22. Beauty and the Beast- 1991

Rating: 🏆 most excellent

Belle is a kindhearted bibliophile who garners the attention of the town hunk, Gaston. Gaston is an idiot and a jerk and Belle is NOT INTERESTED. But her love life takes a turn when she sets out to rescue her father who’s been taken captive by a Prince who was turned into a beast by a magic spell. She exchanges her life for her fathers, but as she stays in the castle she begins to discover that there is more to the Beast than meets the eye.

I was a little scared that one of my favorite Disney movies would give me Stockholm Syndrome vibes upon rewatching but I am happy to report that the relationship between Belle and the Beast is healthy AND consensual! They see each other at their best and their worst. They speak their minds. They open up. And *spoiler alert* the spell is broken by a verbal declaration of love and not by a creepy non-consensual kiss (like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). I am here for Belle and Beast’s love story! Also, thus far in the challenge, no movie can hold a candle to the soundtrack and score. It’s nothing short of genius. The music is the pulse of the movie and without it it would be a drastically different film. You can clearly see how the commercial success of The Little Mermaid influenced the style of subsequent Disney movies and all I can say is THANK GOD it did, because these 90’s movies are so much better than the 70’s and 80’s.