Summary

The animated film Beauty and the Beast was released by Disney in 1991. It is based on a French fairy tale by the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.

This Disney version of Beauty and the Beast is speculated to be set in the late 1480’s in France, but the very first publishing of the story was in 1740 and in the movie there is reference to the “neo-classical Baroque period” in architectural design, which points to the mid 18th-century.

Many different synopses of this film can be found on IMBd. A simple version is that a spoiled prince must learn to love and be loved in order to break a curse that turned him into a beast. He strives to do this with a girl he is keeping prisoner.