La belle et la bête

While the 1946 Jean Cocteau and 1991 Disney versions are superior films of the timeless fairy tales, Cannon Movie Tales' 1987 adaptation is very worthy and one of the better Cannon Movie Tale films.

Beauty and the Beast (1987) is one of their best-looking films, Cannon's films were always made on a low budget but Beauty and the Beast is one of the few where it is not so painfully obvious. The film's very beautifully photographed, the sets are surprisingly lavish and atmospheric, especially the gardens and the castle is like a magisterial character in itself and from personal opinion Beauty and the Beast is the Cannon Movie Tale film with the best costume design, here being one of the highlights rather than a flaw. The music is quite good, not as memorable as the score and songs in Disney's version but they stand just fine on their own and fit well into the film. The incidental music is charmingly whimsical, and while only If You See With Your Heart stands out as truly great out of the songs (Wish for the Moon is also lovely, but not quite as emotion-filled) they're all listenable and do nothing to hinder the story.

The story of Beauty and the Beast is a timeless one, and while there are changes the basic details are intact structured faithfully and the enchanting spirit is too. Pacing is steady and controlled, very like the pacing of the fairy tale's story itself, the film doesn't suffer at all from trying to make a short story seem longer (a problem that The Frog Prince and especially The Emperor's New Clothes had) and the ending is very emotional. Beauty and the Beast's chemistry has a subtle intensity and a real poignancy too. It's nicely directed, allowing the story to breathe while still keeping its momentum and it does nothing to make the magic any less impactful. Rebecca De Mornay radiates innocence and beauty, and plays Beauty charmingly and touchingly, showing herself to be a quite decent singer too. John Savage shows very good chemistry with her, and is similarly very good as the Beast, giving off a scary but also tragically tormented figure and aided by good make-up.

While there is not a lot here actually that is wrong in Cannon Movie Tales' version of Beauty and the Beast, there are a couple of not-so-good areas. The two leads come off very well but the supporting roles are stockly written and overplayed, the siblings resort to quite embarrassing mugging and Beauty's father has rarely if ever been more unsympathetically portrayed. While Savage really impresses as the Beast, he is rather wooden as the Prince, which is not entirely his fault actually because Beast has always been a juicier and more interesting character which gives more scope to do much with the role. The writing does avoid being too cheesy and cloying and it is decent writing for a Cannon Movie Tale film, but can get a bit stiff in places especially in the early parts before Beast appears and when Beauty and the Beast are not on screen together.

All in all, there are some really beautiful things here, and of the Cannon Movie Tale films their version of Beauty and the Beast is one of their best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Every now and again, I'll pull out this movie for a trip down memory lane. True, it was low budget and John Savage never has appealed to me as a male romantic lead, but scenes of it were always so beautiful, taking inspiration from the 1946 classic La Belle et la bête. Not to sound like a sap, but there is a part in this movie that I always thought was wonderfully done. During one of the songs, Beauty is pretending to dance with her dream prince, meanwhile, in another room, Beast (who is actually her dream prince unbeknownst to her)is pretending to dance with Beauty. For a second she reaches out like she can feel him standing in front of her. For a B-Children's movie, I thought that was cool.

I have always loved Farie Tales, and this is my all time favorite, and I have them all. "The Frog Prince" with Aileen Quinn and Helen Hunt. "Puss N' Boots" with Christopher Walken. "Hansel and Gretel", "Rumplestiltskin", "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "Pinnochio". A couple of those are done by Farie Tale Theatre, but I love the Cannon tales more than anything on earth. With Rebecca de Mornay singing, I never would have imagined she could btw, it's astounding. The cinametogrophy is great, and the script is wonderful. I'm 19, and even my father willingly watches this with me. He says, and I agree, that it just seems so real... and he's not that kind of guy at all!!! John Savage is the most terrific beast I could imagine... other than in the French movie "Beaute et Le Bete" or whatever it's called *lol*. It's an even better version than the Disney Cartoon, which is also one of my favorites. I hope that whoever sees this film on sale buys it (and sends it to me, I need a not worn out one!!!) and cherishes it forever!

This musical film of "Beauty and the Beast" is a good rendition of the 1740 French fairy tale by novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. The cast are not top star names. Their performances are okay, but nothing beyond the ordinary. The music is quite light, and with so few songs, one wishes that the filmmakers could have included more songs.

The production is very interesting and well laid out. It's a more contemporary version of the fable, but with very good sets, camera work and performances overall. The costuming is especially good for Beast. The movie was filmed entirely in Israel.

It's a decent family film that most children should enjoy.

Ohhhh my God, that was dreadful. Okay, DeMornay is quite nice to look at, but the prince looks like a cheap body builder from a cheap advertisement.

Yeah, the costumes were nice. But the story was totally empty, lacking emotions, suspense, style, ah, just everything. In the end you just don't understand why she stayed with the prince and fell in love with him cause the dude is boring as hell and delivers one stupid line after another.

Never before have I felt less while watching a movie.

I guess the two best adaptions of this tale are still the Disney one and the one by Jean Cocteau, with Jean Marais playing the prince / the beast. Go watch those instead and save your time on this empty flick.