Tale As Old As Time

Every Disney movie is a "timeless classic" or "most beloved story" or "everyones favorite" or "the greatest story of all time". How often do you think that claim has been researched? Okay, to be fair, once in a while there is a movie that deserves some cheers. The Disney animated musical is a classic genre and the best of them make great live Broadway shows.
If there were one Disney animated musical that could live up to all the superlatives and make it as a Broadway show, it has to be Beauty and the Beast. The story is indeed a tale as old as time; it will never grow old, the music does everything music is supposed to do, the characters were just unbelievable enough to make us believe in them. All these things make Disney's Beauty and the Beast the definitive retelling of the classic fairy tale.

From the first notes of the Prologue background music, right to the last cord the chorus sings as the curtain closes, we are captivated. I can't believe the movie makers didn't think of putting this on Broadway until after it was in the cinema. The music begs to be on stage.

Our opening chorus number introduces us to 'Belle', the town she lives in, Gaston and his side kick. But more than just telling us who they are, we meet the town by hearing what Belle thinks of them, we meet Belle by hearing what the townspeople thinks of her and we meet Gaston by hearing what he thinks of himself, then Belle and then what the town thinks of him. So we have a whole web of relationships cleared up while watching a comic little slice of everyday life in the village. A fine example of musical story telling techniques.

Then we learn about Belle and her father and their relationship in No Mater What. The rest of the town may think the are both a little cracked but they have each other and that is all they need. It was important to illustrate this relationship because we have to know how deeply devoted Belle is to her father for the rest of the plot to develop properly.

Another standard of musical theater is the comic character song. Beauty and the Beast has an especially brilliant one for Gaston to sing while he is proposing to Belle. A good humble fellow would tell his beloved how wonderful she is when he is about to propose. But of course Gaston tells Belle how wonderful he is, assuming, all the time, that she agrees with him. The song is called "Me" and adjectives abandon me entirely when trying to describe it's hilarity. It made my Wow list.

Story conflict often arises in fairy tales (and especially Disney movies) from the hero's longing for the 'Something More.' Singing about the Something More is a tradition of the Disney musical (think about it: Hercules, Little Mermaid, Lion King, Hunchback, Mulan..etc. etc. they all have a Something More song.) Belle is no exception. The Something More is always very vague. Belle says she wants 'adventure in the great wide somewhere' what does that mean? What do people really mean when they say they want adventure? All the adventure stories I can think of involve the characters going through terrible hardship or danger in one form or other. Do people actually long for that? Like many of the hero's, she finds herself in an adventure. In the face of hardship, she longs for her quiet home again. She sings Home while trying to adjust to her changed circumstance. She went from being a lonely book worm in a town that doesn't understand her to being a prisoner in an enchanted castle. She shows herself to be capable of love deep enough to sacrifice herself. She has put herself here for her father's sake but she has lost him, perhaps forever, in the process.

The restlessness that you find in stories like these are really interesting to me. Why is it that people always want to be somewhere else? Fr. Spitzer would call this one of our absolute longings. All humans have an unlimited desire for perfect, love, goodness, beauty, truth and home. In a lot of those Disney Something More songs what the character is singing about is the longing for perfect Home. Hercules 'Go the Distance' comes to mind immediately. In many cases the characters find Home by finding someone to love. They come out of themselves and give to others. They are looking for a place where they will be loved and find it by giving themselves to someone else in an act of love. I believe that the longing for perfect home can only be satisfied by God but if they can't make it that far in a Disney movie, I guess I will be satisfied with the half way point.

Then there are people who run into a crisis and don't move out of themselves and overcome it. Gaston is a case in point. He has never been refused before. He has fallen apart completely. Now, this could have been a chance to reform for Gaston. He could have looked around and realized that he is not the center of the universe. Noticed the other people in the world for once and contributed to society. But No. His friend (who's name I can never remember) doesn't help any. He and the locals at the pub make sure Gaston continues to live on his ego despite Belle's rejection of him. And he hatches his dastardly plan to get Belle by treachery and blackmail.

Back to the Castle. I haven't even talked about the Beast yet. One more unlimited longing comes into play here. Beast needs to be loved unconditionally. He is deep in despair. He is so much unaccustomed to love in general. He realizes that he can do nothing to earn Belle's love, it must be a free gift. But he can choose to love her and do his best in that. Love was the lesson he was supposed to learn by being a beast in the first place. "If I Can't Love Her" he sings, there really is no hope.

But there is hope indeed. Belle learns Beast's lesson for him in that she learns to see beyond his ugliness and to his lovable self. I don't think he realized that he had a lovable self. Something There puts this discovery and transition in their relationship to music.

There are the wonderful castle servant characters and their equally memorable musical numbers like Be Our Guest. And Gaston gets to sing about his dastardly plan and generally villainousness in Maison Des Lunes and the Mod Song.

Who loves you unconditionally despite your beastliness? Christ of course. Belle is Christ for Beast. She demands more of him, as love should, and raises him above his savageness of appearance and character. Love makes us 'Human Again.'

It is the tale as old as time. Beauty and the Beast.