''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' is a 1997

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

animated Christmas

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

produced by

Walt Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA; also shortened to Disney TVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is an American animation production company that serves as the television a ...

and

Disneytoon Studios Disneytoon Studios (DTS), originally named Disney MovieToons and also formerly Walt Disney Video Premieres, was an American animation studio which created direct-to-video and occasional theatrical animated feature films. The studio was a division ...

. It is the follow-up to Disney's 1991 animated feature film ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

''. The film sold 7.6million

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

tapes in 1997. This is the first of two sequels to ''Beauty and the Beast'' that were released, with the other being '' Belle's Magical World'' (1998).

Plot

Not long after the beast's spell is broken, A Christmas party is held at the castle attended by almost the entire village. While reminiscing about the previous year's Christmas, Lumière and Cogsworth get into an argument over who "saved" Christmas, prompting Mrs. Potts to tell the story. One year ago, not long after the Beast saved Belle from the

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

, Belle anticipates the coming Christmas season, as do the other servants. After bumping into each other in the courtyard, Belle teaches the Beast how to skate. They are observed from the West Wing by Forte, a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

who was formerly the Prince's court composer and does not want the spell to break, as he believes that he is of more use in his enchanted form. He sends his

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

minion, Fife, to sabotage their newfound friendship, causing Belle and the Beast to crash into the snow. Then, when Belle makes a snow angel, the Beast sees his beastly snow figure and storms off in a fit of rage. Despite the Beast's misgivings, Belle decides to celebrate Christmas. Even enlisting the help of Angelique, an Angel ornament and castle decorator, to help. It's later revealed that the last Christmas the castle celebrated was the one where the prince is transformed into a beast. Hence, his complete disdain over the Christmas holidays. Belle meets Forte in the West Wing and he suggests that she venture into the Black Forest to find a Christmas tree, but when the Beast is looking for her, Forte says she has abandoned him. Forte then continues to manipulate the Beast, into a rage, destroying the Christmas decorations in the dining room and storming off to look for Belle, to Angelique's despair. Belle and Chip find and chop the tree down, but Belle falls through the ice and almost drowns. The Beast intervenes and saves her in time, though he locks her up in her room as punishment for leaving the castle. As Belle is comforted by the servants and Fife, Forte tempts the Beast to destroy the rose when a petal falls on the storybook present Belle left him. The Beast then has a change of heart after reading it, as it makes him realise that all she wants is for him to be happy. He then frees Belle, and agrees to celebrate Christmas. Powerless to prevent the inevitable, knowing that spell will eventually be broken and he will "fade into the background", Forte suffers a mental breakdown and starts playing his piano keys in an attempt to destroy the castle and kill the Beast and Belle, believing they cannot fall in love if they are dead. The Beast then storms up to confront Forte, but Forte ignores him. Belle and the others reach the West Wing where Lumière, Cogsworth and Angelique try to save the rose, while Belle joins the Beast in confronting Forte. Fife points the Beast to Forte's keyboard, where he pulls it out of the wall, removing Forte's magic abilities. The Beast violently smashes Forte's keyboard, and Forte tries to pull away from the wall, causing him to come crashing down into the floor, killing him. Soon after, the castle is repaired, Fife receives a royal pardon, and Christmas is celebrated. Back in the present, Mrs. Potts concludes that it was Belle who saved Christmas. Belle and the Prince enter the court to greet their guests, presenting Chip with a storybook as a present. As Fife, now the new court composer, leads the orchestra, the Prince and Belle share a moment on the balcony, where he gives her a rose as a gift.

Voice cast

Paige O'Hara Paige O'Hara (born Donna Paige Helmintoller; May 10, 1956) is an American actress, singer, and painter. O'Hara began her career as a Broadway actress in 1975 when she portrayed Della in ''The Gift of the Magi''. In 1991, she made her motion pictu ...

as Belle *

Robby Benson Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal; January 21, 1956) is an American actor, director, and musician. He rose to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1970s, appearing in the films ''Ode to Billy Joe (film), Ode to Billy Joe'' (1976), ''One on ...

as the Beast *

Jerry Orbach Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical and global celebrity on te ...

as Lumière *

David Ogden Stiers David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in '' The Magic Show'', in 1974. In 1977, Stiers was cast ...

as Cogsworth *

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American actress, producer, and singer. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles on stage and screen. Among her numerous accolades wer ...

