Then again I may be biased as I did grow up watching the Golden Films animations, and slowly going through re-watching them(as well as the Burbank and Jetlag animations) a lot of them are sweet and likable. Golden Films' version of Beauty and the Beast is no exception. It is not as good as their versions of Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio, but one that does deserve to be judged on its own merits rather than be compared to any other version.(just for the record the 1991 Disney film is one of my absolute favourites and I admit I do prefer it, but that doesn't stop me from liking this version) The animation is not great really, I did think the colours were quite nice, but the backgrounds can lack fluidity and some of the character designs didn't work for me, Beast especially looks goofy. However, the music is wonderful, the opening song The Beauty in the Beast is a real charmer and there are some classical music favourites like Clair De Lune(Debussy), Traumerai(Schumann), Carnival of the Animals(Saint Saens) and The Nutcracker Suite(Tchaikovsky). The story has some additions like Clara, who I loved as a character, and is a little truer than the Disney film to the fairytale, and is very simple and sweet. I did like the story-book structure also. The dialogue also has a cute feel to it, again it's simple but, apart from a couple of childish moments, unlike Jetlag's Alice in Wonderland for example it wasn't overly so. The characters are engaging on the whole, you do warm to the Beast and Beauty is a likable protagonist. The voice work is interesting, always emotive and never passive. Overall, a good charming animation, the music, story and characters more than make up for the wanting animation quality. 8/10 Bethany Cox
