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Beauty and the Beast: (Alan Menken) A fair number
of critics have speculated that Disney's 1991 Christmas release of
Beauty and the Beast is the best animated film of all time. How
the film measures up to the studio's classics of the Golden Age remains
under debate, though few would argue that it doesn't shine above the
rest of Disney's often impressive output during the renaissance of its
musicals in the 1990's. The trilogy of
The Little Mermaid, this
film, and
Aladdin are unquestionable in their quality, and while
these films may not have blown away box office records, they have
remained critical favorites through the years (especially compared to
the substandard musical entries to follow). Composer Alan Menken won
multiple Academy Awards for all three entries, dominating the Oscars in
music awards for several years. But it is
Beauty and the Beast
that endures as his (and the studio's) crowning achievement. Its high
sense of class and style make it one of the easiest of the Disney scores
to enjoy repeatedly, and its knack for capturing the enchantment of the
film is devoid of the silliness that often plagued other entries of the
era. Most importantly, it proved that
The Little Mermaid wasn't a
fluke and opened the financial doors for a new era of animated films and
their music. There are countless highlights to the music for
Beauty
and the Beast; among them are an outstanding array of songs (weeded
out from a larger collection that would eventually form the Broadway
production of the concept in 1994), crisp and emotionally powerful
performances by the orchestra for most of their non-song contributions,
and an intelligent selection of vocal talent (led by the resounding
voice of Paige O'Hara in the role of Belle). Even in its darkest
moments, the score and songs of
Beauty and the Beast retain the
convincing atmosphere of magic (mostly owing to tingling percussion and
an uncanny resemblance in writing to Rachel Portman's later styles) that
was slowly lost in Menken's later scores, conveying its ever-positive
tone from start to finish. It also helps that the spoken voices also
perform their own singing, something partially lacking in later Menken
musicals.
The 1990's and 2000's have seen several musicals receive
three Academy Award nominations for a single film's songs, and
Beauty
and the Beast largely started this trend (AMPAS would eventually
create a rule abolishing such domination of the category by one film).
In this case, "Belle," "Be Our Guest," and "Beauty and the Beast" were
all recognized (the last of which, obviously, winning the award), and
Menken earned another, better earned Oscar for "Best Score." The
snare-tapping song of introduction, "Belle," is among the most
satisfying and clever cast pieces in history, with a secondary phrase at
2:30 (the fountain sequence) that alone might have earned the song's
Oscar nomination. The reprise of this song allows O'Hara to perform the
primary phrase of the song at a slower tempo and with full orchestral
backing, assisting the scene in mirroring the scope of
The Sound of
Music. The French setting of the story really takes hold in the
villain's song, "Gaston," a surprisingly romantic waltz-like piece that
relies on its vocal inflection and humorous lyrics to produce its
comedy. The reprise of this song is more of a narrative bridge than a
strong extension of the song, but it serves its purpose. The next
musical number is the ever popular "Be Our Guest," choreographed like a
scene right out of a Busby Berkeley film and flourishing due to a
spirited lead performance by Jerry Orbach. Comparatively a lightweight,
"Something There" is a fluffy song that shares many instrumental devices
with "Belle" (as well as a reprise of the secondary phrase from that
song) and is equally affable. Images of
Frankenstein inspire the
scenery of "The Mob Song," a call to arms piece with plenty of raucous
high brass accompaniment (it's hard not to think of disastrous American
president George W. Bush when Gaston pronounces "You're either with us
or against us"). The final song is the popular title ballad, performed
surprisingly well by Angela Lansbury and translating into the pop song
heard over the end credits. For the 2001 "Special Edition" release of
the film, almost all of the cast was reassembled to perform the
French-styled "Human Again," a song for the castle servants originally
struck from the film but popular on Broadway; it contains the lovely
"Romeo and Juliet" scene as an interlude.
On the whole, the songs are all remarkably upbeat, and
none of them uses intentionally 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
conservatively-rendered pop song was a glimpse at a forthcoming
mega-movie song presence for Celine Dion, whose performance of "Beauty
and the Beast" made many fans wish that she had been given it as a solo.
The instrumental score is a vast improvement over
The Little
Mermaid, in the quality of writing along with that of both the
performance and recording. Many of the themes of the songs are used
throughout the score tracks, but some are singular to just the score.
Others were either inspired by songs ultimately cut from the film or
adapted into phrases of the Broadway production's numbers. The two major
themes restricted to just the score are the "curse theme" and "Beast
theme," and both are heard prominently in the famous "Prologue" cue.
Easily the best cue in the entire score, the mystique of "Prologue" is
aided by David Ogden Stiers, whose serves as narrator as well as with
accent in the role of Cogsworth. While the vocal mix is extremely bass
heavy and assists the score in its resounding power during the film's
opening sequence, a score-only version of this cue has long been desired
by fans (the only way to obtain it is through bootlegs, because the
"Special Edition" release of 2001 did not offer this instrumental
track). The curse theme is prevalent throughout the cue, though the
descending beast's theme makes a pronounced appearance at 1:35. Menken
appropriately alludes to the title theme at the end of the cue. Also a
highlight is "West Wing," which features some of the most dynamic
performances of the orchestra in the entire film. It opens with
fragments of the "Be Our Guest" theme before turning dark at 1:45 with
the Beast theme and following with a brass action motif that smartly
works in hints of the title theme. The cue "The Beast Lets Belle Go"
also features a brief burst of this action motif, but this portion of
the cue is part of 1:30 in length that is cut off the end of the album
presentation (a hint of even Gaston's theme is heard upon Belle's saving
of her father and return home).
