Held at Alice Tully Hall, that screening remains, to this day, among the most levitational events in the festival’s history - so much so that they had a tribute screening in 2016 to mark its 25th anniversary - and a key moment in what would eventually come to be known as the Disney Renaissance. If it doesn’t quite look like Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, that’s because it’s an unfinished, work-in-progress version of the animated classic that premiered on September 29, 1991, in what at the time seemed like the unlikeliest of venues: the New York Film Festival, America’s most prestigious showcase of international and art-house fare. If this sounds like Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, that’s because it is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. It’s not until the windows open up and townspeople start greeting her with a series of bouncy bonjours do we witness the final animation in all its breathtaking, full-color glory. She wanders, singing, through her pleasant French village, all rough lines and charcoal shades. The voice of Paige O’Hara soars on the soundtrack - “ Little town, it’s a quiet village / Every day, like the one before …” - accompanied by rough storyboards of our lively young heroine, Belle, stepping out of her house. Then, stained-glass glimpses of a fairy-tale flashback: A petulant prince, felled by the curse of an enraged enchantress, transforms into a transparent, pencil-sketch beast. Scratched-up pencil animations of a dense forest, with woodland creatures and a live-action babbling brook appear next, as the camera moves toward a castle in the distance. It starts with a series of black-and-white drawings.
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