Uncritical childen will be happy to see all the familiar characters from the 1991 Disney hit BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but this perfunctory direct-to-video sequel lacks both the charm and lush animation of its predecessor.
The story takes place within the time frame of the original BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, as Belle (voice of Paige O'Hara) is held captive in the castle of the Beast (voice of Robby Benson), but before they fall in love. Belle decides to throw a Christmas celebration, aided by her friends at the castle.
But when former court composer Forte (voice of Tim Curry)--now a giant pipe organ and jealous of the Beast's blossoming love for Belle--learns of the plans, he persuades the Beast to ban the party, reminding him of the previous Christmas when a curse transformed him from a prince into his current
state.
Belle stubbornly persists in her preparations, so Forte tricks her into defying the Beast's orders, going to the Black Forest for a Christmas tree. There she is trapped on an ice floe. When the Beast finds out where she is, he rescues her and then locks her up in his dungeon for defying him. But
when he discovers the Christmas present she made for him, a storybook based on his life, he asks for her forgiveness. The furious Forte tries to destroy the castle with his cacophonous organ music, but the Beast smashes him to pieces. The Christmas celebration takes place; when the Beast dances
with Belle, he's transformed back into a handsome prince.
With its direct-to-video sequels to ALADDIN (1992) (ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES and THE RETURN OF JAFAR), Disney discovered that they could make a tidy profit farming out the animation work to its TV units in Canada, Australia, and Japan rather than investing in the expensive animation that
theatrical releases require. But whereas the jokey ALADDIN sequels retain the original's irreverent gags and way-out humor, ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS lacks the visual splendor and elegant draftsmanship that marked its predecessor. Virtually the only impressive moments are those featuring Forte the
computer-animated organ. And even those scenes, as the only computer-generated ones in the film, clash with the style of the rest of the film, pointing out the artistic disparity that now exists between modern technology and old-fashioned hand-drawings.
The story is alarmingly thin and predictable, even by the standards of children's cartoons. The new songs are wholly unmemorable, as are the new main characters, apart from the campy Forte (amusingly performed by Tim Curry). These include a timid piccolo named Fife (voiced by Paul Reubens), castle
decorator-turned-Christmas-tree angel Angelique (voiced by Bernadette Peters with an atrocious French accent), and Axe (voiced by Jeff Bennett), a tiresome Yiddish stereotype. Retaining the original voice cast in the lead roles was a waste given that many of their voices have been electronically
altered to the point of being unrecognizable (as the Beast, Robby Benson sounds like the Hulk). As Disney will inevitably continue to milk their animated cash-cow franchises, we can only hope that they might invest a little more time, money, and imagination into them.
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