Mrs. Potts Various characters have been featured in Disney's ''Beauty and the Beast'' franchise. This list includes those from the 1991 animated film, its direct-to-video follow-up, a short story collection, the stage musical adaptation, and the 20 ...

Haley Joel Osment Haley Joel Osment (born April 10, 1988) is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film ''Forrest Gump'' (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psychological thr ...

Chip Chip may refer to: Food * Chip (snack), thinly sliced and deep-fried gastro item ** Potato chips (US) or crisp (UK) * Chips (fried potato strips) (UK) or french fries (US) (common as a takeout side) * Game chips, thin chip/French fries * Choco ...

Andrew Keenan-Bolger Andrew Keenan-Bolger is an American actor. He is best known for originating the roles of Crutchie in ''Newsies'' and Jesse Tuck in '' Tuck Everlasting'' on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include Robertson Ay in ''Mary Poppins'', Jojo in '' ...

provides his singing voice *

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released reco ...

as Angelique *

Paul Reubens Paul Reubens (; ; August 27, 1952 – July 30, 2023) was an American actor and comedian, widely known for creating and portraying the character Pee-wee Herman. Born in Peekskill, New York and raised in both Oneonta, New York and Sarasota, Flo ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Tim Curry Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London, 1974 L ...

Forte Forte or Forté may refer to: Music *Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong" * Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set * Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs * Forte (vocal ...

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

as Phillippe the Horse,

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

, and Wolves *

Jeff Bennett Jeff Bennett (born October 2, 1962) is an American voice actor. He voiced the titular character of ''Johnny Bravo'', Dexter and Dee Dee's Dad in ''Dexter's Laboratory'', List of The Powerpuff Girls characters#Ace, Ace, List of The Powerpuff Gi ...

Axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

Kath Soucie Kath Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...

as The Enchantress *

Rodger Bumpass Rodger Bumpass (born November 20, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Squidward Tentacles on the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. He voices several other characters on the show as well, includi ...

as additional vocals

Production

In the wake of the success of ''

The Return of Jafar ''The Return of Jafar'' (retroactively titled ''Aladdin: The Return of Jafar'' on later releases) is a 1994 American direct-to-video animated musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures Disney Television Animation, and Tele ...

'' (1994),

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

opened the Walt Disney Animation Canada studios in January 1996 to produce direct-to-video and potential theatrical films, as well as utilize the talent pool of Canadian animators. With 200 animators hired, Disney Animation Canada had two separate animation facilities in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

which were supervised by Joan Fischer, a former Canadian public television executive. Their first project was ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'', which went into pre-production later that spring. Additional animation work was done by Walt Disney Television Animation Australia, Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. located in

Xindian District Xindian District () is an inner city District (Taiwan), district in the southern part of New Taipei City, Taiwan. Name Xindian's name originated during the Qing Dynasty close to 300 years ago. According to legend, a person named Lin and others ...

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and Character Builders. It was Disney's first direct-to-video animated film to use digital ink and paint. Initially, the film was going to be a direct sequel to the original film with the main villain slated to be Avenant, here depicted as Gaston's younger brother. Avenant's goal was to avenge Gaston by ruining the lives of Belle and the prince and threatening to kill them, reportedly using sorcery to transform the prince back into a Beast and frame Belle for it. Although he was cut out of the story and the plot had changed, these traits were incorporated into Forte, the pipe organ, who did not want the Beast to become human again. Unlike the other characters, Forte was animated entirely by computers. Incidentally, the antagonist's name "Avenant" was taken from the French 1946 live action black and white film ''

'' (''La Belle et la Bête''), being the name of the antagonist of its film. The film is one of the first and most popular adaptations of the story, and have been the most influential on future adaptations, including the original Disney film whose antagonist, Gaston, in fact, was himself inspired by Avenant.

