The Great Disney Reel Rumble Retrospective continues through the Disney Renaissance era! Today, we tackle two Disney films widely considered among their very best work. In a battle of titans, who will emerge victorious?
If you read our The Little Mermaid article, then you’re about to hear a similar sounding story. Walt Disney sought to adapt Beauty and the Beast into a feature film back in the 1930s, and again in the 50s. Both attempts failed because the story teams found adaptation of the tale too challenging. Some speculate Walt was also discouraged after seeing Jean Cocteau‘s 1946 version.
Regardless, this version began in 1987. During production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Disney decided to task its satellite London animation studio with working on the project. It began as a non-musical movie, and in an unprecedented move for an animated film, Michael Eisner ordered the use of a screenwriter to write a traditional script. Typically, animated films are developed on storyboards. After Jeffrey Katzenburg saw the initial storyboards, he was highly disappointed in the work done and ordered the whole project to be restarted. The initial director quit as a result.
Disney next approached John Musker and Ron Clement again, hoping to channel their Mermaid success, but the pair were too tired from work on that project and declined. This led to Disney tapping first-time directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. Their only prior work was on animated segments at the EPCOT theme park.
Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were also approached, with Katzenburg wanting to return to a musical format. Ashman, despite having recently learned he was dying from AIDS and wanting to focus solely on his work for Aladdin, reluctantly agreed. Disney moved production to New York to accommodate him.
With the crack team assembled in New York, some of the film’s best ideas were added. These included adding Gaston as a villain and inserting the idea of enchanted household items. These ideas might have been “borrowed” from Cocteau’s version, but they were given their own distinctly Disney touch. With the new script in hand, Katzenburg approved production, and it went ahead full steam. Disney flew the storyboard artists back and forth between California and New York to accommodate Ashman’s illness, though at that time no one was told why.
Animators were forced to work on a crunch schedule due to the kibosh being put on the initial production. Disney gave them a mere two years to animate the film instead of the traditional four years. Primary animation was completed in California, with the Florida MGM studios assisting on certain scenes, including the “Be Our Guest” number. Beauty and the Beast was the second Disney film to use the CAPS method, with digital scanning, ink, and painting allowing for soft shading and colored line effects. This level of detail had been lost in the earlier xerography era of Disney.
This system also allowed for easier combination of CGI with hand-drawn art, used significantly in the notable ballroom waltz sequence. The success of this sequence led to further investment into computer animation by Disney and other studios. Despite all of this innovation, ironically, the film’s final dance between Beast and Belle was a reuse of a dance scene between Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty, due to last-second crunch.
Part and parcel with the attempt to bolster the prestige of these films, many high profile actors were sought for the various roles. Lawrence Fishburne, Val Kilmer, and Mandy Patkin were all considered for the Beast, John Cleese was considered for Cogsworth, and Julie Andrews was considered for Mrs. Potts. None of these folks were cast, but the film did land Angela Lansbury, and David Ogden Stiers, as well as Paige O’Hara for Belle, someone who was meant to capture a singing tone reminiscent of Judy Garland.
This casting was in line with the broad attempt to emulate Broadway, as Disney once returned to a musical format after the lackluster Rescuers Down Under. Ashman and Menken wrote all of the songs together. Voice and song recording occurred simultaneously in New York City. In another atypical move, recording was completed live with the orchestra and the voice cast all working together, instead of overdubbing separately. In doing so, the filmmakers aimed to capture the energy of a Broadway cast album.
Due to the multitude of story changes, many of the songs wound up repurposed from their original meaning. “Be Our Guest” was originally to be sung to Maurice, Belle’s father, before it was suggested to be sung to Belle. The titular track also began more as a rock-oriented power ballad, before becoming the slower, more stately, number. When Lansbury was originally asked to sing “Beauty and the Beast,” she declined, thinking her voice was not suited for the melody. They insisted she give at least one take, and her first take reportedly brought everyone present to tears. Lansbury’s instincts were proven wrong, and an Oscar followed to prove it.
In one more shocking move, Beauty and the Beast released unfinished at the New York Film Festival in 1991. Disney had never before released a work-in-progress cut, but it proved fruitful. This version received a ten-minute long standing ovation. The full film released in November of the same year, grossing $145.9 million in North America and $331.9 million worldwide. It became the first animated film to reach $100 million in the US during its initial run, becoming a box office smash. Critics rained down praise alongside all the money pouring in, with most complimenting every aspect of the film. Reviews credited Disney with reinventing the animated film by trying to appeal to all audiences, rather than just children. Belle was praised for pushing the ball forward in giving Disney heroines actual agency and personality. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel declared it a legitimate contender for Best Picture. It did go on to receive a nomination, as well as five other Oscar nominations, and it won for both Score and Best Original Song.
