Disney classic comes to IMAX
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
During its first theatrical run, Walt Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" forged new respect for animated films and helped to rekindle interest in movie musicals.
Disney Enterprises
Co-director Kirk Wise can't wait to see what happens next week when the film, as part of its 10th anniversary celebration, moves from the big screen to the really, really big screen.
Walt Disney's newly expanded and reformatted version of "Beauty and the Beast" will open at the IMAX Theatre Waikiki on Tuesday.
The new large-format special edition "Beauty and the Beast" is set for re-release at 100 IMAX and other large-format theaters — including the IMAX Theatre Waikiki — on New Year's Day.
"The difference between the original film and this version is like the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving," said Wise, who co-directed the 1991 original with Gary Trousdale. "A regular theater experience would be like looking at something from the surface. With the larger format, it's like you're actually inside the action."
Following on the heels of Disney's hugely successful "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty" married a classic tale of love and redemption with modern technology and an inspired score to become the first animated feature to break the $100 million mark in its initial release.
"Beauty" also became the first animated film to earn an Oscar nomination for "Best Film," one of five nominations overall. The film won for "Best Song" and "Best Original Score," and also garnered two Grammy's and a Golden Globe Award.
"The movie was a milestone," Wise said. "It sort of set the pace for what followed."
What followed was a string of animated blockbusters that helped re-establish the Disney empire. Wise and Trousdale joined two more directorial collaborations: "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire."
The made-over "Beauty" includes a newly animated six-minute musical sequence featuring the song "Human Again," which was written for the original film by Academy Award-winning songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.
The scene shows the enchanted objects in the Beast's home yearning to be restored to their human form.
"With the original script, it was just a little too long and there were story problems associated with it that we just couldn't solve," Wise said.
The song was eventually reworked for the Broadway play based on the film. When Wise and Trousdale began planning the re-release of the film two years ago, they agreed that they'd have to find a way to recover the lost gem.
"It's a great piece," Wise said. "It adds another dimension."
Adding dimension was a central concern of the entire reformatting effort, Wise said.
The original film took more than three years to complete. A team of nearly 600 animators, artists and technicians produced more than a million drawings and 226,000 individually painted cells.
Working from the film's original digitally stored files (archived on 9,000 CD-ROMs), "Beauty" had to be meticulously reformatted a frame at a time to prepare it for the larger format. The effort took a year to complete.
"The original cells that were drawn by hand were very small," Wise said. "In blowing up something that small — some were only 2 inches — to fit a big screen, we had to sharpen some of the lines and add some detail to fill it out."
Wise also took the opportunity to correct something that had bothered him about the original film.
"There were some technical limitations at the time, and I was somewhat disappointed with the way some of the colors transferred," he said. "We were able to get it a lot closer this time — they're very rich, very vibrant now."
While reworking the look of the film was difficult, Wise said re-assembling the original cast — which included Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury and David Ogden Stiers — was as easy as picking up the phone.
"Everybody was really happy to come back," Wise said. "It was like a family reunion. It was terrific to be able to return to that same kind of artistic energy."
In the new larger format, the film— which artfully combines computer-generated imagery with old-fashioned hand-drawn animation — produces a near-3D effect, a fact that intrigued and concerned Wise.
"The whole IMAX experience and the level of involvement that it provokes is unique and exciting," he said. "When I first saw it on that big screen, I felt like some invisible force was lifting me out of my chair and into the story.
"Initially, I was afraid the effect would be too overwhelming," Wise said. "But after the first five minutes of being wowed by the sensory stimulation, you get drawn into the story and the technology just supports that."
Ultimately, Wise said, the movie will succeed because of the strength of its story and the purity of its presentation.
"There is not a lot of cynicism or irony," he said. "It doesn't have to rely on 'contemporary, edgy humor' or references to outside things.
"We didn't have to do a scene mimicking 'The Matrix,'" he said, referring to DreamWorks' CGI blockbuster, "Shrek."
Wise is sure his audience will embrace the animated film in its newest form.
"It's an emotional story told with a great deal of artistry," he said. "I'd love for (the audience) to get caught up in the story and be reminded that a lot of joy and entertainment can come from hand-drawn animation."