Release

The film was first released on VHS and

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

Walt Disney Home Video Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, an ...

in the United States and Canada on November 11, 1997. Four ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' snow domes could be obtained with the purchase of the video and Ocean Spray products, as well as a $5 mail-in rebate from Lever 2000. A bare-bones

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

was released on October 14, 1998. Both editions were quickly taken out of print, and the film remained unavailable until Disney released the Special Edition DVD and VHS on November 12, 2002, just a month after the studio released the original film's Platinum Edition DVD and VHS release. The new DVD featured a remake music video of the song "As Long As There's Christmas" by

Play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

. Also featured was a game titled Forte's Challenge, a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, Disney Song Selection, and Enchanted Environment, where it shows the Beast's Castle during the different seasons. The original film's Platinum Edition and this film's Special Edition were taken out of print at the same time in January 2003. A Special Edition of the film was released on DVD and on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

/DVD combo packs on November 22, 2011, following the release of the Diamond Edition of the first film on October 5, 2010. In Australia, the film was released on Region 4 DVD on November 3, 2011, with the same features as the original ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' DVD. The Blu-ray release was placed into the

Disney Vault The "Disney Vault" was a term formerly used by The Walt Disney Company for its policy of regularly imposing sales moratoria on home video releases of specific animated feature films. Each Walt Disney Animation Studios film was available for purch ...

along with the other two films. A little over one month after the first film's 25th anniversary Signature Edition was released,

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

re-released ''Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas'' on October 25, 2016, on DVD as well as a Blu-ray / DVD / Digital HD combo pack — the latter of which was a Disney Movie Club Exclusive. In 2019, the film was released on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported that the film has "rotten" approval rating with an average rating of 4.1/10, based on reviews.

Ty Burr Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who reviews films for ''The Washington Post'' and writes the film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist". Burr worked as a film critic at ''The Boston ...

, reviewing for ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'', graded the film a C−, concluding in his review, "All in all, a pretty soggy Christmas fruitcake. Will your kids eat it up? Sure, and that makes ''Enchanted Christmas'' worth a rental. But Disney really wants you to put this sucker in your permanent collection. And next to ''Beauty and the Beast'' — still the company's crown jewel — ''Christmas'' looks like a lump of coal."

Accolades

Music

A soundtrack was released on September 9, 1997. The original score and songs were composed by

Rachel Portman Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman (born 11 December 1960)), a collection of original pieces for piano, violin and cello, with Portman playing the piano. In 2023 she released a second album ''Beyond the Screen – Film Works on Piano'' which features ...

with lyrics written by Don Black, marking the first time in history that a Disney animated feature film has been scored by a woman. The film's songs were recorded "live" with an orchestra and the cast in a room, similar to the first film. "Stories", sung by

, is about what Belle will give the Beast for a Christmas: a story book, and is heavily based on the motif in the finale of

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

' symphony no. 5. "As Long As There's Christmas", the theme of the film, is about finding hope during Christmas Time. The song was sung by the cast of the film with a back-up chorus and is sung when Belle and the enchanted objects redecorate the castle for Christmas. "Don't Fall In Love", sung by

, displays Forte's plan on keeping the Beast away from Belle to stop the spell from breaking. "A Cut Above The Rest", also sung by the cast, is about how teamwork and friends are very important in life. "Deck The Halls" is performed during the opening title by

, and the Chorus. Tracks 8 to 15 also act as a Christmas album of traditional carols sung by Paige O'Hara.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beauty And The Beast: The Enchated Chrismtas 1997 American animated direct-to-video films 1997 children's films 1997 films 1990s Christmas films 1990s children's fantasy films 1997 fantasy films 1990s musical fantasy films American children's animated fantasy films American children's animated musical films American Christmas films American sequel films Animated Christmas films Enchanted Christmas, The Canadian Christmas films Canadian animated feature films Children's Christmas films Direct-to-video fantasy films Direct-to-video interquel films Direct-to-video sequel films Disney direct-to-video animated films Animated films about witchcraft DisneyToon Studios animated films Disney Television Animation films Animated films about princes Animated films based on Beauty and the Beast Animated films set in France Animated films set in castles Films scored by Rachel Portman 1997 directorial debut films 1990s children's animated films Frame stories 1990s English-language films 1990s Canadian animated films English-language musical fantasy films English-language Christmas films 1997 musical films Christmas musical films