What year was Beauty and the Beast released?

Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991.

Disney’s animated musical premiered in an unfinished form at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, before its wide United States release on November 22. Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, it adapts the French fairy tale and follows Belle, a book-loving young woman who discovers humanity beneath a prince’s curse.

The film emerged during Disney’s animation revival after The Little Mermaid (1989). Songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, including “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast,” helped make it a landmark musical. Its ballroom sequence was also notable for blending hand-drawn animation with computer-assisted techniques.

A common mix-up is confusing the animated film with Disney’s live-action remake, which arrived in 2017. The 1991 original was the first animated movie nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and entered the National Film Registry in 2002. It also became Disney’s first animated feature adapted into a Broadway musical, in 1994.