Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas 481293 222892189 2008-07-01T16:54:06Z 209.86.226.14 {{Infobox Film | name = Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas | image = B-at-b-ec-SPED.jpg | starring = [[Paige O'Hara]] <br> [[Robby Benson]] <br> [[Jerry Orbach]] <br> [[David Ogden Stiers]] <br> [[Bernadette Peters]] <br> [[Tim Curry]] | writer = [[Flip Kobler]] <br> [[Cindy Marcus]] <br> [[Bill Motz]] <br> [[Bob Roth]] | director = [[Andy Knight]] | producer = | distributor = [[Walt Disney Home Video]] | released = [[November 11]] [[1997]] | runtime = 72 min. | language = [[English language|English]] | imdb_id = 0118692 | budget = N/A | | preceded_by = ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]'' (1991) | followed_by = ''[[Belle's Magical World]]'' (1998) }} '''''Beauty and The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas''''' is a [[1997]] [[film]] made by The [[Walt Disney Company]]. It is a [[Sequel#Midquel|midquel]] that takes place within the timeline of the original ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]'' (after the fight with the wolves, but before the fight against [[Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)|Gaston]]). But also, this movie is a [[sequel]] to the original movie, because it shows enchanted objects in their human form reminiscing last year's Christmas festivities, during which the majority of this movie's plot takes place. In this movie the [[Beast (Beauty and the Beast)|Beast]] forbids [[Christmas]] (because his transformation from the Prince occurred on Christmas) until [[Belle (Disney)|Belle]], Cogsworth, [[Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast)|Lumiere]], Mrs. Potts, and Chip convince him that Christmas is a good [[holiday]]. The film also shows the time that the enchantress put the spell on the castle in the first film. ==Reception== While the film broke records with its phenomenal commercial success, surpassing the $180 million mark, critical reception was extremely negative. It currently holds a rare 0% critics approval rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], but it's based on only five reviews. However, it retains a rather high 74% user approval rating on the site.<ref>[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_an_enchanted_christmas/ Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ==Plot== In the beginning, Chip is seen running throughout the busy Grand Ballroom decorated for Christmas of the castle as a human, closely followed by his dog, Sultan. They are going throughout the presents, trying to figure what's inside them and see what's inside of the boxes. He finds one addressed to him, asks his mother if it is okay to open it, and finds socks. Following this, he wants to hear a story about Christmas, this begins the movie's plot. When Belle has been living in the castle with the Beast for sometime. There is a pre-existing relationship between the two main characters. The story begins with Christmas being only a few days away, and the castle is excited for the festive season. This involves enjoying festive and seasonal events such as skating, collecting Christmas trees and ornaments and the giving of gifts to others. Though there is a snag in all of the Christmas cheer, that is Forte. Forte, before the curse was enacted on the castle, was the Master's personal pianist/organist. This was noted during a flashback mid-film showing the actions of the Master's which had enacted the curse on the castle and everyone in it. Forte wishes to be the Master's best friend, though he does not always receive such gratitude. When Forte, now a giant Organ (instrument), notices that the Beast comes to liking Belle, he wishes to put a stop to it. Alongside Forte is Fife, the castle's picollo player who is now a picollo, who is trying to fit in with Forte, doing all of the work that he can not. Fife is responsible for discussing the different aspects of the relationship between the Beast and Belle, only to have Forte follow up by enacting a devious deed. When we are introduced to the film, we find that Belle is getting ready to go skating out on the frozen rivers which traverse throughout the castle grounds. She is joined by various others, such as [[Lumiere]], [[Cogsworth]], and [[Mrs. Potts]]. Upon coming outside of the castle, Belle notices that the Beast is clumsily walking throughout the castle grounds, slipping and sliding on the ice. Belle and the Beast come to skating around, and the Beast begins to like what he is doing. The two do different winter activities, while Fife is trying to make them have a miserable time, as instructed by Forte. None of his actions change the mood, until Belle and the Beast begin to make snow angels. The beast has a highly negative reaction to the strange looking figure he creates, in comparison to Belle's snow angel. With this, he storms off into the castle, leaving Belle dumbfounded and disappointed with the turn of events. Following the skating incident, Belle comes to discuss the topic of Christmas with [[Chip]], Mrs. Pott's child, now a teacup. He doesn't know what Christmas is, and as Belle discusses it with him, he becomes more interested and wishes to have a Christmas celebration. Upon this being discussed, and confirmeed with the numerous different household objects of the castle, Fife provides the information to Forte, who doesn't like what is occuring at all. He begins to set up a terrible scheme which puts the story into it's climax. Numerous different events occur, such as decorating the castle, finding and wrapping presents, and other different Christmas activities. Belle is in the middle of finding a 'Yule Log' to have for the Christmas Celebrations, when the Beast finds out about the Christmas preparation. As this was the time when he became cursed, he does not want anyone to celebrate the holiday, and to the plans of Forte, the Beast acts on the information, trying to prevent Belle from preparing Christmas celebrations. His attempt fails, but gives Belle more of a charge to plan Christmas. Belle continues with her planning by going with Chip to the castle's various gardens to try and find the 'perfect' Christmas Tree. After finding many weak, and small trees, Belle hears Forte begin to play music, music which she wants to investigate. The music brings Belle closer and closer to Forte, as he had planned. Finally when she arrives, he pretends to be dumbfounded when informed that Belle and the household objects