Beauty and the Beast: Critic Reviews

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.

Splendidly crafted as it is, the new Disney is a luscious impasto of visual invention that never quite finds its heart.

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.

There's enough wit and ingenuity in Roger Allers's story and Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's songs to give the CGI whizzkids a run for their money.

A delightfully satisfying modern fable, a near-masterpiece that draws on the sublime traditions of the past while remaining completely in sync with the sensibility of its time.

The scenes, characters and songs attempt to duplicate the success of Mermaid all too obviously.

There's still room in this world for innocent love stories -- and tales as old as time.

Brims with charm, style, and flawless execution that doesn't feel the least bit dated by subsequent technological advancements.

Slipped around all my roadblocks and penetrated directly into my strongest childhood memories, in which animation looked more real than live-action features.

Despite some excessive narrative streamlining, this 1991 release was the best Disney animated feature in years, full of charm and humor.

A uniquely elegant and entertaining mix of hand-drawn classicism and high-tech innovation.

This is the only animated film ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and you'll see why.

Moves us because we know that true love can sometimes seem like a mismatch. And also because, in love, we can all feel like captives or beasts.

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

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

Not only the finest animated movie ever made, but deserves a prominent position on any list of all-time greats.

Its animators' pens are wands; their movement enchants.

It's a pleasure to see "Beauty and the Beast" again in a theater with an audience that laughs and cries, but most of those pleasures would be just as evident in a conventional presentation.

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

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.