Blog Seven

            Beauty and Beast, a film noted for its beautiful art design and for being revolutionary in the world of animation, contrasted its scenes from the beginning of the film to the end by changing the color, harshness of lines, shadows, and more to show the growth Belle and Beast go through. As seen by picture number one there is not much contrast in the hues between Belle and Beast. Except for Belle’s blue dress, the room, Belle’s hair, Beast’s hair, and his clothing are all varying shades of red and brown. The scene had low saturation as well as low brightness to represent the darkness of the castle that is caused by the Beast because of his anger and darkness. The shadows in the room, specifically the one above Beast’s right shoulder also adds to the darkness caused by Beast. The dark tones and shadows are symbolic for Beast’s lack of hope of falling in love and his mean personality. This makes the mood of this scene dark and gloomy while the little bit of light on Belle’s back provides a little sense of hope because light in the dark can represent the good and hope in the world.  The parallel lines on the wall follow the direction that Beast’s body and his eyes are pointed which are down towards Belle.

            In the second image of Belle and Beast dancing, the hues dramatically contrast each other and have become richer colors of Blues and Golds to represent the grandness of royalty that Beast and Belle are beginning to feel as life begins to come back to the gloomy castle as well as them falling in love. The colors become more saturated to bring out the brightness of the room without losing the grand feel of it. Only simple shadows remain in this scene, the most noticeable being the one from the background in the left portion of the shot. The disappearance of the harsh, looming shadows brings light to room and represents the disappearance of darkness from Beast’s life and his relationship with Belle. This makes the mood of the scene lighter and shows Belle and Beast falling in love. The grand colors that replaced the once dark and easily blended colors of the previous scene represent the grandness that would come if Belle were to admit her love for Beast.

            Both scenes are beautifully crafted and are a part of what I can consider to be one of the best pieces of animation of all time.