BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: DIAMOND EDITION
DVD release date: October 5, 2010
Blu-ray version (some materials may not appear on the DVD version)

Esteemed monsieur's and mademoiselles: It is with great pleasure that I present what's on the "Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition" blu-ray!

Seeing “Beauty and the Beast” again immediately brought back great memories. It is as charming and entertaining as it was when it first enchanted me during its original release. Only this time, it looks even better!

The clarity of the blu-ray version of the film is such great definition that it looks better than I ever saw in any theater.

I’m so pleased that there are several versions of the film to enjoy, too! What a great move by Disney! There’s the original version of the film, then there’s a version with the song “Human Again” added in, and finally, you can watch the entire film with a picture-in-picture work-in-progress version.

There are people who will love seeing the “Human Again” number which fits into the film nicely, and I’m sure there are people who grew up with the VHS version that included that song. For me personally, I like to see a film exactly as I remember it in the theaters. It’s wonderful to have the choice!

The fun of “Beauty and the Beast” is not just in the film itself. Even the beautiful menu is delightful! I literally sat for a few minutes, doing nothing but watching the menu, and the menu also changes each time. Because I have my blu-ray player connected to the internet, Lumiere accurately commented on the current weather.

The BONUS FEATURES are so abundant that there’s a complete blu-ray disc loaded with them! Here’s what you’ll find:

DISC ONE

Of course there’s the obligatory AUDIO COMMENTARY with producer Don Hahn, co-director Kirk Wise, and co-director Gary Trousdale and Alan Menken, and the obligatory MUSIC VIDEO is performed by American Idol Jordin Sparks.

TWO DELETED SCENES are not your typical DVD deleted scenes. One of them is nearly twenty minutes long! Peter Schneider, former head of Disney Feature Animation introduces ALTERNATE STORY OPEN (18:20). As “Beauty and the Beast” has become a classic film, it’s fascinating to see the original concept for the film’s opening. Color story sketches are set to the scratch track of dialogue with some of the final film score thrown in for entertainment value. Secondly, Roger Allers introduces the scene, BELLE IN THE LIBRARY (8:27) which has been recreated using storyboards. This one even has a bunch of deleted characters!

While COMPOSING A CLASSIC: A MUSICAL CONVERSATION WITH ALAN MENKEN, DON HAHN AND RICHARD KRAFT (20:18) is not much more than three people in a room reminiscing about the process of developing music for “Beauty and the Beast,” this piece really grabbed and held my interest for over twenty minutes. Alan Menken, who wrote the music with the late lyricist Howard Ashman, is the centerpiece of this conversation, while producer Don Hahn and Alan’s agent Richard Kraft help to bring back memories. There’s one instrumental part of this conversation that I didn’t mention… a piano. With Alan at the piano, he intersperses some musical moments into this featurette which not only helps to tell his story, but adds an additional entertainment aspect, hearing the songs performed by the man who wrote the music.

BROADWAY BEGINNINGS (13:07) features mainly performers who have appeared in the stage version of “Beauty and the Beast,” offering recollections of what it’s like appearing in the production, and recall everything from nerves to when things go wrong. Nick Jonas, Donny Osmond, Andrea McArdle and Deborah Gibson are a few of the big names who appear.

DISC 2

ENCHANTED MUSICAL CHALLENGE – Games have come a long way from the simple DVD games. This is a 30 minute trivia game where you attempt to complete lyrics, name a song pictured in an image or answer who sings certain lyrics. The blu-ray technology allows it to actually keep track of your points for you!

BONJOUR, WHO IS THIS? is a BD Live game, so you must be connected to the computer. You use your PHONE for this game! I’ve never seen anything like this and it sounds very cool. You choose a character from the movie and you will play with other real people, trying to guess the other people’s character based on various questions. I waited for the Blu-ray to be released to try to play against others, but unfortunately, nobody logged on to play when I tried. Hopefully in time it will be popular. Looks like fun.

BEYOND BEAUTY: THE UNTOLD STORY BEHIND THE MAKING OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the most wonderful behind the scenes in-depth look at the creation and history of the film. Because of its uniqueness, the blu-ray player does not show how long this feature is. I know it’s lengthy, but I really enjoyed it, so I don’t know whether it was an hour or two hours. Additionally, as you watch, a small graphic will appear in which you can use your remote to see additional materials. This includes everything from a 13 minute portrait of lyricist Howard Ashman to Walt Disney’s original Laugh-O-Gram films (his very first animated stories, in the early ‘20s) in beautiful quality and even complete art galleries!

My only criticism with this bonus feature is that I could not rewind.

Here’s a tip on viewing this. You really don’t need to click to the extra content while watching this program. If you click the menu button (on my remote it is the “pop-up menu”) you are brought to a menu of all the extra content from this bonus feature. Not only that, it places a check mark next to which content you’ve already viewed.

I hope that future blu-ray releases will offer this same technology on all menus to keep track of what’s been viewed and what hasn’t.

“Beauty and the Beast” has certainly received the royal treatment, not just in content, but in technology… but wait! There’s more! You can also access all of the original BONUS FEATURES from the previous DVD release of “Beauty and the Beast!”

This blu-ray is a beauty! Hope you enjoying being our guest to see what’s on “Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition!”

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