When I was younger, my dad bought us a lot of original Disney cartoons to watch. Dad always indulges us, even til today. We had The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Aladdin 2 : The Return of Jaafar, and of course – Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast was extra special because it was somewhat like the revival of Disney cartoons. It was touted as the first cartoon which incorporated a fully CGI background with artist-drawn characters in the foreground (the ballroom dancing scene between Beast and Belle). Didn’t it seem so magical when they danced past and the camera panned to the ceiling of the ballroom, filled with laughing cherubs seemingly drawn by Michaelangelo himself?
After watching it for the first time, we were enchanted for life. And we slowly got more and more obsessed with the movie. Lyrics were memorised, and since we didn’t have Internet connection so long ago (I only got Net connection when I was in F4/F5), we would replay scenes with songs and then write down the lyrics ourselves. (Looking back, I think I was only 70% correct most of the time…) Coming home from school, the best part would be to slip in the video tape, and watch Disney cartoons while I’m sprawled on the carpet doing my homework.
For art, when the teacher asked us to draw “A Scene At A Wedding”, I drew a picture of Belle and the Beast in front of a gray building with stainglass windows. Ariel & her Prince, Aladdin & Princess Jasmine, Cinderella and Snow White were the people in the background cheering for her. Belle’s wedding dress was the same canary yellow ballgown, the Beast was still a Beast. When the teacher hung my artwork at the back of the class, I found out that some people say I cheated because I traced the characters out. Hello, they look the same but they weren’t traced, they were hand-drawn, you 11 year old bitches. Seriously, kids can be damn kiasu and bitchy also.
I think there was even once when I skipped mandarin tuition because I was watching Beauty & The Beast halfway and I didn’t want to stop to take the van to tuition. OMG, thinking back, I’m really damn slack. Wasting my parent’s effort to turn me into a non-banana simply because I was in the middle of singing Tale as Old As Time.
(Talking about that van driver who fetches me to mandarin tuition, I just have to digress for a moment. This guy fetches all the kids around Subang to the tuition center in SS15. There was one time when for SOME reason, the van driver fetched me home LAST, and that day happened to have damn a lot of other students in the van. So eventhough I was supposed to be home by 5:30pm or thereabouts, I ended up coming back past 7pm. My mom and sister were damn worried. And apparently my sis was so worried that she stood at the gate outside the house and DOODLED my initials into the pillar of the house with LIQUID PAPER.
It was about a week later before my mom noticed the inscription, and since it was MY initials, she scolded me for simply writing on the walls!! And I didn’t know my sis did it so I was bloody dumbfounded, I’d tell you that… )
Having said all that, I was still rather reluctant to go for the Beauty & The Beast musical held in the KL Convention Center. As mentioned previously, I did not have a terribly great experience during the Grease musical (I wouldn’t call it AWFUL, but perhaps I expected much more. My mom loved it though), and it was organised by the same people. However, Pauline knew someone from CIMB who could get us better discounts, and it would be nicer to watch with friends than to watch alone… so I purchased the ticket more as a “for the sake of watching a musical” than because of my nostalgic childhood memories.
Went to Midvalley with the duo on Wednesday night, had a great round of Sakae Sushi (Sunshine maki is the best! Go try!) before heading to the convention center….
… and I’m so glad I went. 
The last time I watched the Disney cartoon was at least a decade ago, but once the songs started playing, the memories just flooded back. I think the 3D background was excellent, at times I couldn’t tell if it was computer generated or the real thing. The way the introduction moved to the start of the musical (where the prince is rejecting the fairy-in-disguise), I couldn’t tell whether I was still watching a movie or whether it was *really* the actor on the stage already. Aside from the fantastic backdrops (for example, I really like how they made the West Wing turn around to become the balcony of the castle), fantastic lighting effects, of course there was the singing and dancing and acting. They had all of the old songs that I could still remember “after all these years”, and some never-been-heard-before songs. I didn’t really enjoy the first few (Belle’s dad singing / Belle emo-ing in the castle), but I liked the Beast’s song and the Gaston vs Belle song a lot. Of course, they are not as memorable as the tracks from the movie la. Still wish there was the soundtrack being sold. I would much rather get that then the plain black shirt costing RM70. 
I laughed riotously over how the actor portrayed Gaston. I had forgotten how ridiculous that guy is, “When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs, Ev’ry morning to help me get large, And now that I’m grown I eat five dozen eggs, So I’m roughly the size of a BarrrRRGgggggEEeeeeee!!” Of course, he’s also one of the more treacherous villains in Disney (IMHO) — simply vain & arrogant, a coward and literally, a backstabber.
