“Tale as Old as Time” may make you fall in love with Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” all over again

Jim Hill

14 years ago

It is arguably the best-loved film of that trio of fairy
tales that Walt Disney Animation Studios produced during its Second Golden Age.
The first hand-drawn animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture, "Beauty and the Beast" has been discussed, dissected and written about so often over
the past 19 years … Well, one has to wonder if there are any stories that have yet
to be told about this "Tale as old as Time."

Well, noted animation historian & critic Charles Solomon
rose to that challenge. He interviewed dozens of artists, executives and
animators who were personally involved with this much-beloved motion picture. And
given the nearly two decades that have passed at this point, a number of these
folks were now willing to share stories that reveal how truly troubled /
charmed this production was. Which is why Solomon's newest book, "Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast" (Disney Editions, August
2010) now has be consider the definitive account of how this much-beloved
animated film actually came to be.

And Charles, he goes all the way back. Back to the 1950s when Disney first
toyed with the idea of producing an animated version of this classic French fairy
tale. As Frank Thomas, one of the Studio's "Nine Old Men," once told Solomon:

"When Walt became all wrapped up in the theme parks and
live-action films, we tried to get him interested in animation again … (Disney)
said, "If I ever do go back, there are only two subjects I would want to do.
One of them is 'Beauty and the Beast.' For the life of me, I can't remember
what the other one was."

Charles then tried to determine whether any real development
was done on this project during Walt's day. But …

… neither the Walt Disney Archives nor the Animation
Research Library contain any artwork or story notes. Artists only began to
submit treatments for "Beauty and the Beast" years after Walt's death.

The earliest treatment was from Studio veterans Pete Young,
Vance Gerry, and Steve Hulett in 1983. In this version, the handsome prince of
a small but wealthy kingdom enjoys racing his carriage through the forest,
which scares the animals. The forest witch turns the prince into a "large,
furry, catlike creature" to teach him humility. Animals attend Belle in a
ruined castle, instead of enchanted objects.

Solomon then takes his readers through Disney's earliest
attempt at producing an animated version of "Beauty and the Beast." Back when
Richard and Jill Purdum, the husband-and-wife team, were in charge of this
project. Back when Maurice wasn't an inventor. But – rather – a kindly merchant
who had fallen on hard times …

… and Belle had a younger sister, Clarice, as well as a cat
named Charley.

But with the success of "The Little Mermaid," Jeffrey
Katzenberg (the then-head of Walt Disney Studios) decided that the Purdums'
far-too-dark, non-musical version wasn't going to work. As "Beauty and the
Beast" producer Don Hahn told Solomon:

(Katzenberg) said, "I want to get Howard (Ashman) and Alan
(Menken) involved and musicalize this. It has to be pushed, it has to be much
more entertaining, it has to be much more commercial. This is too dark. We've
got to start over."

And to make sure that this reboot of "Beauty and the Beast"
really did have a fresh new take on this material, Jeffrey handed this
production to two guys who had never ever directed a feature-length animated
film before, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale.

Which – as you might expect – led to a few clashes among
members of this newly-thrown-together creative team. Especially as they tried to get a handle on
how to properly tell this story. As Kirk Wise recalled one of his more
memorable encounters with Howard Ashman:

Finding a way to show how the Beast fell under the curse
provoked a memorable disagreement. Howard envisioned the prologue as a fully
animated sequence in which the audience would see a seven-year-old prince
rudely refuse to give shelter to an old woman during a storm. Revealing herself
to be a beautiful enchantress, the woman would chase the boy through the castle
hurling bolts of magic that would turn the servants into objects. Eventually
her spell would change the prince into the Beast boy, who would press his face
against one of the castle windows screaming "Come back! Come back!"

Gary and I hated the idea. The only thing that I could see
in my head was this Eddie Munster kid in a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit," Kirk
recalls wincing. "I got elected to break the news that we had a different idea
for the prologue. Howard came in that morning all smiles, with a bag of
cinnamon-sugar donuts from his favorite shop. I can't remember what exactly I
said, but one of the words I used was cheap, meaning doing something terrible
to a child was a cheap way to pull an audience's heartstrings. I couldn't have
picked a worse word, because Howard just lit into me. We left for California
either that evening or the following morning, and because of the company's
austerity program, we were flying coach, with a layover in St. Louis. While we
were sitting on the runway, I thought, I could get off the plane, change my
name, and vanish into Missouri.

But Wise didn't get off that plane and then sneak away into
the streets of St. Louis. He and Gary hung in there. Gradually growing in
confidence, thanks – in large part – to the talented vocal cast that they'd
assembled for "Beauty and the Beast."

You want to hear the textbook definition of "show business
professional" ? Check out this story that Solomon got Don Hahn to tell about
Angela Lansbury and the recording of the ballad for "Beauty and the Beast" :

(The) recording (of that) ballad was challenging … The
sessions were done at a studio in New York with a full orchestra and chorus;
Howard and Alan preferred to record a live performance rather than recording
the singer and the instrumental music separately.

"We booked Angela and her husband on MGM Grand Air out of
Los Angeles, but there was a bomb scare after they took off, and the plane had
to land in Las Vegas," said Don. "We finished recording 'Belle' and 'Be Our
Guest.' No Angela. Do we let the orchestra go and try and pick it up the next
day, or do we wait for Angela to call? Being the pro that she is, she called
from the airport: "I just landed, I'm on my way, I'll be there in a half hour."

