Belle’s Magical World

Belle’s Magical World ultimately makes one appreciate the series’ comparatively brilliant first sequel, 1997’s Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, as the movie, which suffers from an almost total lack of compelling elements, ultimately comes off as an utterly worthless waste of time that’s sure to leave even young children checking their watches (or their parents’ watches). It’s clear right from the outset that Belle’s Magical World wasn’t originally designed to play as a full-length feature, given that the movie consists of four poorly-animated (and stand-alone) tales that were clearly intended for a (justifiably) abandoned Beauty and the Beast television series. There’s consequently little doubt that the movie’s aggressively low-rent animation style proves to be the least of its problems, with the consistently dull and hopelessly pointless nature of the four stories (eg Belle (Paige O’Hara) convinces Beast (Robby Benson) to take pity on a little bird with a broken wing) infusing the proceedings with a mind-numbingly dull vibe that is, for the most part, nothing short of oppressive. The film’s only saving grace is the return of several Beauty and the Beast cast members – in addition to O’Hara and Benson, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Jo Anne Worley reprise the roles they originated in the 1991 movie – yet this is hardly enough to compensate for what is otherwise a dishearteningly irrelevant piece of work.

* out of ****