I found it so cute and romantic when the Beast presented Belle with all the books and then she sat down to read King Arthur to him. And he laid on his stomach and drummed his legs up and down while listening to her. So cute!
I teared when I watched Belle leave the Beast, how he ALMOST died in her arms. And no, I do not think that the Beast was “too sissy” or “too emo”. I think they had to make him that way because even as he was, there were babies in the cinema crying whenever he growled. Its quite fun to see a sillier side to him, isn’t it? 
Maybe the actor also tamed down the “sissiness” by the time I watched the play, because although he wasn’t all fangs and claws like in the cartoon, he was still pretty ferocious.
The only part that I thought could’ve been better was the Be Our Guest sequence. Maybe there was a technical error or something, but during the line, “They can sing, they can dance!” I remember the movie having a line of plates jumping down which of course they couldn’t do in the theater, but at least have some nice movie playing in the background instead of just showing us a plain cold stone wall. (Later the dancing cutleries image was being played, so I’m more convinced this is a technical error than there being sincerely NOTHING to show us). The whole sequence could’ve been so much more fun if there were more dancers on the stage, a visual explosion til the audience feels overwhelmed. It was good, but it could’ve been so much better…
In conclusion, I’m so glad I went and I’m tempted to get Beauty & The Beast on DVD. Hehehe!
Leaving you with some pictures from that night (also pics from our pre-musical dinner @ Sakae Sushi), and one of the silliest songs from the film. Ta-ta!
One of the must-haves. Simple and an all-time favorite.
Softshell crab roll.
Softshell crab (we’re fans, can’t you tell?)
Sunshine maki. Must try! Don’t know if all branches have this or not, the manager told us that they have different menus for each branch. The one in KLCC is similar to the one in Pavilion.
Cheese covered eel sushi.
My tempura ramen (tempura not pictured). Hehehe. I *do* eat a lot don’t I.
Siang, Pauline & I. Pauline’s idea to take a pic with the banner, haha.
Pauline said I dressed so casually. Well, I didn’t want to wear my office blazer inside, so I wore my oldddddd Hollister hoodie. Besides, they don’t have any dress code for the convention center… right? *blur*
One of my favorite-st songs from Beauty & The Beast. The lyrics are hilarious!
Who does she think she is? That girl has tangled with the wrong man! No one says “no” to Gaston!
Heh heh. Darn right.
Dismissed! Rejected! Publicly Humiliated! Why, it’s more than I can bear.
More beer?
What for? Nothing helps. I’m disgraced.
Who, you? Never! Gaston, you’ve got to pull yourself together.
Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here’d love to be you, Gaston
Even when taking your lumps
There’s no man in town as admired as you
You’re ev’ryone’s favorite guy
Ev’ryone’s awed and inspired by you
And it’s not very hard to see why
No one’s slick as Gaston
No one’s quick as Gaston
No one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Gaston
For there’s no man in town half as manly
Perfect, a pure paragon
You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley
And they’ll tell you whose team they prefer to be on
No one’s been like Gaston
A king pin like Gaston
No one’s got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston
As a specimen, yes, I’m intimidating
My- what a guy, that Gaston
Give five “hurrahs!”
Give twelve “hip-hips!”
Gaston is the best
And the rest is all drips
No one fights like Gaston
Douses lights like Gaston
In a wrestling match nobody bites like Gaston
For there’s no one as burly and brawny
As you see I’ve got biceps to spare
Not a bit of him’s scraggly or scrawny
(That’s right!)
And ev’ry last inch of me’s covered with hair
No one hits like Gaston
Matches wits like Gaston
In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston
I’m espcially good at expectorating
(Ptooey!)
Ten points for Gaston!
When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs
Ev’ry morning to help me get large
And now that I’m grown I eat five dozen eggs
So I’m roughly the size of a barge
No one shoots like Gaston
Makes those beauts like Gaston
Then goes tromping around wearing boots like Gaston
I use antlers in all of my decorating
Say it again
Who’s a man among men?
And then say it once more
Who’s the hero next door?
Who’s a super success?
Don’t you know? Can’t you guess?
Ask his fans and his five hangers-on
There’s just one guy in town who’s got all of it down
And his name’s G-A-S- T -
G-A-S-T – E -
G-A-S-T-O – oh!
GASTON!!!
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