It remains a film of relevance. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2002, has been recognized numerous times by the AFI and other film organizations, received a Broadway-musical adaptation, a live-action film adaptation, three direct-to-video sequels, and has buckets of merchandise. Beauty and the Beast also has a major place in the Disney parks, and has had many video game adaptations, including a prominent place in the famous Kingdom Hearts series. Still widely considered one of Disney’s peak works, Beauty and the Beast is a hallmark of this era of Disney.
Unlike Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin did not begin as some forgotten idea of Walt. Rather, it was Howard Ashman who originated the idea of an animated musical version of this story. In 1988, Ashman wrote a 40-page treatment and worked with Menken to compose songs. They also developed several original characters to add to the story. However, the studio was initially dismissive of the idea and canned the project.
Cut to two years later, and Ashman and Menken are now Disney’s favorite creatives due to their work on the aforementioned projects. Linda Woolverton, meanwhile, had taken Ashman’s treatment and written a draft script, adding in Jafar and Abu. Ron Clements and John Musker chose to direct the project after being given their choice of any project after The Little Mermaid. Tragically, Ashman would pass in March 1991, never seeing the success of Beauty and the Beast, but he did manage to compose the song “Prince Ali” with Menken as well as his final song “Humiliate the Boy” before his death.
Musker and Clements took Woolverton’s draft, wrote their own, and then took a story reel to Katzenberg in April 1991. In a day that came to be known as “Black Friday” by Disney staff, Katzenberg didn’t care for the reel and demanded an entire rewrite of the story without changing the release date of November 1992.
Katzenberg told the pair to not be beholden to Ashman’s vision, and he canned inclusion of Aladdin’s mother, who was part of the original story. He also demanded removal of any reference to Jasmine’s age (she was explicitly 16 at first) and also demanded that Jasmine be forced to marry a prince due to law, so as to add a dramatic change on the Sultan’s part when he allowed Aladdin to marry Jasmine.
Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were brought in to do the hard work of writing these changes and several others, including making Aladdin more of a suave Han Solo type, removing several songs, and adding in the parrot Iago. Iago was originally going to be more of an uptight British type, before the filmmakers saw Gilbert Gottfried in Beverly Hills Cop II and rewrote the character for him. Iago was a generation’s introduction to the unique tones of Gilbert Gottfried and his over-the-top comedy and persona.
This soundtrack would be Ashman’s last due to his AIDS-related death. Tim Rice, who would become a major Disney player, took over as lyricist after Ashman’s passing. Between the pair, fourteen songs were written in total. Only seven made the final cut of the film, four by Rice and three by Ashman. This soundtrack was widely praised, with Rice and Menken’s “A Whole New World” taking home the Best Original Song Oscar. “A Friend Like Me,” an Ashman tune, was also nominated.
Animation proceeded in both the California and Florida studios. Caricaturist Al Hirschfield’s work served as a stylistic guide due to its similarity to Arabic calligraphy. The only character not based on this aesthetic was Jafar, who was designed to look in contrast to the rest of the characters. Funnily, many of the characters, including Jasmine and Aladdin, were animated in separate studios. This required many phone calls between the animators to make sure everyone matched up. While CG animation was used less in this film than in Beauty and the Beast, it was notably added to the Cave of Wonders entrance.
A central part of production was the Genie. Genie was designed with Robin Williams in mind, though Katzenberg suggested several others including Steve Martin, John Candy, and Eddie Murphy. Despite initial reluctance, Williams agreed to do the part, and even agreed to be paid the scale SAG fee of only $75,000, despite his usual fee of $8 million. His only caveat for the pay cut was that his voice and image not be used for marketing and that Genie be only present on 25% of advertising artwork. Williams came in and voiced the role between filming for Hook and Toys, and he didn’t want the marketing for either of those films to be disrupted. In a highly unusual move for animated works, Williams was allowed to ad-lib most of his dialogue.
Disney would renege on its promises by using the Genie extensively in ads, as well as Williams’s voice in TV ads, all without paying any additional amount to Williams. Williams was understandably upset and blasted Disney in the media. The studio sent him a Picasso painting worth more than $1 million at the time as an apology, but Williams funnily stated that it clashed with his existing home décor. He would eventually forgive the studio and agreed to voice Genie again for the second sequel.
The extensive marketing campaign worked, as Aladdin released in November 1992 and grossed $19.2 million in its opening weekend. It took a mere eight weeks to surpass Beauty and the Beast‘s gross and eventually passed Batman Returns as the highest-grossing film of 1992. It went on to gross $504 million worldwide. As was common in this era, critical praise matched the commercial success, with universal acclaim. Robin Williams received lots of focus and praise for his role as Genie, though a few found him overly broad. Some negative commentary did compare it unfavorably to its immediate predecessors in the Disney catalog, and they also pointed out its Arab stereotypes, with Ebert specifically noting that Aladdin and Jasmine were rendered like white American teenagers in comparison to the rest of the Arab characters.
