The Beauty and the Beast legend has a universal appeal; the fairy tale exists in numerous versions throughout the world. In the Est, it's best known from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries French versions, which Walt Disney considered animating during the late 1930's. Disney gave up on the idea, as he felt the original story was too claustrophobic and lacking in action.

Reapproached in the 1980's, Beauty and the Beast had several false starts. It was originally conceived as an eighteenth-century period piece, directed by the British husband-and-wife team of Richard and Jill Purdum. After some changes, two new directors, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, were put in charge of the project. Although he was initially reluctant to do another animated film after The Little Mermaid, the late Howard Ashman came on board shortly after the new directors. Over many months, the characters and story gradually took form, but there were many changes and wrong turns. Sequences were created, reworked, cut, and added as the film gradually emerged, like a statue from a block of marble.

After all of the ups and downs, Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991 to rave reviews and record-breaking business. The film was widely hailed as a technical and aesthetic breakthrough and remains the only animated feature ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. This authoritative book features interviews with artists, producers, directors, writers, and voice-over actors. Illustrations abound throughout, including sketches, caricatures, sequences of animation drawings, and artwork from discarded scenes. It's a treasure trove of delights for fans of this tale as old as time.