92% Beauty and the Beast

All Critics (84) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (7) | DVD (36)

The greatest animated film ever made and one of the screen's great musicals hardly needs this (3D) sort of sprucing up.

What you gain in an extra, faked dimension you lose in lively, genuine beauty.

The set pieces are narcotically pleasing, especially the Busby Berkeley-style dancing-kitchenware spectacular, "Be Our Guest," and the romantic ballroom centerpiece that brings Beauty and her Beast together.

The 3-D pops out to enhance the drama or energy of scenes in which settings are large and integral to the action.

Some youthful memories are better not revisited, but this definitely isn't one of them. Sometimes you can go home again.

It is a surprise, in a time of sequels and retreads, that the new film is so fresh and altogether triumphant in its own right.

I admit it: I wrote this more than 20 years ago. But, like " Beauty and the Beast" itself, I think it stands the test of time.

Disney, please understand ... what people are actually showing up for ... they just want to see classic Disney on the big screen. The 3D is incidental.

Disney's gorgeous 1991 animated version of the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" gets the same 3D treatment that was recently given to "The Lion King."

Watching this in a theater definitely makes it feel less like a "cartoon" and more like a significant film. Cogsworth poking Le Fou in the butt with a sword aside.

One of the brightest jewels in Disney's crown, Beauty and the Beast's 3D reissue takes nothing away and makes the film's brilliance even easier to appreciate; the movie is more beautiful and timeless than it ever was.

Beauty and the Beast is just as enchanting 20 years after its initial release.

The apex of an art form, a justly celebrated classic, and the best animated movie of any sort ever put on screen at any time.

The lines have begun to show in Belle's tale, which remains enjoyable but feels more like a quaint artifact than the masterpiece it once was declared to be.

Both TANGLED EVER AFTER and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST are sure to enthrall audiences everywhere, even if the 3D doesn't really add much of anything to this animated classic.

A serviceable version of a classic fairy tale minus that crucial touch of magic.

And it is a joy to revisit the timeless pleasures of traditional Disney storytelling, with no attempts to add sizzle from celebrity voice talent or radio-friendly pop songs.

3D doesn't downplay the inherent artistry of the effort, but it doesn't enhance anything outside of ticket prices.

Beauty and the Beast looks beautiful and is sure to entertain, but this experience is superfluous at best-it was already a three-dimensional story long before these new technics.

Better remembered than seen, Beauty and the Beast has been treated unkindly not just by the years that have passed since it was released to enormous acclaim in 1991, but by a faddish 3D conversion.

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