La bella e la bestia - Un magico Natale

Forte is a way better villain than Gaston. It would of been better if they made this a 30min short than a movie.

Don't get me wrong this was not a bad movie, I just didn't think that it fit somehow. It didn't seem like a sequel or the "missing middle chunk" of the beloved cartoon. The first film, to me, seemed to have been set in the middle to late fall, I can stretch my imagination and see it possibly being November but not December. I think they could have made Forte' much more interesting and menacing and Fife was cute, but I think the real kudos goes to Haley Joel Osment's Chip. Paige O'Hara's Belle sings a lovely song about story books and this little sequence was charming, but still it seemed to lack the essence that made the original so magical. I rarely watch these Disney sequels anyhow due to the animation not being what it's like in the originals. I took a gamble and watched this and it was good, but nothing like the first and finest.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a sequel to Beauty and the Beast obviously, I wasn't too sure if I had wanted to see this because I thought it was just going to be one of those cheesy Christmas special things. But it turns out that this was just a semi-prequel for the story, just going for the stories in between when the time where the beast was still a beast, Belle was still trying to figure out her place in the palace as well as the servants who are still objects in this story. I actually thought it was a nice addition to the story, now I do think that this was unnecessary, because of course we always have to have a villain to these stories and this one somehow in between all the drama of trying to get the beast to turn into a prince, we have an organ that is trying to break the beast's heart away from Belle, yeah, it's silly.

Belle is still a prisoner in the Beast's castle. All the servants are trying to figure out a way for them to fall in love with each other, but with Christmas coming up, they look at this as a great opportunity to bring them together. Belle is excited for Christmas, but the beast isn't happy seeing how it's the one year anniversary of his spell being cast upon him. The organ player though is not in the mood to be mortal again, so he decides to figure a way for the beast to steer clear of falling in love with Belle.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a decent sequel, it's a little silly, but I think it wasn't that bad. It was nice little story to add to the fairy tale, it's for the kids for sure, but it's a nice family film as well. There are some good songs in here as well, also we have Tim Currey who is always an awesome villain. Over all, I'd say to give this movie a chance, it has decent animation, a charming story, and the original voices, how rare is that when it comes to a Disney sequel? But I do recommend Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, it's a nice Disney film, even for the holidays as well.

6/10

It was in Disneyworld where I first came across this direct to video sequel for Beauty and the Beast. Being a fan of the first movie and a Disney fan in general, I bought it. I wondered how the prince turned into a beast again. Finally I put it in the hotel VCR and started watching. The Enchanted Christmas is not near as half as good as the first movie. I felt it was a real shame that Dinsey made this sequel as it some how slightly ruined the first Beauty and the Beast. I will hand it to Dinsey for getting -most- the original voices back. But still this movie did not have that charm that Disney movies should have. One huge let-down was the awful soundtrack. Besides "As Long As There's Christmas" I didn't think highly of any of the other songs. Forte was such a dull villain, I could actually hate Gaston but Forte was more annoying than evil. However the computer animation of him was not bad at all but didn't really blend in with the animation. The voices were good but the characters were just so dull in this movie. Lumiere, Cogswarth and Mrs. Potts didn't have that funny charm they had in Beauty and the Beast. Haley Joel Osment, I will admit did a good job as Chip- all the cast members did splendid jobs, but the characters were still not lively like in the first, the songs were dull and the story was the biggest let down. Why Disney feel they have to make a sequel to all their classics is beyond me... well money I suppose but what ever happened to 'the sake of the art'? I mean Picasso didn't make The Blue Period II: The Return of Depression, now did he?

The thing that really hurts this sequel (other than the lackluster work from all the normally superb voice actors, and deflated story) is the fact that this is OBVIOUSLY an afterthought of a sequel. The main villain, as well as some additional characters, were not even mentioned in passing in the 1991 film. There is really no need for this movie at all.

The only exceptional thing about this sequel is Tim Curry's excellent voice-over work, and the CGI imaging of his character, even if it is misplaced alongside the traditional animation. I'd say skip this altogether if you really enjoy the classic 1991 feature, as I do.