and armoires (Jo Anne Worley). In the Be Our Guest number, watch
closely for the swimming spoons, the dishes stacked in Eiffel
Tower formation, the tankards in chorale. The voluptuousness of
visual detail offers proof, if any more were needed after The
Little Mermaid, that the Disney studio has relocated the pure
magic of the Pinocchio-Dumbo years.
</p>
<p> Both B&B and Addams are about, and in favor of, what was
once known as class. They side with the aristocrats of style--the haunted prince of B&B and Gomez, a suave prince of darkness--against the booboisie that presumes to understand and
overthrow them. The films' makers are saying that style is what
matters. The Beast must learn to chew his food and tamp down his
temper and dance without crushing Belle before she can accept
him. As for Gomez and Morticia, who moonily recall their first
date ("a boy, a girl, an open grave") and rhapsodize about
their last ("our lifeless bodies rotting together for all
eternity"), they have kept romance fresh by doing what many a
middle-aged couple have done. They've created an alternative
reality of games, memories, silly endearments--strategies
designed to keep the real world out of their dual fantasy.
</p>
<p> Falling in love and staying there, these movies say, is a
challenge of art and artifice. Like making a comedy of insane
decor, or remaking a tale as old as time. The Addams Family
turns voodoo into visual wit. Beauty and the Beast casts its own
