"You're in a castle, so live like a king!"
Beauty and the Beast is the second animated film by Golden Films based on the story Beauty and the Beast, made seven years after the last one, this time without the help of GoodTimes Entertainment.
Once again suffering financial troubles, as well as a destroyed garden, an old merchant goes into town to look for gifts for his four daughters (yes, they included a fourth sister). His youngest, Beauty, only asks for a rose, and he once again finds one at the Beast's castle. This time, he's welcomed by three ghosts who feed him and let him rest for the night. But as the merchant is about to go home, he makes the mistake of plucking the rose from the Beast's garden, once again earning his wrath. When the merchant can't bring himself to give the Beast the daughter he did this for, he gets locked up in the dungeon, where Beauty finds him later. She exchanges herself for her father, and he lets him go. They get along relatively well, but after seeing her ill father, Beauty's loyalty to the Beast may once again be put to the test when the Beast lets her visit her family—on the condition that he will die of a broken heart if she stays too long.
Tropes applying to this version of Beauty and the Beast:
- Aborted Arc: The three ghosts explain that they are trapped on the mortal plane as part of the Beast's curse, and will be able to move on to the afterlife when the spell is broken. This detail is completely forgotten about in the ending, as the ghosts are still present after the Beast becomes human again, and even attend his and Beauty's wedding.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In addition to being far more irritable than most adaptations, this incarnation of the Beast was also has a backstory where he refused to share his supplies with the starving peasants during a famine, causing the majority to leave his kingdom with many outright dying as a result. He never did anything nearly so awful in the original tale.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the original story, Beauty's sisters simply want her to stay longer than promised so that the Beast will get angry at her, unintentionally and unknowingly causing the Beast to die. In this version, they summon an entire angry mob in an attempt to storm the castle and kill the Beast themselves.
- Adapted Out: Beauty doesn't have any brothers in this version of the story.
- Animal Companion: Beauty's cat.
- Big Eater: Beauty's sister in the yellow dress is always eating sweets; at one point, she states she wants her future husband to give her ten pies to eat; however, she never seems to put on any weight.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Beauty's three sisters and the three ghosts.
- Continuity Reboot: Technically speaking, since this isn't the first version of the story Golden Films made, and it has nothing to do with the previous version beyond that.
- Disney Death: Once again, the Beast is dying from heartbreak once Beauty stays for too long. Downplayed in that he's not as close to death as other versions of this fairy tale.
- Expy: The ghosts are clearly meant to be the Enchanted Objects from the Disney version. They even disguise themselves as furniture at one point.
- Forgotten Framing Device: The movie opens with the three ghosts entering a Beauty and the Beast book, which seems to indicate that they're outsiders entering the story. But the rest of the movie treats them as though they were there the whole time, even having them be involved in the backstory while they were still alive.
- Freudian Excuse: For those who muster the will to pay close enough attention, you can see that most, if not all, major scenes starring the ghosts also in some way involve food. We're introduced to them cooking in the first scene and they sing the "Be Our Guest" rip-off (both times, they practically gush about the food) and one ghost expressed interest in Beauty's cooking skills when encouraging the Beast to accept her in her dad's place. Then it's revealed that, in life, they starved to death.
- Ghost Song: "Live Like a King", sung by the three narrator ghosts.
- Gospel Revival Number: The aforementioned "Live Like a King" is basically what happens if "Be Our Guest" from the Disney film was one of these.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Played straight with Beauty, averted with one of her sisters.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: This movie's version of the Beast gets angry and offended at the most minor of things. Even the pre-Character Development Disney Beast looks almost mellow in comparison.
- The Hedonist: Beauty's sisters, emphasized in their song "More".
- Hypnotize the Captive: Invoked. When Beauty is showing affection for the Beast, one of her sisters proclaims "he has her under some spell" when she witnesses this.
- Jerkass: The Beast's Disproportionate Retribution towards those who pick his roses is bad enough, but during Beauty's stay with him, he mostly spends his time getting easily offended by the most minor things, as well as yelling at and scaring the poor girl who probably misses her family. To top it all off, according to The Reveal, he refused to help a group of starving townsfolk, leading to a majority of them, including the three comic-relief ghosts, dying.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even though Beauty's sisters were just using this as an excuse to continue attacking the Beast, Beauty and the Beast actually don't share as many touching scenes or chemistry as other versions of this fairy tale, giving their claims of how "evil" the Beast is some sort of credence. Not to mention what the Beast did to become a beast.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Not only do Beauty's sisters warn her not to go after the Beast only because no one will take care of them, but they also arrange an angry mob to "get" the Beast out of envy, using their claims that their sister was "kidnapped" and "brainwashed" as an excuse.
- Karma Houdini: Once again, Beauty's sisters receive no punishment for arranging an angry mob to kill the Beast.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The prince had to become a Beast because of the horrible way he treated the peasants that pleaded for his help, with some of them even dying of starvation.
- Missing Mom: Beauty's mother is never seen and is only mentioned once as having taught Beauty the duet she sings with the Beast/Prince.
- Never Say "Die":
- When the ghosts explain their backstory to the cat, they simply state that they "didn't make it", all but confirming that they died of starvation during the famine.
- Averted when the Beast allows Beauty to temporarily leave in order to see her family, as he warns her outright that he will "die of a broken heart" if she does not return.
- Later played straight when the sisters entice the mob to "get" the Beast, which not only avoids any mention of death, but also avoids sounding like the mob song from a certain other adaptation.
- No Name Given: Beauty is the only character in the entire film who is actually given a name. Her father, sisters and the three ghosts go completely unnamed, and the Beast himself is only ever referred to as such.
- Offstage Villainy: Just how did Beauty's sisters arrange for that angry mob?
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Golden Films once again goes into this well for their soundtrack. This movie has Swan Lake and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy included as primary tunes.
- Reused Character Design:
- The dark skinned ghost is based off of one of the brothers from the 1992 version.
- One of the peasants is Hans from The Christmas Elves, but with pink clothing.
- The Reveal: The reason the ghosts are helping the Beast is because they are three of the people who starved to death after the prince refused to help them. Only once he finds true love can they move on.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Beauty's sisters embody this trope overall—individually, one represents Pride (puts herself above her sisters), another represents Gluttony (she's constantly eating and has an insatiable sweet tooth) and one represents Sloth (she's constantly sleeping and at one point asks her father for a horse so she doesn't have to walk everywhere); collectively, all three have an entire Villain Song about their mutual Greed, they become Envious of Beauty when she turns out to have been living in a mansion, leading to them developing a Lust for the luxurious life said mansion would offer and finally are filled with Wrath against the Beast when they see how frightening he is.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Beauty is kind and modest whereas her sisters are vain and greedy. Their differences are also evidenced in their character designs: Beauty wears a simple pink dress, while her sisters are seen in ornate dresses and hair decorations.
- Spoiled Brat: Beauty's sisters.
- Terrible Trio: Unlike the other Golden Films version of this story, Beauty's sisters are the only antagonists this time.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Beauty and her sisters are tall, slender, and traditionally pretty while their father is short, fat, and balding.
- Villain Song: "More", sung by Beauty's sisters.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: The merchant has four daughters in this version, but when he pleads for his life with the Beast, he claims to only have three.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when it looks like Beauty can bail her father out of the dungeon with no trouble, the Beast catches them trying to escape.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Despite being imprisoned by the Beast and having no real reason to believe he's changed for the better, Beauty's father vouches for his innocence when the angry mob sets out to kill him. It doesn't work.
