Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
Year: 1997
Directed by: Andy Knight
Starring: Robby Benson, Tim Curry & Paige O'Hara
Runtime: 72 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 07/02/22
Directed by: Andy Knight
Starring: Robby Benson, Tim Curry & Paige O'Hara
Runtime: 72 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 07/02/22
With straight to VHS now being a viable market for Disney with the commercial success of both Aladdin sequels, Return of Jafar and King of Thieves, the next logical step of course was to see whether other properties would attain the same success. However, with the abysmal critical reception to Return of Jafar, and the lukewarm reception to King of Thieves, would the studio be able to create a film worthy of the franchise they would be continuing?
Set during the events of Beauty and the Beast, The Enchanted Christmas sees Belle (Paige O’Hara) and the castle staff try to prepare a series of fun Christmas activities for Beast (Robby Benson). However, unbeknown to Belle, Beast hates Christmas, and the former court composer Forte (Tim Curry) does not want Belle to succeed in breaking the curse, and so puts together a scheme to see her Christmas plans not only fail but also turn Beast against her.
Midquels are perhaps the worst kind of sequel I can possibly think of existing. A new story that’s awkwardly shoved into a gap in the original story that often serves no other purpose than to squeeze money out of the property and provide nothing meaningfully new.
The Enchanted Christmas unfortunately does just that, situating itself at the approximate halfway point of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, and fabricating this entirely new sub-plot that was never previously mentioned or referenced that also adds nothing new to the main plot of that story.
That being said, The Enchanted Christmas’ story is somewhat enjoyable, and fans of Beauty and the Beast are sure to get something out of it. Forte is a good villain, and Curry’s performance in the role is great. However, the film offers little more than this as Belle and Beast’s character development are both stagnated to allow for this story to take place within the confines of the original Beauty and the Beast narrative.
Set during the events of Beauty and the Beast, The Enchanted Christmas sees Belle (Paige O’Hara) and the castle staff try to prepare a series of fun Christmas activities for Beast (Robby Benson). However, unbeknown to Belle, Beast hates Christmas, and the former court composer Forte (Tim Curry) does not want Belle to succeed in breaking the curse, and so puts together a scheme to see her Christmas plans not only fail but also turn Beast against her.
Midquels are perhaps the worst kind of sequel I can possibly think of existing. A new story that’s awkwardly shoved into a gap in the original story that often serves no other purpose than to squeeze money out of the property and provide nothing meaningfully new.
The Enchanted Christmas unfortunately does just that, situating itself at the approximate halfway point of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, and fabricating this entirely new sub-plot that was never previously mentioned or referenced that also adds nothing new to the main plot of that story.
That being said, The Enchanted Christmas’ story is somewhat enjoyable, and fans of Beauty and the Beast are sure to get something out of it. Forte is a good villain, and Curry’s performance in the role is great. However, the film offers little more than this as Belle and Beast’s character development are both stagnated to allow for this story to take place within the confines of the original Beauty and the Beast narrative.
Visually The Enchanted Christmas is a marketed step up from the Aladdin sequels, though still of an understandably lower quality than that of the original film. It doesn’t look bad though is the key thing to note here. Character models are highly detailed and smoothly animated, colours are rich, and environments are given a good amount of care to not appear lifeless.
The biggest drawback The Enchanted Christmas has is the peculiar choice to make Forte 3D computer animated and be the only thing in the entire film like that. It’s not very well done either, understandable due to the small budget, but it looks so rubbery and horrendously out of place.
The Enchanted Christmas also has a handful of musical numbers, but none of them are any good, in fact ‘Stories’ is arguably one of the worst Disney songs of all time due to the fact that O’Hara is horrendously out of tune. Honestly, it sounds like the woman is totally tone deaf, which we know for a fact that she isn’t due to her excellent performances in the 1991 original.
The Enchanted Christmas is sure to keep young Beauty and the Beast fans entertained for its brief runtime, but for older audiences it’s unlikely to warrant bothering with. It’s certainly not awful, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect more than this. I expect things would have been better had this not been a midquel, however due to how the story of the original film plays out there wouldn’t have been room for a prequel or a sequel. Maybe check it out on Disney+ and then promptly forget it ever exists.
The biggest drawback The Enchanted Christmas has is the peculiar choice to make Forte 3D computer animated and be the only thing in the entire film like that. It’s not very well done either, understandable due to the small budget, but it looks so rubbery and horrendously out of place.
The Enchanted Christmas also has a handful of musical numbers, but none of them are any good, in fact ‘Stories’ is arguably one of the worst Disney songs of all time due to the fact that O’Hara is horrendously out of tune. Honestly, it sounds like the woman is totally tone deaf, which we know for a fact that she isn’t due to her excellent performances in the 1991 original.
The Enchanted Christmas is sure to keep young Beauty and the Beast fans entertained for its brief runtime, but for older audiences it’s unlikely to warrant bothering with. It’s certainly not awful, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect more than this. I expect things would have been better had this not been a midquel, however due to how the story of the original film plays out there wouldn’t have been room for a prequel or a sequel. Maybe check it out on Disney+ and then promptly forget it ever exists.