That didn’t stop the film from racking up award wins and nominations. It received five Oscar nominations and became the only Disney film to win Song of the Year from the Grammys. It has gone to receive multiple direct-to-video sequels, a live-action adaptation, video games, and a decent presence at Disney parks. Aladdin features in Kingdom Hearts, and the film is credited for sparking a rise in using film actors as voice actors in animated films. While some continue to wrestle with its cultural representation issues, Aladdin remains mostly beloved today.
Some, as of late, have knocked the Beauty and the Beast‘s plotting as being problematic. It relies on the trope of a toxic man being rescued by a woman’s goodness after kidnapping her and holding her against her will. That criticism may be fair in some respect. Even so, despite the Beast’s many failings, the film does take lengths to distinguish between the Beast’s willingness to let go of his rage and toxicity versus Gaston, the true villain of the piece. Beauty and the Beast also takes on many of the Disney Princess film tropes and provides a refreshing twist on them. Belle, while maybe not the epitome of feminist icon, is still an intelligent character, celebrated for her intellect and compassion throughout the film as well as her willingness to sacrifice herself to help others. While Gaston is a bit broad, the manner of his villainy emphasizes that blind greed, selfishness, and arrogance can cause one’s downfall.
The film is full of magical, enchanting moments. Whether in the transformation of everyone in the end, the constant humor about Gaston’s idiocy, or the ballroom dance sequence, Beauty and the Beast has that Disney magic. The film has more emotional depth than the Silver Age Disney princess titles.
Aladdin likewise has its share of problematic storytelling. Its depiction of Arabic peoples occasionally involves some questionable choices. Still, the representation inherent in an Arabic-set Disney film was a move forward for a studio that had pretty much only made Eurocentric films to that point. Aladdin as a character is one of the more compelling Disney protagonists. He’s given room to be angry, to make mistakes, and grow from them. In fact, Aladdin is arguably not a fully good person at the start of the film, despite his presentation as a thief with a heart of gold. While the film doesn’t provide deep commentary on class, it does present the idea that one’s morals can be shaped by one’s economic circumstances.
Jafar is not the first flamboyant villain in Disney, but he is certainly one of the most memorable. He and Iago are a fun mischievous pair, and it’s a credit that the film doesn’t back away from depicting how evil Jafar can be, murdering and and stealing to get his way. The manner of Jafar’s defeat is also quite creative, and fully incorporates the Genie character who often feels more like a comedic sidekick. Williams infuses him with enough pathos to make the character’s arc work.
Both films have some fantastic sequences, and both feature male and female characters with strong arcs. Aladdin is arguably the best character in the two films, at least as far as being dynamic, while Jasmine is the most static. Trying to measure up and decide whether a magical carpet ride or opulent castle waltz is better than the other is no easy choice. These films have some of Disney’s best storytelling. The villainy of Jafar is a little more memorable than Gaston (who is not forgettable by any means), and Aladdin’s arc is slightly more compelling than the Beast’s, though Belle is a great character in her own right. Aladdin narrowly gets the win here.
Winner: Aladdin
In what must be the most difficult single round in this series, we juggle some of the greatest ever Disney songs. Look no farther than “Be Our Guest” for an exemplar of why this era of Disney music is so great. In the Broadway tradition, it starts small before swelling into a bombastic number full of dazzling animation. The song conveys story while also having the music mirror the progression of the animation, building up tempo and expanding on the instrumentation used to become a rambunctious show-stopper by its end. On the other side of the spectrum, the titular song is indeed a gorgeous and opulent number. Trusting in Lansbury was a wonderful decision, as her voice elevates the song into something stately. It makes the ballroom dance scene come to fruition. The two other notable character songs, “Belle” and “Gaston,” while not as strong as the two other tracks, are still quite good. We get introduced to Belle’s character via her song, which serves well to highlight the comedic condescension Belle’s village has for her, while striking Belle as a different sort of protagonist. Gaston’s song is a fun bawdy bar tune, and one of the more catchy and memorable villain songs from the Disney Renaissance.
