Disney: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a Direct-to-Videomidquel to the Disney Animated Canon hit Beauty and the Beast. This film takes place around the Christmas season in the middle of the events of the first film.Here, a few new characters are introduced, such as the villain, Forte, who is an organ, and his music has been the only thing keeping the Beast happy, or at least not as sad, since the curse. Forte therefore actually wants to remain under the curse, as he didn't really have any significance in the castle before then.Belle arriving, naturally, is a threat to his plans, and he uses his lackey, Fife, to try to break Belle and the Beast apart. In the meantime, Belle wants to make plans for Christmas, even though the Beast is against it, since that is the day the enchantress cursed him and the castle.
The film provides examples of the following tropes:
Alas, Poor Villain: In-universe, Beast clearly isn't happy about having to kill Forte, though it was a necessary act. Forte's death scene ends with Beast standing before the collapsed organ pipe, uttering a forlorn "Forte....".
Conspicuous CGI: Forte is the only CGI character in the entire film. It shows. However, this was deliberate.
Cursed with Awesome: Forte, whose transformation as an organ gives him a strength he could only dream to possess as a human, and made him Beast's closest confidant...
Detail Hogging Cover: The reduced budget really shows against the pretty covers for the videos.
Evil Is Hammy: Forte. Due to being played by Tim Curry, this trope comes with the territory.
Family Unfriendly Death: Beast lifts up and smashes Forte's keyboard causing him to topple over and die.
Foreshadowing: Forte's first line in the movie, in response to Fife's applauding his music:
Forte: Oh, it's just a little opera... (hits a few keys, the room shakes and dust falls from the ceiling) ...to bring the house down.
Funny Background Event: There's one scene where Beast instructs Forte to "play Belle's song", in which he proceeds to play "Deck the Halls" with the least enthusiasm. After a few measures, Beast makes him sing, followed by an even more dismal rendition of the song. While Beast and Mrs. Potts converse, you can hear Forte starting to ham it up a bit ending with a low note just before Beast yells "ENOUGH!". Just found it pretty amusing watching it after so long.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: The real Christmas miracle in the movie is how they got away with an obviously gay organ in the movie.
No, the miracle is that same organ telling the Beast, "If you're turned on, then just turn off!" as part of his Villain Song.
Giant Waist Ribbon: Belle's holiday dress has one, although it's larger in The Merch with her dress than it was in the movie (and gold instead of red).
Hammerspace: Well, how else would you describe the prince hiding two presents in his coat without them bulging visibly?
Happily Married: At the end of the movie, we see that Belle and the Prince are.
Happy Holidays Dress: Belle's red and golden dress at the ending scene, although it was given more prominence in the covers and promotional materials.
Meaningful Name: Forte's name, basically, means "loud" in music terms. As a carryover from the first film, everyone has either this or a Punny Name.
Mood Whiplash: Again "A Cut Above The Rest". The scene goes from sentimental to...um...
The Beast goes rather quickly from angry sorrow at having to kill his best friend to "Let's give Belle the best Christmas ever!"
Mundane Made Awesome: Forte has the ability to compose as he plays, as we are treated to various closeups of blank sheet music being transcribed with green ink in real time. Unfortunately, it's very grating for the musically inclined; since we have the advantage to pause on the closeups to read the score, it shows nothing more than random notes, splattered across the pages.
Not to mention, he can use his mystifying ability to move items, like he would if he had arms, using visible staves (complete with notations) and also to help illustrate his points as seen a few times. Most notably, his Villain Song "Don't fall in love"
Musical Assassin: Forte is able to partially destroy the castle as well as send Beast flying with his magical music powers.
Forte: So, Beast gets girl and it's a happy ending for everyone. Enchantment lifted and Forte fades into the background, no longer important, no longer needed. ...I! THINK! NOT!
Shoot the Dog: The Beast pretty much kills Forte when he goes completely, irreversibly nuts.
Smug Snake: Forte. His human form even looks reptilian.
Stalker with a Crush: Arguably, Forte. His obsession with Beast and desire to drive off any competition comes across more and more like a jilted lover as the movie goes on.
Villainous Breakdown: Put simply, Forte makes Stitch, who is bonkers, mad, loopy and crazy (in a good way) look sane; Forte goes totally nuts, bonkers, mad, loopy and crazy at the climax of the film because he thinks that he's no longer important.
Writers Cannot Do Math: As noted, this wreaks havoc on the original film's already debated timeline.
Especially with the re-insertion of the "Human Again" song which establishes that the Beast has trouble remembering how to read in early spring but has no trouble reading the book Belle gave him for Christmas.
Or perhaps the Beast just fibbed a bit because he enjoyed seeing Belle happy after unveiling the library.
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