Review of Belle's Magical World (1998) by Éric I — 03 Mar 2012

Every sequel to any film or book ever made has one primary thing to accomplish, justify a good reason for why it was made. "Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World" comes very short of doing that, but then again, no Disney sequel, except maybe "Fantasia/2000" has ever justified its existence.

This third installment in the "Beauty and the Beast" series is clearly intended for a younger audience and seen with that in mind, it is pleasing enough. The film is made up of four short stories involving Belle and the familiar characters, with a couple of new additions.

All of the stories are rather corny, aiming to teach traditional lessons about friendship, forgiveness, teamwork, respect, sharing, etc. The quality of animation is rather clumsy, even compared to "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas" which is ultimately superior overall.

The characters are drawn and painted with dull and unimpressive solid colors, yet move around their environment with enough fluidity (most of the time). The characterization of Beast is probably the clumsiest, as he is portrayed as an ill-mannered nuisance who is best kept away from the castle's most important gatherings (much of the action takes place while he is asleep so as to not disturb the other characters).

Fans of the original film will ultimately be disappointed by this rather weak attempt to expand the relationships between the now-classic characters, but it still offers enough chuckles for a rainy day.