What a Five-Year-Old Thought of Beauty and the Beast 3D

The theatrical poster for “Beauty and the Beast 3D.”

Re-releasing a Disney movie to theatres, in theory, should be a fairly safe bet for attracting the attention of a princess-obsessed five year old, but I was still a little apprehensive about taking my daughter Charley to see the recent 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast.

Why? There are two reasons – first, even though my daughter has seen Beauty and the Beast on DVD and even met Belle at Disney World, the movie itself is fairly intense and Charley can, at times, be a bit of a ‘fraidy cat. I didn’t know if the Disney Digital 3D conversion would pump up the visuals and sound during the film’s darker, more violent moments to the point where it would make her uncomfortable. (I know Beauty and the Beast isn’t Hostel or anything, but the wolf attack scene and the final Gaston/Beast fight are fairly vicious.)

And the second reason that I was nervous was that my five-year-old had never seen a 3D movie before. NEVER!

I know that sounds weird in the post-Avatar world, but the idea of 3D has always kind of freaked my daughter out (see previous ‘fraidy cat reference) and she has steadfastly refused any attempts we’ve made in the past to take her to a 3D film. The idea that something was going to “pop” off the screen terrified her. (My wife and I have spent many hours trying to explain that nothing was going to physically crawl out of the screen, a la Samara from The Ring, but I don’t think Charley believed us.)

So, when Charley told me that she really wanted to see Beauty and the Beast 3D at the theatre, I was both happy and a little skeptical. I was proud of her and yet vaguely unsure that we’d make it through the entire picture. But, she seemed adamant and I also knew that she was dying to see the new Tangled short – Tangled Ever After – that was playing before Beauty and the Beast 3D, so I thought we’d give it a try.

I’m glad we did. Here’s what Charley thought of her first 3D viewing experience and I’ll check in with my thoughts afterwards….

DAD: What did you think of Beauty and the Beast 3D?

CHARLEY: I liked the 3D because everything came at me and it was one of my favorite movies.

DAD: What were your favorite parts of the movie?

CHARLEY: I liked that there was a lot of action and coolness. The talking furniture was also a good part.

Charley Burns and Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.”

DAD: What else did you like about the movie?

CHARLEY: The popcorn.

DAD: Was there anything you didn’t like or wish was different in the movie?

CHARLEY: Do you mean “did I want more stuff to come at me through the screen in 3D”?

DAD: No.

CHARLEY: Because there was the right amount of stuff flying at my face.

DAD: So, there was nothing you’d change?

CHARLEY: Then it would be a different Beauty and the Beast. Who wants that to happen? It’s a cool movie.

DAD: Point taken. What did you think about the Tangled short?

CHARLEY: It was so funny. My favorite part was in the end when Maximus was all messy and covered in a dress and tar and other stuff.

DAD: If four stars is the best and zero stars is the worst, what would you give Beauty and the Beast 3D?

CHARLEY: I would give it four stars. But that doesn’t make sense. What does four stars mean? Why not ten stars? Why not a thousand? Four is lame. (Editor’s Note: We agree, that’s why we use a scale of 0-5. So, we’ll assume Charley would give the film five stars had she been aware of our scale, maybe.)

And thus began a long conversation about the vagaries of the movie rating industry…which I’ll save for another time.

But I’ll agree with Charley that Beauty and the Beast 3D is definitely worth seeing. The 3D conversion is crisp and well done. The only particularly showy 3D shot in the movie is the opening shot, pulling in to Beast’s castle, which seems designed to show audiences, “OK, this is what you paid for.” But, for the rest of the running time, the 3D primarily just gives depth and texture to an already beautiful film.

Beauty and the Beast definitely remains a highlight of Disney’s 1990s animated blockbuster boom, particularly the musical score and book by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. This is a film that refuses to be dated and, after seeing it on DVD for the past several years, it was fun to see how well it plays in an actual dimmed-light theatre.

The promotional poster for “Tangled Ever After.”

Plus the Tangled short was hysterical. Our family loved the original Tangled and Tangled Ever After – revolving around Rapunzel and Flynn’s wedding – definitely didn’t disappoint. The plot revolves around Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon in a madcap rush through the kingdom trying to recover the happy couple’s lost wedding rings, but the animators were just using that premise to give us a big, over-the-top, joke-packed ode to Chuck Jones-style Looney Tunes. Tangled Ever After makes some very funny references back to the original movie, but the bulk of the cartoon is just expertly choreographed and animated physical comedy. Kids are sure to love it.

I can understand why parents who own Beauty and the Beast on DVD and watch it ten times a week might be skeptical about taking their kids to see it at a movie theatre. Why pay premium ticket prices to see something you can already watch at home? However, I’d urge those parents to give a re-release like Beauty and the Beast 3D a try, if only so their kids can see how magical an already familiar film can become when it’s projected onto a huge professional screen and they participate in the communal theatre-going experience of sitting in a darkened room with a bunch of strangers, all watching the same thing at the same time and saying “wow” under their breaths.

Plus, if you look around, you might get to watch a five year old experiencing her first 3D film, laughing to herself and waving her hand constantly in front of her glasses, which – no matter how expensive your 3D TV is – just isn’t as cool at home.