Additional Features
The most interesting of the extras on this multi-disc set is the storyboard for the first version of the film. British commercial animator Richard Purdum was originally slated to direct
Beauty and the Beast: he envisioned a darker retelling of the story with no songs. The storyboards and scratch voice track for this version offer rare insights into the creation of an animated feature--including the wrong turns. Although the artists boarded nearly a quarter of the film, the viewer sees very little of Beauty and nothing of the Beast; too much time is spent on Beauty's well-intentioned father, his comic horse, and her mean aunt. It's easy to see why Jeffrey Katzenberg rejected this version and called in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Unfortunately the discs have needlessly fussy, uncooperative menus: why list features on one disc that appear on another?
--Charles Solomon