Over in Agrabah, “A Whole New World” is the signature song of Aladdin. A duet between Aladdin and Jasmine as they discuss escaping the stale conventions of their lives, the number is both inspirational as a song about achieving one’s dreams, as well as blissfully romantic. The song being a literal magic carpet ride around the world lets the animators have fun with various glimpses of world landmarks under a gorgeous night sky with impossibly purple clouds. The other two notable songs are jumpier numbers. “A Friend Like Me” is a showcase for Genie’s character and another fun way for the animators to stretch their creative muscles. It’s fitting that the stage musical version of this song reportedly earned standing ovations mid-show. The other bombastic Genie showcase is “Prince Ali,” a song where Aladdin’s new persona is on full display. While similar in some sense to “A Friend Like Me,” it’s certainly sonically different and another grandoise number that lets animators bring in a variety of imagery. Nearly all of the songs in this movie are instant ear worms.
Picking which of these is better mostly comes down to personal preference. Both films are full of objectively great songs that will leave you singing along years later. In a minute attempt to bring objectivity into this process, we grade Beauty and the Beast as the slightly better soundtrack. “Beauty and the Beast” is beautifully sung by Lansbury, and “Be Our Guest” is one of Disney’s best numbers period. Of course, someone else may say the same for Aladdin’s songs, and they wouldn’t really be wrong.
Winner: Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast dazzles with a number of artful sequences. The famous ballroom dance expertly uses both CGI and hand-drawn animation to create a memorable and one-of-a-kind experience. While the modern Disney productions have a beauty of their own with the full CGI approach, this film’s blend of styles is perhaps the pinnacle of Disney animation. The design of Beast himself is also creative, rendering him feral and monstrous but managing to show some inner kindness in that fanged, furry face. All of the various household objects are cleverly done, with personalities in each piece and unique ways of moving. Beauty and the Beast is kinetic, too, moving along at a good clip and never dragging anything out too long. Gaston is a great villain, with a look that’s instantly recognizable despite its simplicity. The opulence of the Beast’s castle, both in its extravagant beauty and its depiction as empty and haunting, is another feather in Disney’s cap.
Aladdin is no slouch in this department. Aside from all of the aforementioned musical sequences, Aladdin has a number of other beautiful scenes. The Cave of Wonders entrance, with its talking tiger head, is instantly memorable and a creative choice that adds to the mystique of the film. The Genie’s design is also excellent, with his sky-blue color quickly identifying him a friendly character, and the bevy of bonkers transformations and magic on display keeping him an entertaining presence. Jafar’s villainous design is also great, a fun contrast from the Sultan’s short and bumbling look. Jafar’s impossibly thin, snake-like appearance and sharp angles makes him read as evil in one glance. Jonathan Freeman’s vocal performance creates a nice balance between camp and utter evil.
This is another close contest with a winner selected on the tip of a precipice. Parsing between the beauty of the sequences for “A Whole New World” and “Beauty and the Beast” is like selecting between two flawless diamonds. The dark, sandy environments of Agrabah are as recognizable as the creepy woods outside Beast’s Castle, and the Castle itself. The talented collection of voice actors for both films have made all of the characters memorable, both the big and the small. Yet a winner must be chosen. The edge goes to Beauty and the Beast, which has just a bit more detail that pushes it slightly forward.
Winner: Beauty and the Beast
This clash may be the single closest contested matchup in this entire series. Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are both among Disney’s masterpieces. Both utilize very different approaches in some sense, with Beast a more modern recapturing of the classic Disney princess story and Aladdin embracing a distinctly different protagonist type. Yet both utilize the Broadway show approach to great effect, and despite the constraints placed on the animators, these films feature some of Disney’s most beautiful scenes. Still, Beauty and the Beast takes the win for its peak animation, songwriting, and production. It is one of the best displays of Disney’s animation studio to date, and a hallmark to show what can be achieved through animated filmmaking. Aladdin is right there behind it, also an exemplar of greatness.
Beauty and the Beast
- Ranked #637 globally
- Wins 45% of matchups
- 90,225 users have ranked it 701,929 times
- 720 have it as their #1 film
- Ranked 3/65 in the Walt Disney Animation Studios filter
Aladdin
- Ranked #310 globally
- Wins 52% of matchups
- 95,775 users have ranked it 768,848 times
- 742 have it as their #1 film
- Ranked 2/65 in the Walt Disney Animation Studios filter
- Bambi (1942)
- Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
- Aladdin (1992)
- Cinderella (1950)
- The Little Mermaid (1989)
- Fantasia (1940)
- Peter Pan (1953)
- The Fox and the Hound (1981)
- The Jungle Book (1967)
- Robin Hood (1973)
- Alice in Wonderland (1951)
- Pinocchio (1940)
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
- Lady and the Tramp (1955)
- Oliver & Company (1988)
- The Rescuers (1977)
- The Aristocats (1970)
- The Black Cauldron (1985)
- Dumbo (1941)
- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
- The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
- The Three Caballeros (1944)
- The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
- The Sword in the Stone (1963)
- Melody Time (1948)
- Saludos Amigos (1942)
- Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
- Make Mine Music (1946)
