The third midquel in Disney’s animated “Beauty and the Beast” trilogy, “Belle’s Magical World” features four different stories that utilizes many of the original film’s characters. Overall, a fun and entertaining family film that children will definitely enjoy!
© Disney. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Belle’s Magical World
FILM RELEASE DATE: 1998
DURATION: 92 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, 5.1 Dolby Digital English, French and Spanish, English Subtitles for Deaf and Hearing Impaired, Frenchand Spanish Subtitles
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
RATED: G (All Ages Admitted)
RELEASE DATE: November 22, 2011
Directed by Cullen Blaine, Dale Case, Daniel de la Vega, Barbara Dourmashkin, Bob Kline, Burt Medall, Mitch Rochon
Written by Alice Brown (Fifi’s Folly), Richard Cray (The Perfect Word), Carter Crocker (Broken Wing, Fifi’s Folly), Sheree Guitar (Broken Wing), Chip Hand (Broken Wing)
Produced by Bob Kline
Associate Produced by David W. King
Unit Producer: Colin Baker
Music by Harvey Cohen
Featuring the voices of:
Robby Benson as Beast
Paige O’Hara as Belle
Jerry Orbach as Lumiere
David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth
Gregory Grudt as Chip
Kimmy Robertson as Fifi
Anne Rogers as Mrs. Potts
Frank Welker as Sultan
Jo Anne Worley as Wardrobe
From the “tale as old as time†comes a new Special Edition inspired by the original classic, Beauty and the Beast.
Join Belle, Disney’s spirited princess, Beast, Cogsworth, Lumiere, plus some charming new friends, as they discover how teamwork and friendship can turn a once-gloomy castle into a dazzling palace fit for a princess! Adorned with delightful bonus features, your favorite characters and enchanting songs, this fun-filled, instant classic proves that true beauty shines from within!
In 1991, Walt Disney Animation Studios debuted their 30th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics line and the film would achieve commercial success as it earned over $377 million worldwide and was the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and the film also received six Academy Award nominations, winning an award for “Best Original Score” and “Best Original Song”.
And to capitalize on the success of the film, Disney would release the two midquel’s of the “Beauty and the Beast” trilogy: “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas” (1997) and “Belle’s Magical World” (1998). The films would take place when Belle was being held inside the castle of the beast and both are trying to get to know each other.
For the third film “Belle’s Magical World”, all voice actors for the original animated film returned with the exception of the role of Mrs. Potts (previously voiced by Angela Lansbury) which was voiced by Anne Rogers.
When the video was first released in 1998, the film consisted of three segments but in 2003, for the “special edition” DVD release, it was changed to feature a fourth segment titled “Mrs. Pott’s Party”. With the release of “Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas” on Blu-ray, Disney has also decided to re-release the third film in the trilogy on DVD.
“Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas” is a film about misunderstandings and is broken up into several stories that involve misunderstandings among the characters.
To first preface of what the original film was about. An enchantress who is disguised as an old beggar asks the prince for shelter for the night in exchange for a rose. The prince refuses and the enchantress punishes him by turning him into an ugly Beast. She gives the Beast a rose and tells him that it will bloom until his 21st birthday. He must love and be loved in return before the rose petal’s have fallen off, or else he will be a Beast forever.
While the third film takes place during the time that Belle was kept in the castle, the Beast’s servants are worried that they need to do all they can to make Belle fall in love with the prince before the petals have fallen off. But the problem is that the Beast and Belle keep having arguments.
The first segment “The Perfect World” revolves around the Beast and Belle eating together. But with the Beast getting warm and sweaty, he demands the windows to be opened which makes his servants cold. As Belle tends to defend everyone in the castle because of their fear of the Beast, she gets into a heated argument and insults the Beast.
When Webster (a dictionary) translates continuously the insults that Belle has called the Beast, the Beast in anger, swats him and the relationship between Belle and Beast start to sour. But when Crane (papers) and LePume (a quill) takes things into their own hands in order to bring Belle and the Beast together, they don’t realize what problems they have caused when the Beast finds out the truth.
For the second story, “Fifi’s Folly”, it’s the anniversary of Lumiere’s first date with Fifi and the nervou Lumiere goes to Belle for advice on how to celebrate the special occasion. But Fifi mistakes Lumiere’s time with Belle as being romantic and becomes very jealous, to the point that she wants to get revenge for what she thinks is a betrayal of their relationship.