are getting ready to host and establish Christmas celebrations for the castle. When Chip states that there is no good trees in the garden, Forte suggests that the duo sneak out of the castle's grounds and go into the Black Forest. The camera pans to look out the window of Forte's room where we see the Black Forest. It is given the feel of a scary, and enchanted place. Chip becomes fascinated with the idea and convinces Belle to take him out to the forest. While Belle goes into the Black Forest, the Beast decides that he should do something, as he found a gift from Belle on his table with the rose. He was about to open it, when Lumiere comes in and informs that he can not open it until Christmas Day. In response to the gift he finds, he wants to give her something. He decides to use Forte to make her a cheery Christmas song, that song being a very drab version of 'Deck the Halls.' The beast sends for Cogsworth to round up Belle so that the Beast can share the song he had made with her. When Cogsworth goes on searching, he finds nothing. So, to decoy the Beast, Mrs. Potts is sent into the romantic table area to try to distract the Beast. When he sees through the decoy, Mrs. Potts lets the Beast know that they don't know where Belle is. Meanwhile, Lumiere and Cogsworth find the horse and buggy tracks leaving the castle into the Black Forest. They decide to follow and find Belle. Upon going out into the forest, they scour the landscape looking for the tree which would be best for the castle's Christmas celebrations. Chip finds one in reticular which is out in the middle of a frozen island. Belle and Chip cut down the tree, and place it on the back of Philipe, (Belle's horse) and begin to take it back to the castle. We notice that Fife has been doing some more dirty work for Forte, and with this we notice that he changed around the locking mechanism which connected the horse to the trailer. With this being done, they begin to move away with the tree, until the tree breaks away, and catches onto Belle. This in turn pulls her and Chip into the chilly water. Chip is rescued, just as Lumiere and Cogsworth show up, but to their dismay, they can't help Belle. She begins to drown, until the Beast shows up and saves her. He is able to find her from information given by Forte about where the troupe went and why. He dives into the water and saves her, slowly walking away with her unconscious body back to the castle. The next scene we see, is Belle in a dungeon. She is here because the Beast can no longer trust her. He placed her in the dungeon because she tried to plan Christmas behind his back and left the castle grounds. This ironically occurs as the countdown to midnight approaches regarding Christmas Day. Belle spends the first few minutes of Christmas Day in the dungeon, until the Beast finds his christmas gift from Belle. He opens it, to find a book she made herself. The book gives him a new image on Christmas, and with this, against the judgement of Forte, he goes and releases her from the dungeon. Fife, now angry with Forte betrays him and sides with Belle. Forte goes into a mad rage, and plays his music loudly, which begins to damage the castle heavily. This makes it a quest for the Beast so that he can liberate the castle of Forte. Finally reaching the top of the castle, he lifts up the keyboard, which stops Forte from his distruction, and throws it, which causes Forte to all from the wall onto the ground. The story finishes up with the plot returning to the human aspects. The story finishes with Lumiere and Cogsworth fighting over who saved Christmas, until Mrs. Potts informs them that it was indeed Belle who did. Following this, Belle and the Master enter the room. They go onto the balcony and exchange a gift, which is the Enchanted Rose. Fife, now human plays a lovely song on his picollo. ==Release History== ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' first debuted on VHS on [[November 11]], [[1997]], with a barebones DVD release on [[October 14]], [[1998]]. Both editions were quickly taken out of print and remained unavailable until Disney released a "Special Edition" DVD and VHS on [[November 12]], [[2002]], little more than a month after the original film's Special Edition DVD release. The new DVD featured a remake music video of the song "As Long As There's Christmas" by [[Play (Swedish band)|Play]], "Click The Mouse" behind-the-scenes featurette, Forte's Challenge Game, Enchanted Environment, Disney Song Selection, and a sing-along subtitle track. This DVD and its VHS counterpart was taken out of print at the same time as the original movie's DVD and VHS releases on January 2003. ==Soundtrack== {{main|Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (soundtrack)}} == Voice actors and their characters == * [[Paige O'Hara]] - [[Belle (Disney)|Belle]] * [[Robby Benson]] - [[Beast (Disney)|The Beast]] * [[Jerry Orbach]] - [[Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast)|Lumiere]] (candlestick/human) * [[David Ogden Stiers]] - [[Cogsworth]] (clock/human) * [[Bernadette Peters]] - Angelique (the Christmas angel) * [[Tim Curry]] - Forte (the pipe organ) * [[Haley Joel Osment]] - [[Chip]] (teacup/human) (speaking) * [[Frank Welker]] - Phillippe the Horse, Sultan * [[Jeff Bennett]] - Axe, Poke * [[Kath Soucie]] - The Woman of The Winter Rose * [[Paul Reubens]] - Fife (the piccolo) * [[Angela Lansbury]] - [[Mrs. Potts]] (teapot/human) * [[Andrew Keenan-Bolger]] - Chip (teacup/human) (singing) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * {{bcdb title|id=7272|title=Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas}} *{{imdb title|id=0118692|title=Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas}} *[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_an_enchanted_christmas/ ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas]'' at [[Rotten Tomatoes]] {{Disney direct-to-video animated features}} [[Category:1997 films]] [[Category:Christmas films]] [[Category:Disney animated films]] [[Category:Disney direct-to-video films]] [[Category:Sequel films]] [[Category:Direct-to-video films]] [[Category:Beauty and the Beast]] [[Category:Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas]] [[de:Die Schöne und das Biest: Weihnachtszauber]] [[es:La Bella y la Bestia 2]] [[fr:La Belle et la Bête 2 : Le Noël enchanté]] [[it:La bella e la bestia - Un magico Natale]] [[pl:Piękna i Bestia: Zaczarowane Święta]] [[pt:Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas]]