Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray

[Dacey]

*gasps* Eric didn't like B&tB???

*faints*

[Dan]

Still waiting on Sony to get that damn software update available so I can watch the documentary trouble free...

[Ben]

You're not the only one, though in my case it's PowerDVD that's giving me trouble.

[Bill1978]

Ben you raised some great points about the Human Again sequence. Firstly I will admit that I love the song and am very happy that I get the original voices performing the track - something I struggled to hear on the Broadway recordings.

But it's re-insertion does seem to have been done just for marketing purposes. As you said, it makes the movie suddenly be 3 songs in a row which feels a little over the top even for a musical lover like myself.

But what really lets it down is some of the animation which quite frankly feels like it came from the television department. The main culprit here is the part where flowers are seen being planted and a wheelbarrow zooms down a plank of wood. Everytime I watch it, it makes me cringe and wish Disney would re-animate it.

But I will admit for me it is nice to have another Ashman/Menken song to enjoy while watching the film.

Another perplexing issue is on the Diamond Edition soundtrack. Now the Blu-Ray and DVD play the special edition by default. Which means you get Human Again, but when you go out and buy soundtrack you get the original soundtrack with the Jodrin Sparks song tacked onto the end AND no Human Again. I find that strange and a little bizarre. It's almost like the Soundtrack department forgot that there was a Special Edition soundtrack and used the original soundtrack.

[Ben]

That's weird. You'd think they're insert Human Again into the right space between Something There and B&TB, or at least include it as an extra song before the Sparks track. I'm happy with the original and SE soundtracks anyway, but I could see how that's frustrating.

[Dusterian]

Just wondering if you Beauty and the Beast and animation fans noticed this:



Yep, a reflection of Belle has been added to the window she passes as she moves towards Beast on their big date!

But they actually did a half-assed job! They just cloned her animation and changed it a bit, and now in the reflection, she actually has 2 shoulders on one side (the side with her hair on her shoulder (s))!

[Bill1978]

I'm struggling to see the second shoulder but the position of the arms clearly show me that they have just dupicated the image in the window and thought we only need to fix the hair.

I haven't sat down and watched my new edition but thanks for pointing it out. To be honest though I probably wouldn't have noticed as during that scene all I can think about is the expression in Belle's eyes that are saying to Beast 'Come and get me big boy'. It reminds me of Ariel's bizarre expression in Kiss The Girl where she does the same thing but she looks totally evil.

[Dusterian]

Okay, in the reflection, look at the side where her hair is on her shoulder(s). Look at the lines. Look at the line that seperates the two shoulders she now has!

And I am so glad someone else thought Ariel looked so evil in that shot, like Vanessa! Something they maybe could have worked on...

[GeorgeC]

You know,

There was a point in time where I cared about visual perfection to an insane amount.

As you get older and realize a bunch of people work on these films and it's inevitable someone will make a mistake or "do a half-assed job" as some may say, ....

You have to cut the filmmakers some slack.

Get on. Move with it.

If something small like this is bugging you, then you're missing the whole point of the film and undoubtedly not enjoying yourself.

The fact that you bothered to capture this scene or found the JPEG's of it online ---

I honestly think you're wasting your time and energy.

I personally think Disney wasted its money on the special editions -- much as George Lucas did the same with the original Star Wars trilogy -- but there gets to be a point where nitpicking is just nitpicking for its own sake.

This stuff doesn't materially affect the story or acting and is a minor, inconsequential thing.



Some of you need to step back, maybe stop watching animation for a while, and do yourselves a favor and don't model yourselves after Cartoon Brew's Amid Amidi and the rest of the worst of the animation historians/critics... the people with blogs and websites who just don't seem to enjoy this stuff anymore.

[Dusterian]

Right, making the animation good doesn't matter at all. That is what all of us here at a site that focuses on animation should feel.

In all seriousness now, you had good points and are right to a degree, but this is a different case.

This was an addition just for this release. It was made just for this. It was one thing. One thing. They had lots of time to work on this one thing for this one time. And they gave her two shoulders on one side. Now she has three shoulders. It is perfectly reasonable for me to be complain. Especially when I am not sure if you can watch the movie without it, now.

[Dacey]

I've looked at that image for several minutes and can't seem to find the "third shoulder," Dust.

And besides, ANY animated movie is going to have flaws if you look for them. Everyone works hard to make the animation as good as they can, but you can't expect hundreds of artists to work on something without having a few minor mistakes here and there. And besides, most of them are often so minor that no one's going to notice them.

[Whippet Angel]

Seriously, if you have to freeze frame the film to even notice the flaw, it isn't worth making a fuss over.

[Bill1978]

You know if the reflection hadn't even been pointed out I honestly wouldn't have noticed that it was an addition, cause quite frankly I never knew she was never reflected in the window. It's not going to detract from my viewing anyway as I'm sure I won't be looking at the window in the scene but focusing on the main picture.

It was nice to be told it was added and I thought that's what the post was about, not an error. If the 'third shoulder' wasn't pointed out AND I still can't find it, I wouldn't have studied the picture close enough to notice the arms don't match. And I can't fault this edition since they returned the Beast's stutter, the most obvious edit for me in the special edition.

If you want to get all picky why not focus on the fact that the door into Belle and Maurice's house opens both inwards and outwards even though there are no swinging hinges. I just tell myself it's not a mistake but one of Muarice's invention.

[Ben]

This is one of the "added touches" I hinted at in my review, suggesting that it could have been an idea for the 3D version and "snuck" in here.

When I first saw it, I couldn't remember it being in the original and backtracked a bit to see it again. And though I noticed that it wasn't a perfect reflection (or not even a flip, which would have worked better), I thought it was a nice if unnecessary touch.

But to start stressing out about it is another spot of overkill, me thinks. It was never there originally or in the SE, and now it is I won't let it spoil my enjoyment of the moment one way or the other. It doesn't need it (as someone said above, her come to bed eyes does all the work), but since it's there just enjoy it for the little touch it is, and move on. Like Bill says, there are fan many more imperfections, like Belle being off-model in some scenes, to "worry" about than a mere reflection effect, on screen for two seconds!

[Dusterian]

But...didn't you all understand the main thing? Well, it's two things:

1) This was a small thing, they had all the time to work on it and make it good. There was no good reason for a mistake, they had all the time to work on this one thing. This was not a whole movie they had to work on this time.

2) It's an addition. Yet another mistake has been added to the film instead of making it better. Is it stuck there for all releases now?