Film Opening 5 - Beauty and the Beast

Film 5 - Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast was made in 1991 by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures. It had a budget of around $25 million and made a gross profit of $424,967,620. The opening scene is about 2 minutes 20 seconds long.



The film starts with music as the main sound as well as some non-diegetic sound to set the scene e.g. the sound of a waterfall and birds tweeting. This creates an idilic soundscape usually associated to fairytales and therefore instantly connotes the genre - fairytale. This implies that it has a young target audience - children.

Two doves fly in front of the castle from one side of the screen to the other. Doves have connotations of love and this could foreshadow the future love of Belle and the Beast.

The transitions are all very soft, the shots fade in and out of each other which shows the continuity of the story and how easily the prince lost everything that was important to him. It also further connotes the fairytale genre.

About 22 seconds in the voiceover starts. The music doesn't stop it just quietens slightly to make the voice the main focus of our attention. The music, previously quite twinkly and high, also drops to a deeper pitch; this is suggestive of something bad or scary happening and brings down the fairytale mood the film initially had, possibly preparing the audience for a sad story.



The initial shot of the film is an establishing image of the castle in the woods. It is daytime and the sun is shining, all the colours are very bright giving it a welcoming, happy feel. The the camera zooms in towards the castle, eventually coming to rest on the stained glass window bringing it into the centre of the screen. The window is framed by vines giving it a feeling of importance and relevance to the story.

As the man tells us the story of the prince in the castle, images of the story are brought to life in the style of the stained glass window. This is reflective of the history of the castle and the secrets it holds within it's walls. The images also help the target audience - children - understand what's going on as they may find it difficult to follow a story without images.

When the story of how the prince came to be a beast is over we cut to present day - no longer stained glass still images - with a picture of the old prince. The beast reaches over from outside the frame and rips the picture showing us his violence and hate. The fact that he comes from where we can't see him shows that he's ashamed of how he looks and has become a recluse in the castle. It also shows how he's lurking in the background, no one knows he's there but the threat of his violence always hangs over them.

The long shot then pans across the room giving us a full picture of the Beast's appearance and passing him to focus on the enchanted rose which is framed in the centre of the screen. This connotes how the rose is the centre of the Beast's life, his constant reminder of the cold-heartedness that caused him to become a beast and the only thing that can save him. The fact that the rose is centre screen shows the audience how it will play a central part in the film as Belle has to love the Beast before the last petal falls.

The scene ends with the camera moving backwards from the castle holding the rose in the centre of the shots. This shows how, although he knows it's his only hope of being human again, the Beast simply cannot face the outside world and he's unable to escape his castle which has become a symbol of his pride.

After we hear the story of the prince the colours of the scene change; they become dark and gloomy which connotes how the prince's lavish lifestyle fell away to dust after he became the beast. It could also be a physical representation of the beast - as he became ugly so did his castle and everything he loved symbolising how he believes it impossible he will ever find love again.



All the shots in the scene are quite long and controlled. The stain glass stills are each held onscreen for quite a long period of time before they change making it feel almost like a controlled bedtime story rather than an action packed sequence. This could, again, be reflective of the target audience.

The scene begins with an establishing shot of the prince's castle, beautiful and light, and ends with an establishing shot of the Beast's castle, gloomy and dark. This gives a direct contrast to his life before and after the spell and exaggerates how much better it was before and why he would want to break it.

We learn a lot about the Beast and the plot in this scene. We find out his backstory and the rhetorical question at the end gives us a pretty good idea of what the plot of the film will be, "For who could ever learn to love a Beast?"

This line in the voiceover marks the transition into the title frame - it says, "Beauty," in a red, delicate font. Red has connotations of love and passion suggesting that she's the one who learns to love the beast. The word, "Beast," is in a brown, bold font showing his ugliness and lack of appeal. The font has serifs which could connote his complicated backstory and how there is more to him than meets the eye.