I think what made the original so strong was the music and lyrics of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Every song was beautiful, witty, and did so much to develop the story and characters. There a but a few songs in The Enchanted Christmas, and the only one that is somewhat memorable is the song "Stories", whose melody becomes a sort of musical motif that recurs throughout the film. The interesting animation sequence during this song is one of the highlights of the film, and it is nothing like anything featured in the original.
If you are a die-hard fan of Beauty and the Beast like myself, you will enjoy seeing the characters in action... but, sadly, it feels different and less magical than the original. The script is a little thin, and the voice acting isn't totally consistent with the original. For example, Robby Benson, who voices Beast, sounds very strange at times and seems to be overacting. But it seems that the Beast in general is very exaggerated throughout the film so this is probably not Benson's fault. Paige O'Hara as Belle as always has a remarkably beautiful voice, whether she is singing or talking. It is so wonderful to hear her put life into the character again.
One thing that I feel was very wrong with this film is that an entire sequence was devoted to showing how the Prince turned away the Enchantress on Christmas and became the Beast. I think that the original film did a marvelous job by telling this part of the story through the stained glass sequence in the beginning, but seeing it portrayed here again sort lacks that fairy-tale wonder to it that the images in stained glass conveyed so well.
Aside from this minor point, I believe if you enjoyed the original like myself, you won't have too hard a time of enjoying this film. Like I mentioned, it would be impossible to match the beauty and magic of the original solely in that the music just cannot match the genius of the Menken/Ashman collaboration. Even though the animation is low-budget, a wonderful soundtrack would have made the sequel great.
My commentary on the Special Edition DVD is that I thought the behind-the-scenes feature was wonderful, and although it is short, you get some really great interviews from the voice actors including Tim Curry who makes his debut as the story's new villain. You don't get to see Paul Reubens though, whose voice and character I found rather annoying. No big loss. One problem I had, however, is with the quality of the image. The Special Edition of the original on DVD has an amazing picture quality, and the colors are so lucid and spectacular, yet in the Enchanted Christmas DVD the colors are somewhat dull and faded. Aside from that, the other special features are just some nonsense that is thrown in just to satisfy the Special Edition title, but the behind-the-scenes feature is good enough for me.
On a final note, I noticed that there are Roman numerals on the side of the DVD cases of both films. Supposedly there will be a third Beauty and the Beast Special Edition coming out soon. Can't wait.
The movie has many high points. All of the original cast is back, except for Chip, but he's actually been replaced by Haley Joel Osment. This immediately gives this movie some credibility, as the voice actors are all top notch. Joining the cast is another great actor, Tim Curry as the villain Forte. Coupled with some delicious computer animation, Forte is a very worthy villain. He towers over everyone else, accomplishes much evil even though he is bolted to the wall, and is really creepy in human form. Unfortunately, he gets the one dull song in the movie, but thankfully, all the others are top-notch fun. And the animation in general is very good; a few characters look slightly off at times (Lumiere and Cogsworth in human form in the intro, for example), but overall everything has a very warm, rich feeling.
So what are the movie's low points? The story itself doesn't disappoint, but it's nothing super special either. It won't match up to other holiday classsics like Garfield, Peanuts, Grinch, and Disney's own A Christmas Carol. And while almost everything fits within continuity with the original, it's best not to think about such things. Just because Belle wore her yellow dress to dance with the beast in the original, does it mean that was the only time she wore it? No, but using the dress again kinda tarnishes the magic of that moment in the ball room. The only glaring continuity error is at the movie's end. While the movie packs in some decent action (which I did not expect from a holiday movie), you'll find yourself wondering how everything was restored back to normal later. Other than this, I wish they had used that lovely feather duster character more instead of making her another background object. And lastly, the movie seems a little too dark at times. If your TV set is darker than normal, a lot of the fine details in the animation will be lost on you.
But overall, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is worth owning. There's good acting and animation, and while the story isn't quite up there, it's worth a repeated viewing, and might in time join your family's lineup of traditional holiday movies.
