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Beauty and the Beast on DVD
• Alternate Score/Songs • THX/Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Beauty and the Beast on DVD
• Alternate Score/Songs • THX/Dolby Digital 5.1 More DVD info... |
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Review of the Original 1991 Album:
The highlights of the score include the crisp and emotionally powerful performances by the orchestra and the resounding voice of Paige O'Hara, who performs "Belle." Even in its darkest moments, this score (and its songs) retain the magic that was slowly lost in Menken's later scores, making it an ever-positive listening experience. Three of the songs ("Beauty and the Beast," "Be Our Guest," and "Belle") were nominated for Academy Awards --an extremely rare achievement and domination of a single award. For a song of introduction, like "Belle," to receive such recognition was further evidence that Menken had hit the right nerve with movie-goers and critics alike. The pop song, which took the awards that year, was a glimpse at the mega-movie song presence for Celine Dion, whose performance of the song made many fans wish that she had been given it as a solo. The songs are all remarkably upbeat, and none of them uses overly-stupid comedic performances to appeal to children (unlike those that would come later in Menken's career). This seriousness, without compromising the children's aspect of the film, made the album very enjoyable for adults as well. The Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast features some noteworthy performances of the same songs, with some additional ones as well. Nothing will be able to capture the magic of the original, though, from the rumble of the opening prologue to the majesty of the transformation cue. When beginning a collection of Disney scores of the 1990s, this one is an automatic first recommendation. Menken, after Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the terrible flop Hercules, did not return for another Disney score in the late 1990s, as Disney opted instead for a wider variety of large name composers, including Jerry Goldsmith, Mark Mancina, Hans Zimmer, and ultimately James Newton Howard. Beauty and the Beast, however, will always remain as the standard by which all animation scores will be judged for a long time. The original album fell out of print for a number of years in the mid-1990's, and the lack of a DVD release for the film compounded many people's frustration about acquiring the best representation of its music. Nevetheless, the songs and score remain one of the most spirited of the decade. ***** Review of the 2001 Special Edition Album:
Beauty and the Beast: (Alan Menken) Even though the original album came back into print late in the 1990's, the most highly acclaimed animated song and score combination of recent times remained incomplete on CD. Disney wasn't best known for pressing exemplary albums for its films in the 1990's, a practice that has changed ten years later. There wasn't an enormous mass of music from Beauty and the Beast missing from the commercial album, though there was just enough of it to cause die-hard fans --and there are a LOT of them in this case-- to scrounge around on Disney box compilations and the likes for extra material. Many even took solace in the Broadway recording, and an interesting debate about which Belle (Paige O'Hara or Susan Egan) was better for the part. It was common knowledge that a few score cues and at least a few songs were rejected from the final cut of the film, and none of that material was previously available on CD. In January, 2002, on the tenth anniversary of the film, Disney released the film once again to IMAX and other enormously sized screens across America, with several minutes of extra footage added. The "Special Edition" album release, to coincide with the theatrical re-release, is an expanded album for the film. It adds a total of 15 minutes of music for fans to delight in, though only a few of those minutes belong to scenes that even exist in the film. First, the added song "Human Again" was originally recorded for the feature film, but was cut and then became a staple of the Broadway show. The show, coincidentally, contains several additional songs by Menken that rival those that made the cut in the film, though none of those was prepared for the film and they therefore do not appear on this album. The song "Human Again" is a piece performed by the various trinkets of the castle (by the original voices) who are longing for the days when they can be people once again; the song's highlight is a previously edited scene in the middle during which Belle and the Beast attempt to read together. The other additional song tracks were demo versions of "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast," which, unfortunately, aren't all that interesting to listen to (outside of the rather intriguing voice of Howard Ashman, who performs the latter with a slight accent). The album is dedicated to Ashman, of course, who passed away before completing work on Aladdin the next year. The additional score cue, the melancholy beginning of "Transformation," replaces "Death of the Beast," which was rejected from the film even though it appeared on the first album. Other than another minute of extra material added to the "West Wing" score track, there isn't any significant additional material on the Special Edition to get excited about. Every other track is the same, although some clangs and mistakes on the mastering of the original album have been corrected or deleted for this one. Accoustically, the songs sound the same, but the score tracks are offered with a fuller range. It's not a fully reworked remastering. The order of the tracks is still curious-- they are out of order, and having the demo tracks before the commercial pop song is very awkward. Overall, the Special Edition is still missing some score cues from the film, and offers only a teasing of extra material --along with some slightly spruced up packaging-- that could leave the die-hard Beauty and the Beast unsatisfied. ***  David Friedman conducts the orchestra at recording sessions of Beauty and the Beast
(track lengths not provided on packaging)
(track lengths not provided on packaging)
The both the Special Edition and Broadway musical albums of this story contain some Menken material that was cut from the final version of the original film. The special edition contains full lyrics. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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