For the third story “Mrs. Pott’s Party”, Mrs. Potts is depressed about the weather, so Belle and friends want to have a surprise party for her.  But when Lumiere and Cogsworth become a rival in composing music for the party, they begin to sabotage each other’s work.
In the final story “The Broken Wing”, Belle and Beast have lunch but when an injured bird flies into the castle, her attention is diverted towards the bird and it angers the Beast. The Beast puts the bird in a cage and forces him to sing. Belle wants him to release the bird immediately but the Beast will not. Will this latest argument prevent the two from ever falling for each other?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
With the release of “Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas” and “Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World”, I was surprised to find out that the latter would not be released on Blu-ray but only on DVD. For the most part, this is the same DVD release from 2003 but with more special features.
“Belle’s Magical World” is presented in 1:33:1 aspect ratio and 5.1 Dolby Digital English, Spanish and French. Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.
It’s important to note, unlike “Enchanted Christmas”, there is no CG animation. If anything, compared to the last “Beauty and the Beast” midquel, the budget for this production was obviously lower.
While I don’t personally own the original 2003 DVD to do any comparisons, I will say that the picture quality seems slightly muted and does have white specks and scratches. The quality is quite similar to an ’80s or ’90s animated film in terms of presentation, as the film does look its age. Colors are not as vibrant and would lead me to believe why this film did not receive the HD treatment, unlike “Enchanted Christmas” which was released on Blu-ray.
But the film does feature beautifully painted backgrounds and there are not as many frames (as some characters stay still in the background) but it’s not terrible. I know many people back then who were not as thrilled that Disney didn’t give the film the same production quality as the original film and even the last direc-to-video film “Enchanted Christmas”. Granted, the first film is a big budget film that cost $25 million to make, “Enchanted Christmas” was created by Walt Disney animation’s Vancouver studio which was later shutdown due to budget cuts. So, this third film, a direct-to-video midquel obviously had a lower budget as it cost less to produce and doesn’t feature the CG animation that the first two films had.
But I doubt that the children will complain, mostly the adults who try to compare this direct-to-video film with the high budget original film or the last midquel but considering this is a lower budget production, I understand why older “Beauty and the Beast” fans were disappointed with this film back in 1998. But overall, DVD is good and what I would expect from a direct-to-video film and because it is more geared towards the children, I’m sure they will have fun watching it.
As for audio, “Belle’s Magical World” is not a film that has an immersive 5.1 soundtrack but for the most part, its dialogue and music are crystal clear. I heard no hiss or crackle during my viewing of the film.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World” comes with the following special feature:
- Disney’s Sing Me A Story with Belle – (22:58) A hybrid live/animated short feature featuring a non-animated Belle with cuts of animated and puppet-based characters. Belle encourages children to look beyond outer appearances to discover what is important.
- Belle’s Delightful Dinner Game – Help Belle plan a special dinner for the Beast.
- Disney’s Song Selection – Select you favorite song from the film to sing-along-to.
- Enchanted Environment – (3:00) featuring an animated 3D environment with music.
EXTRAS:
“Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World” comes with a slipcover case.
“Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World” for me was a film that seemed as if it was targeted primarily for a younger demographic.
As the original film definitely attracted people of all ages, because of the way the film was broken up to segments, I do agree with earlier reviewers who felt that the film seemed like a cartoon that you would see on television. But I also feel that the film was made for the children. Not focused more on the relationship of the Beast and Belle but to showcase all the characters and show a storyline about miscommunication and relationships. After a heated argument or debate, its important to work things out.
For me, this was a direct-to-video film and I didn’t have any high expectations for video quality or even for its storyline.  Granted, Disney has changed its strategy when it comes to their approach for direct-to-video releases (as seen with their “Tinkerbell” films) but back in the ’90s, the midquels were literally videos created to bank on the enormous popularity of the original animated film.
While I don’t think the special features would make me recommend a re-purchase of the DVD, for those who own the original, I would only recommend this if you loved the music and want the sing-a-long portion of it. Otherwise, you’re good with the original DVD that you have.
Overall, “Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World” was an OK film. I enjoyed the fact that they involved a lot of the characters from the original animated film but by doing that, I understand how some viewers feel it’s like watching several episodes of a cartoon. But with that being said, it’s a very good family film and a story that children will definitely enjoy!