Kirk Wise directs Angela Lansbury during a dialogue recording session for "Beauty
and the Beast." Copyright Disney Enterprises, inc. All rights reserved

When she arrived at the studio after a long and harrowing
day, Don told her, "You really don't have to do this. You can go home." He
says, "Angela said, 'Don't be ridiculous. I'm rehearsed. I'm ready to go." She
went into the booth and sang 'Beauty and the Beast' from beginning to end and
just nailed it. We picked up a couple of lines here and there, but essentially
that one take is what we used for the movie."

Of course, not everyone that Wise & Trousdale hired were
show business veterans like Lansbury. As Solomon reveals, the hunt for just the
right voice for the Beast led Kirk & Gary to make a very unlikely casting
choice:

The directors spent several worrisome weeks not knowing who
their leading man would be. One day, Albert (Tavares, "Beauty and the Beast" 's
casting director), brought in a tape that he reluctantly told Kirk and Gary was
from Robby Benson, an actor who was known at the time for playing earnest,
sensitive heroes.

"We looked at him kind of cross-eyed and said 'Robby Benson?
Ice Castles Robby Benson?" Kirk recalls. "But his tape just blew us away. His
voice was an amazing combination of vulnerability and anger. The first time we
heard it, we said, 'I can hear the human being inside of the animal.' He
managed to play the animal side against the human side, and there was this
melancholic quality to his performance. He was finding layers that went well
beyond the actual dialogue. So we cut it against some visuals and played it for
Jeffery. He liked it, but when we told him who it was, he said the exact same
thing: "Ice Castles Robby Benson?"

And it's not just the casting of this film that Solomon
takes you behind-the-scenes with. Charles also reveals the role that Disney's finances
in the early 1990s played in the production of "Beauty and the Beast" :

When The Rescuers Down Under
was released in 1990 and earned
only $28 million domestically – only one third of the $84.3 million The Little
Mermaid made the year before – the filmmakers were required to pay more
attention to the bottom line.

"Rescuers kind of failed to live up to expectations, and the
watchword of the day became 'austerity.' It was a word we heard a lot," says
Kirk. "We had meetings to discuss every possible way to reduce the number of
man-hours it took to create each drawing. The biggest offender in that category
was Beast: Glen (Keane) had added six tiger stripes to the side of the Beast's head. They
looked great in the drawing, but they were absolute hell to clean up."

"We all came in one weekend to discuss ways to simplify the
movie so we could bring it in at a price that was palatable to the Studio but
wouldn't completely gut the production value. It wasn't easy and it wasn't
pleasant," he continues grimly. "At one point, Brian (McEntree) and Peter Schneider were
yelling at each other so loudly and turning so purple that Security knocked at
the door – they were worried that there was going to be some sort of incident."

Reading through this 176-page hardcover, you also learn
about the parts of "Beauty and the Beast" that didn't make it up on the big
screen. Not for budgetary reasons, mind you. But due to technological
challenges.

Take – for example – the Beast's battle in the woods with
the wolves. As Solomon reveals in "Tale as Old as Time," this sequence in "Beauty
and the Beast" was originally supposed to be this CG tour-de-force:

When Chris Sanders storyboarded the chase through the forest
and the fight where the Beast defends Belle against the wolves, he wanted to
incorporate a moving camera that would follow Belle, Philippe, and the wolf
pack as they ran through the trees and across the snow. Kirk and Gary agreed
and asked the CG department if they could create a computer-generated forest
that would enable them to use the innovative photography they envisioned.

"They turned the idea over to our talented colleagues in CGI, and we waited.
Finally, after what seemed like months of research and development, they called
us in to see the progress they had made on the forest. We got this pointy,
wire-frame object that looked like a chicken's foot, which they could rotate in
space. I remember Don saying something to the effect of , 'That's it?' Not long
after that, we decided to pull the plug on the chicken-foot forest. We
concentrated the CG resources on creating the ballroom.

Which isn't to say that that sequence was a hit straight out
of the box. When the original version of "Beauty and the Beast" 's CGI fly-thru
of the ballroom was shown to Katzenberg.

The camera moves were so fast and complicated it felt as if
the viewer were flying a jet fighter around the ballroom. (CG artist Greg
Griffith said): Jeffery was just apoplectic: 'This is not about Beauty and the
Beast.' This is not about these characters. This is not about anything except
you, showing off all the neat-o things you can do. Go back and do it again!' "

That's what's really great about "Tales as Old of Time."
This Charles Solomon book lets you see "Beauty and the Beast" as it really is.
Which Don Hahn likens to Dumbo:

Dumbo's my favorite Disney movie – along with many others –
but it's full of mistakes and bad drawings and such because they did it for a
price. We did this one for a price. There was a recession in 1991, and we were
scrambling: the whole movie got done in about eleven months."

"The odd thing is, it's not the best drawn movie. Aladdin
is
probably the best in terms of draftsmanship and design," he concludes
thoughtfully. "It's not the best-painted movie. It's probably not the best
musical score, although it does have the best songs in the world. But there's a
lot of youthful energy in the movie: this generation (of Disney artists and
animators) was in the sweet spot of their career when it was made. There's a
raw puppy love in Beauty and the Beast; you can only fall in love for the first
time once, and Beauty and the Beast was it."

Well, I don't know about that. As you read through Charles
Solomon's "Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast,"
you'll definitely come away with a renewed appreciation for this acclaimed animated
feature. Which is why – as you read through this new Disney Editions book – you
may find yourself falling in love with "Beauty and the Beast" all over again.

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