Hahn explains that the most difficult part of the re-release was smoothly integrating the new material. During the new "Human Again" number, various castle residents feverishly clean the castle, hoping to ignite a romantic mood. This new sequence then presented continuity errors in the scenes that followed. Eighty to eighty-five shots of the messy castle had to be literally "cleaned-up."

In regard to sound, sound re-recording engineer Terry Porter says, "Large format theaters are spectacular. As mixers, we can take a film to a little more extreme as far as dynamic range and balance. The sound amplification and speaker systems are huge so we were able to do things a little more dramatically than we could for a regular theatrical mix. In a traditional movie theater, a lot of sound comes from behind the screen through the center speaker. In large format houses, the audience will feel like they're sitting in the middle of the movie and become more involved. We used the surround and top speakers to full advantage to create this effect."

A New Tradition?
The re-release of the film in IMAX and other large format theaters also reaffirms Disney's commitment to the giant screen format. Disney's first venture into large format, Fantasia/2000 smashed previous records, finally grossing $89.4 million worldwide. Beauty and the Beast will be the first narrative film to have a major push in the large format. When asked how Beauty will do compared to Fantasia/2000, Hahn predicts, "It has a great chance to do the same and possible do more. There's a huge wave of possibility. The film is near and dear to our hearts and the hearts of fans. It also brings the beloved film back to theaters for kids who were too young to see it the first time. That in itself is an event, but releasing it on the large format makes it even more of a special event."

Disney is currently working on bringing other animated features to the large format including the biggest animated film of all-time, The Lion King. Whether this will become a standard for re-releasing their animated features is yet to be seen and could hinge on the success of Beauty. If Beauty and the Beast succeeds like Disney feels it will, this benchmark film could again become a benchmark but in a totally different way.

Rick DeMott is a freelance writer, working in Los Angeles.