Well, now it's time for the second animated rip off of Beauty & the Beast. Without help from GoodTimes Entertainment this time round, like I mentioned in my first Beauty and the Beast rip-off review, this was released in 1999. So...can a second time round of adapting the tale as old as time make up for last time, or is this equally as bad as the first time (or somehow even worse)? Let's just get over this shit-fest.
Story: Yet again, this story takes more elements from the original fariytale, but with a couple of changes including 3 ghosts commenting on the story, Beauty just having 3 sisters & diving more into the Beast's backstory. However, like before, none of these. While the last one was admittedly so bad in execution that at times it was funny, this was just annoying to sit through & it's mostly thanks to the attempts at comedy which end up feeling obnoxiously shoehorned. Another part of what makes this a drag to sit through is the sporadic pacing with no sense of segway or build-up into different scenes. This includes one massive plot hole as the 3 ghosts hide from the Beast in a freaking Beauty and the Beast book which the Beast himself reads showing the story despite the ghosts seemingly already being a part of the book's story! Trust me, it's as confusing as it sounds! Despite being about 48 minutes long, this felt like an eternity to watch thanks to the pointless padding rather it be through musical numbers (we'll get to them in a bit), pointless sequences & the aforementioned comedy. But what really makes all of this this worse is the non existent romance between Beauty and the Beast. While the first rip-off at the very least had a dance scene between the main couple, in this they never share any moments of chemistry or any tender/touching scenes before Beauty declares her love for him. All that happens between them is that they talk, she somehow angers him & he destroys a load of stuff. Rise & repeat. So overall, with little to no romance, pacing, segway & infuriating comedy, I can't even say this is so bad it's hilarious like the last time!
Animation: I will say that the animation is a bit of an improvement over the last one, but it's still pretty low by direct to video standards. The character designs again try to emulate Disney while having that basic & more cartoony flare (even if it feels like I'm watching moving Snap, Crackle & Pops throughout) & the Beast's design is much better than the ChewPumbaa last time despite obviously copying Disney's Beast. The character animation is an improvement as it does look much more fluid compared to last time & is admittedly creative on the ghosts despite clearly trying to 'emulate' the movements of the Genie from Aladdin. While the overall look is more polished compared to last time, there are still some obvious glicthes around like them clearly replaying animation footage (especially apparent in the ghost's big musical number), the camera & sets not moving in sync, poor interaction with the animation and backgrounds, derpy eyes & my favourite, poor lip synching, Speaking of, the backgrounds also don't really feel that creative on the castle & it doesn't really help almost all the movie takes place in it. Like I said, the animation is better than last time, but it still has those errors which prevent it from being anything better than OK.
Characters: As expected, the characters are all one dimensional with that single character trait & nothing else. Beauty is just as (if not more) boring & uninteresting as the last knock-off with absolutely no personality whatsoever other than liking gardening which is hardly dived into! The Beast is just grumpy & doesn't even really redeem himself or be nice towards Beauty before their declaration of love. While his backstory is dived into more by making him a jackass who left his subjects to starve to death (yes, really), this doesn't give him the sympathetic or even likeable edge like the Disney movie! The three Snap, Crackle & Pop ghosts are all just intolerable & annoying with their commentary on what's going on & needlessly butting in on the plot. Beauty's father in this is nowhere near as hilariously awful as the father in the last movie because he' s not as stupidly idiotic & doesn't really have anything special to him. The 3 sisters in this are pretty much bitchy versions of the seven dwarves from Snow White with only one character trait like one loving food while inexplicably being skinny, one loving to sleep & one loving fashion. They don't have any redeeming qualities & they don't even have any development apologizing to Beauty after she saves the Beast from his curse. Yet again, all the characters in this just made the movie painful to watch for me because of how bland & annoying they all are.
Songs: Yep, there are songs in this & they are so...generic. They are pretty bad, don't get me wrong, but not really as intolerably insufferable as The Hunchback of Notre Dame's songs (except for one). The first one is just your typical I Want song from Beauty while she dreams for her prince which turns into a duet with some very bizarre imagery which serves no purpose or establishes anything about her character. It sort of has that quality where it felt like it was supposed to be a breakout pop ballad duet from the Disney Renaissance & it really doesn't fit the movie. The second one is just about the 3 sisters singing about more of the materialistic things they want fitting with their character traits. It doesn't do anything else to show who they are despite the admittedly catchy tune & the execution of it is pretty bad. The last one is easily the worst sung by the ghosts which is an annoying cheesy pop song trying to emulate Be Our Guest to no avail as they prepare a banquet of food for Beauty's father when he arrives at the Beast's castle. And speaking of the soundtrack, this features classical music from the likes of Swan Lake and Nutcracker & it's especially jarring with the original songs, inconsistent genres & that the score is so associated with the aforementioned ballets! Most of them don't even fit the mood or atmosphere of the scene which just baffled me! So, with a very inconsistent soundtrack & pointless (while admittedly OK) songs, they just add more to the annoyance of a movie this really is!
This may be a tad better in terms of animation than the last one, but GoldenFilm's second outing of Beauty and the Beast still really falls flat because of the poorly executed story, numerous glitches, dull characters & confusingly inconsistent soundtrack. This was just painful & wasn't even so bad it was enjoyable like the previous film. I don't even think one is 'better' than the other because they're equally as bad mostly for the same reasons. Trust me, I feel so relieved now that I'm done with these Beauty and Beast rip-offs so I can go & watch Disney's version which is a million times better than those of these pieces of crap!
Story: 1/10
Animation: 3/10
Characters: 2/10
Songs: 2/10
Overall: 2/10
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