La Belle et la Bête

There's a type of cheap movie which is often nicknamed a 'mockbusters'. These films are made to correspond to the release of a BIG movie...one expected to make many millions. Often they also have the same titles as the big Hollywood films...but are VERY quickly made and are incredibly cheap. "Beauty and the Beast" (1992) is such a mockbuster...as it aired soon after the Disney release but it's also a film which bears little similarity to the Disney version in quality. In this case, it's horribly animated by comparison and the story has many, many story elements which are not in the classic tale.

How bad is the animation? Well, the number of cels used in the story is minuscule...making the characters move jerkily and with minimal movement. A high quality film averages about 24 cels per second...and this one appears to be about 6....and that is not an exaggeration. And, because of this, the movement is not smooth and it's practically a slide show. Additionally, even if there were more cels, the artwork itself is third-rate...and that's probably a bit too generous.

As for the voice acting, with one glaring exception (the voice of Christopher Lee), this is also terrible. The voices (particularly of the bad daughters) is too cartoony for such a serious story and sounds just awful and inappropriate. And some, such as Beauty's father, really grate on you after a while.

So is there anything I liked about this film? Hmmm...let me think. No. Absolutely nothing...and the abysmally low overall score of 3.9 actually seems way overgenerous!