by Marilyn Justine

Created on: April 18, 2009   Last Updated: June 07, 2010

Are the large doses of the 'magic' that Disney weaves just a cover up for the real issues at hand, or is it there to save us from ourselves? Here is one example where Disney films could have a corrupting affect on the youth of today, illustration by Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast.

The 1991 animated feature film Beauty and the Beast was the 30th picture produced by the studio and Frederick G. Vogel (2003) refers to it as "the Disney organization's most technologically perfect film as well as the chief influence in the recent resurrection of the animated song-and-dance feature."

Although Beauty and the Beast in a very interesting film technologically speaking, I am more interested in the way class and gender are shown in the film. Particularly the way Belle is portrayed, a brave new heroine for the 1990s, far removed from the passive roles of Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I wish to discuss the elements of class and gender in the film to prove it is not just a film for children to be dismissed as escapism because behind the innocent mask lies capitalistic and patriarchal subtexts which intertwine and interconnect through semiotic configurations which subvert signs and symbols into a postmodern mass of intertextuality and illusion.

Therefore in the following piece I will discuss the two subtextual constructions of class and gender. This will be followed by a deconstruction of the webs of signification operating to validate these subtexts and the unravelling of the ideological underpinnings concealed within the film's textual structure. I will begin with a short history of the film and a brief plot summary.

The film is a landmark in movie history as it is the only animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture Oscar, it was also the first musical to be nominated since 1979. It did not win the accolade but was rewarded with Best Song (for the title track) and Best Scoring. It was also the first time three songs from the same picture were nominated for Oscars as the songs Be Our Guest and Belle were also in the running, as was the Sound. Therefore the film received six Oscar nominations in total. The wonderful sound was also matched by the animation, which was so close to the very best live-action cinematography. This is clearly shown in the ballroom scene when Belle and the Beast are dancing to the title track (as sung by Mrs Potts) and there is a wide range of tracking, pans, long and medium distance shots and close ups, making

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