Beauty and the Beast

One reason Howard Ashman's words endure is that they're often about personal change--a universal theme. Everyone knows the difficulty of reforming oneself, how scary and frustrating this can be. It's an idea that Ashman played with, explicitly, in his work.

Change can take concrete forms: "She glanced this way....I thought I saw....For once, she didn't shudder at my paw...." (Meeting the Beast halfway, Belle decides to slurp directly from her bowl of soup. A high-point in Disney animation.)

"Lift up your face. Wash off your mascara. Here, take my Kleenex. Wipe that lipstick away."

Characters in the midst of change tell us directly about the anxiety they're feeling. "Please understand, this is still strange and frightening. For losers like I've been....It's so hard to say....Suddenly Seymour....is standing beside me...."

"New and a bit alarming: Who'd have ever thought that this could be?" And: "Bittersweet and strange....finding you can change, learning you were wrong...."

Of course there is something literally cartoonish in Ashman's work--but it's also striking how he'll reach for the brass ring. He will risk sentimentality. He is well-acquainted with the "water we all swim in." He knows that we tend to be at war with ourselves, and that inner conflict is the source of a great, moving drama.

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