment. There's a reason it's Voiceover in the movie - it's all internal, and that freed the animators up to provide more interesting business to watch as the song played! Better would have been to glide past some leaded windows to see Belle and Beast outside throwing Snowballs at each other while an instrumental of the song plays. Plug that in for 10 of the 30 seconds it takes to get from Scene 1 to Scene 2 and you already have the pacing moving at a better clip. We don't even need to hear the lyrics, lovely though they are.
Even the scene with Belle and Beast standing at the Balcony looking at the stars is awkward - I get that they're trying to touch on the story beat of them dancing together the first time without spoiling the moment they've planned in the Ballroom later, but that is THE pivotal moment, so it's hard to tell that story if you have to move that beat. Count that as another reason to skip the narrative focus altogether. And instead of that great moment we get another completely inert vignette. It's as dramatic as a post-it that says "at this point they're in love".
The most physically active, dramatic, and exciting moments of the movie that also take place inside the castle really are these: Entering the Castle, First Encounter with the Beast, Be Our Guest, Visiting The West Wing, The Ballroom Dance, The Mob Song, The Transformation, and the Finale. The attraction hits on some of these between the Preshow and the Ride, but too much focus is given to moments where nothing is actually
happening. EVERY moment that's meant to have your focus should have something
happening, especially since this movie has so many great moments.
The more I see of the Queue the more I worry they may have overfilled it with good locations from the Castle. I'm sure it's exciting to visit those spaces on foot, but a meal that falters on the main course isn't made up for by a great appetizer.
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