Of the other score cues heard on the album releases for
Beauty and the Beast, "To the Fair" is the most flighty, a
pleasant extension of the themes from "Belle." The "Battle on the Tower"
cue offers several dueling themes, but the mixing of this cue is
unfortunately far less dynamic than every other in the score (a
curiosity that extends across both commercial albums). Pieces of the
themes for Gaston, Belle, and "Be Our Guest" lead to the whimsical
finale performance of the Belle theme with a final last burst of the
Beast's motif. In "Transformation," the curse theme resolves at 2:35 and
the Beast theme follows suit at 3:00, turning from the minor key into
the major with predictably heroic results. The curse theme becomes a
noble fanfare at 3:45 and, following Disney tradition, Menken once again
offers a choral reprise of the title theme to close out the film. An
alternate version of the first part of this cue was recorded and
included on the 2001 "Special Edition" album under the title "Death of
the Beast." A lovely viola rendition of the title theme and major key
hints of the Beast's theme are presented in the tone of Rachel Portman's
(later) melancholy orchestral techniques. Two significant cues missing
from all album releases include "Belle's New Home," an almost two-minute
piece with tragic versions of the Belle and curse themes culminating in
an important crescendo as the camera pulls back from Belle crying in her
new room (and the scene concludes with a shot of the castle during a
snowstorm). More disappointing an omission is "Gaston's Plan" (1:45 in
length), the scene directly before the "Mob Song" when Belle's father is
being taken away to the asylum. This cue is a very robust instrumental
reprise of Gaston's theme and offers a frantic interpretation of Belle's
theme as well. Other miscellaneous notes about the score include
Menken's nebulous employment of a secondary love theme that eventually
became an interlude in the song "Home" on Broadway (along with the curse
theme); parts of this idea also inform the song "Something There." One
of the score's persistent detriments is Menken's liberal use of
consecutive cymbal hits to create a sense of wonder, a technique that
becomes a tad obnoxious in "West Wing" particularly (especially as the
Beast's theme is conveyed).
The original 1991 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 fans' frustrations about acquiring the best
representation of its music. Even though that original album came back
into print later in the decade, 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 habit that the studio and its label have largely shaken in the
subsequent generation of musicals. Despite the missing cues mentioned
above, there really wasn't an enormous mass of music from
Beauty and
the Beast absent 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 the merits of each Belle (Paige O'Hara or the
more adult voice of Susan Egan) ensued. 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, near the tenth anniversary of the film, Disney
released the film once again in stunning IMAX format and at 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 to accompany the film's
re-emergence and the subsequent DVD debut. The December, 2001 album adds a total
of 15 minutes of music for fans to enjoy, though only a few of those
minutes belong to scenes that even exist in the film. First, the
aforementioned song "Human Again" became a staple of the Broadway show
and was reconstituted with the film cast for the re-release. The other
additional song tracks are 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.
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2001 Special Edition: | | |
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The additional score cue on the 2001 album, 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 music added to the "West Wing"
score track, there isn't any significant additional material on the
Special Edition to get excited about. The lack of the "Belle's New Home"
and "Gaston's Plan" cues is unforgivable. Every other track is the same
on both albums, although some clangs and mistakes on the mastering of
the original album have been corrected or deleted for this one
(including the obnoxious sound of a ringing phone at 2:14 into "Gaston"
on the original). Acoustically, the songs sound largely the same, but
the score tracks are offered with a fuller range (it doesn't play like a
fully reworked remastering). The order of the tracks is still curious;
they are out of order, and having the demo tracks before the pop song is
very awkward. Overall, the "Special Edition" is a tremendously missed
opportunity. It is still missing too many score cues from the film,
offering only a teasing of extra material (along with some slightly
spruced up packaging) that could leave a die-hard
Beauty and the
Beast fan unsatisfied. For those ultimate fans, the Broadway
production features some noteworthy performances of the same songs, with
some very strong additional ones as well. In instrumental depth,
however, the Broadway version fails considerably compared to the
original film recording, from the rumbling of the opening of "Prologue"
to the majesty of "Transformation." Otherwise, seek the DVD-based
bootlegs with distracting sound effects. If you're just starting a
collection of modern musicals, this one's the place to begin. Menken,
after the moderately successful
Pocahontas,
The Hunchback of
Notre Dame, and the terrible flop
Hercules, did not return
for another Disney musical until 2004's underrated
Home on the
Range, as Disney opted instead for a wider variety of major
composers, including Jerry Goldsmith, Mark Mancina, Hans Zimmer, and
ultimately James Newton Howard to lean on for a heavier (and eventually
sole) role for the scores.
Beauty and the Beast, however, will
always remain as the standard by which all animation scores will be
judged for a very long time.
Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
Music as Written for Film: *****
1991 Album: ****
2001 Album: ***
Overall: *****
| Bias Check: | For Alan Menken reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.45 (in 11 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 56,205 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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