Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

• Directed by Andy Knight
• November 11, 1997

Voice Cast

• Prince Adam/Beast-Robby Benson
• Belle-Paige O’Hara
• Lumière-Jerry Orbach
• Cogsworth-David Ogden Stiers
• Mrs. Potts-Angela Lansbury
• Chip-Haley Joel Osment
• Angelique-Bernadette Peters
• Fife-Paul Reubens
• Forte-Tim Curry
• Phillippe the Horse, Sultan-Frank Welker
• Axe-Jeff Bennett
• The Enchantress-Kath Soucie
• Additional Vocals-Rodger Bumpass

Lumiere and Cogsworth get into an argument at a Christmas party over who “saved” Christmas so Mrs. Potts tells the story of Belle’s first Christmas at the castle.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a sequel whose narrative falls between the beginning and the end of the animated classic Beauty and the Beast. You can even think of it as the rest of the story. And while it fits in with another narrative it is a distinct thing unto itself with a clear beginning, middle, and end as well as a plot that starts with its predecessor’s as the basis before it goes off on its own direction to a conclusion that it is satisfying and its own thing. It also manages to change nothing in hindsight of the original film. I’m not sure if most creative minds could accomplish that deft bit of storytelling.

The focus of the story is on Belle and the others trying to have a Christmas celebration with the villain being composer-turned-organ Forte. Before the curse Forte was a nobody but since the curse Prince Adam/Beast comes to him regularly to listen to his music and Belle threatens that new prominence. It is such a petty yet great villain reason in context of this fictional universe. For his part Beast is bitter on Christmas as that is the day he was cursed.

In comparison to the film, the animation in this is so so but for a direct-to-video animated feature it’s not bad looking. Disney offered something special for the time and put real effort in rather than try to just get a quick buck out of the memory of an instant classic. While the animation is good for what it is, the songs or not as memorable as Beauty and the Beast. They’re good and entertaining enough and help tell the story. You’re not gonna be humming anything from this but you will enjoy them.

The Enchanted Christmas is an entertaining story set during Christmas about how the holiday spirit can make you feel good and good things can then happen. And that is one of the points of the holiday. There is the traditional Disney humor and no attempts at irony or anything you might find in a newer presentation.

When it comes to characterization they do little of it with the legacy characters. Instead they spend a great deal of time on Forte and Angelique allowing memories of the original film to do the work. Forte at points can overshadow the others but that goes to the talent behind the voice. Tim Curry has that voice and delivery that makes any line ten times more evil no matter how innocuous it might be.

Forte manages to rise to a significant threat that you can believe will win even though we know by this point how things turn out for all involved. That goes to the great direction by Andy Knight and script by Flip Kobler, Cindy Marcus, Bill Motz, and Bob Roth. They focused on a stand-alone story rather than forcing connections and created something that is really enjoyable.

The biggest issue in this whole film is the minor character of Axe. He is just in for less than five minutes and more of a gag character than anything. I could just see the kerfuffle such a character would cause today as his depiction leans heavily into stereotypes.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a good follow-up to the original film. It expands upon it without changing anything which is an amazing bit of work. If you haven’t seen it and enjoy the original this is definitely worth watching as not only a holiday movie but an addition to the story of the original.