There are numerous scenes which draw on the company's back catalogue and invoke past glories, but unlike the wilderness years these references are driven by a desire to celebrate the past and integrate the present, rather than just film up the frame. This new-found confidence of Disney is plain to see throughout Beauty and the Beast. But it is extremely faithful to the spirit of the story and plays it straight, taking all the magical elements at face value. The version presented here is hardly the most faithful to the original fairy tale (though such terms are problematic, considering the many different versions of all the classic stories). They are masters of taking a pre-existing, often reputable source, and channelling its darkness in a way that younger audiences can appreciate.
In my review of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, I spoke about Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise being far more accomplished dealing with adaptations than they are with original stories. Even after 22 years, it still stands proud and untarnished as the perfect jewel in Disney's second crown. It would take something really special to finally convince critics that Disney was well and truly back - and that special something was Beauty and the Beast. Their tactics of releasing films in quick succession suffered a setback when The Rescuers Down Under slipped under the radar, where it has remained somewhat ever since. Disney spent much of the 1980s figuring out exactly what kind of stories they wanted to tell and how they wanted to sell them, and after many failed but interesting attempts, they finally hit lucky with The Little Mermaid.īut even with Mermaid's critical acclaim and box office success, Disney's return was by no means solidified.
One was a move back to the fairy tale and fantasy territory that had underpinned the Golden Age, and the other was a more confident and forthright approach to production and promotion.
The Disney Renaissance was underpinned by two major shifts in Disney thinking.
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