A Bela e a Fera: O Mundo Mágico de Bela

You know what, I think I can understand why the series has never happened. Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World is one of the worst Disney sequels alongside The Haunchback of Notre Dame II. As it was originally intended to be a TV series, all the episodes are piled up into something a lot more questionable as a movie. And as a result, everything about this is unpleasant. The segments have little to no connection to even count this as a movie, the morals are hammered down, the occurring characters are derailed, the new characters are obnoxious, and the animation is just dated television quality. I would've forgiven this if all these "episodes" were served as the cancelled series in one of the bonus features on a DVD special edition. But looking at this movie as a whole, it's a complete embarrassment. If you love the original film, then please. Stay away from this movie. For a movie that has one of the morals about apologizing, that's what this movie should do for ruining the original film. I don't think this will even work as a TV series.

This movie was probably one of the worst I've ever seen. I kept watching out of sheer morbid curiosity. The plots were bad. The animation was bad. The songs were bad. There were some places that the animation was so bad that I literally laughed out loud. It's boring as snot otherwise. If you had any respect for any of the characters before it goes out the window completely with this movie. The beast is a GIANT violent control freak and Belle always blames herself for stuff that's not her fault. The only reason anyone would ever want to watch this more than once besides masochism would be if they wanted to remember their parents domestic abuse toward each other as some kind of dismal nostalgia.

Disney has now made straight-to-video sequels to a good bunch of their many animated features. Two of these were made for their 1991 classic, "Beauty and the Beast". Well, these ones aren't really sequels, as they are both set in between the events of the first film. The first of these two straight-to-video films was "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas", which seems to be disliked by quite a few fans of its theatrical predecessor, but I think that can usually be expected with sequels. However, this second one, "Belle's Magical World", is definitely inferior.

The film features three short stories, all of which take place while Belle is in the castle, and the place is under the spell of the enchantress. The first is "The Perfect Word", where a misunderstanding at the table between Belle and the Beast leads to trouble, and neither wants to be the first to apologize. The next story is "Fifi's Folly", where Fifi and Lumiere's fifth anniversary is coming up, and Lumiere is unprepared, so Belle helps him. However, Fifi sees Lumiere practicing romance with Belle, and thinks they're actually in love. The film ends with "The Broken Wing". In this story, Belle takes care of a bird with a broken wing, but a bird in the castle will probably mean trouble if the Beast finds out, as he hates birds!

The plot description I gave is for the original VHS version of Disney's third "Beauty and the Beast" movie. Apparently, in the DVD version, there is another story added called "Mrs. Potts's Party", but I've only seen the original version. However, since I highly doubt that one story would stand out as a classic over the rest, I see no point in watching the special edition. Anyway, the first thing I will say about "Belle's Magical World" is that the animation is very 2-dimensional compared to what we're used to from Disney, which would obviously disappoint many people. I didn't like "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas" that much, but you certainly can't say the same about its animation. I'm sure the stories in "Belle's Magical World" could entertain many kids (mostly younger ones, I think), and each story has a moral, so they could also teach them some valuable lessons. However, for adults, the film really doesn't have a lot. I personally didn't find any good humour in it, found that the constant conflict between Belle and the Beast got tiring, and the stories did not impress me too much at all in any way (they're not very well written). In "The Perfect Word", the way Belle says to the Beast, "You're acting rude... and foolish!" is a bit cheesy, and I think there are quite a few other cheesy moments in these stories.

By the time this straight-to-video movie first came out, I was around eleven or twelve years old. I don't know what I would have thought of it at the time, as I had lost interest in Disney by then, and it would be years before I would gain any of that interest back. Even when this movie was first released, I think I was a bit past the age group it was aimed at. I never saw "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas" until a couple months ago, but unlike that film, I never even heard of this one until recently, I think just after seeing the first sequel to Disney's 1991 hit. Well, as much as I like the theatrical original, I wouldn't have been missing much if I never became aware of this film's existence. For little kids, I'm sure "Belle's Magical World" can be highly entertaining, and probably somewhat educational with its morals, but I do not recommend it for adult Disney fans.

The first Beauty and the Beast film is for me one of the best Disney films ever and while the second(the enchanted Christmas)was perhaps not as strong it still maintained all the warmth and humour of the first instalment.

This film again has all of these traits but while The enchanted Christmas would not have looked out of place as a cinema release Belles' magical world does looks and feels like the straight to video film that it is.

The short stories feel like chapters from a fairy story and the links in between are sweet with some classic Disney songs included. Interestingly for a third sequel most of the original cast return and this I think is what raises this film above other straight to video films in terms of quality.

Overall this is a worthy part of the classic Disney series.

Uninteresting plots, bad dialogue, forgettable songs, and ugly animation. It's not only the worst direct to video Disney sequel, but also one of the worst Disney movies overall.