The first published version of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale was a meandering rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine et les contes marins in 1740. The best-known written version was an abridgement of Villeneuve's work published in 1756 by Mme Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élčves; an English translation appeared in 1757.
Beauty and the Beast is the thirtieth animated feature to be released by the Walt Disney Company. It was made and produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to theaters on November 13, 1991. The animated film, one of the best-known of Disney's many classics, is an adaptation of the well-known fairy tale about a beautiful woman kept in a castle by a horrific monster. It is the first and only animated picture to ever be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Beauty and the Beast stars the voices of Robby Benson (Beast), Paige O'Hara (Belle), Richard White (Gaston), Jerry Orbach (Lumičre), David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth), and Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts).
Beauty and the Beast ranked #22 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals and #34 on its list of the best romantic American movies. On the list of the greatest songs from American movies, "Beauty and the Beast" ranked #62. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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