First Look at Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:3D Diamond Edition Now on DVD

Walt Disney Studio's Home Entertainment has just released BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:3D Diamond Edition. Among the bonus features of the newly released DVD are a musical conversation with Composer Alan Menkin and a behind the scenes look at the making of the animated full length feature.

The first of only two animated films ever to be nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Picture (the second is 2009's Up), Beauty and the Beast earned six Academy Award® nominations and won two Oscars® in 1992 for Best Original Song ("Beauty and the Beast") and Best Original Score.

Set in and around a quaint French village during the late 18th century, Beauty and the Beast follows the fantastic adventures of Belle, a bright and beautiful young woman who finds escape from her ordinary life, and the advances of a boorish suitor, Gaston, by reading books. Meanwhile, off in a castle in the distance, a cruel young prince is cast under the spell of an enchantress who turns him into a tormented beast, while transforming his servants into animated household objects. In order to remove the curse, the Beast must discover a true love who will return his affection before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose. When Belle's inventor father stumbles upon the Beast's castle and is taken prisoner, Belle comes to the rescue and agrees to take her father's place. With the help of the castle's enchanted staff, she sees beneath the Beast's exterior and discovers the heart and soul of a human prince.

Beauty and the Beast features a cast of top vocal talent. Veteran stage actress and singer Paige O'Hara is the voice of Belle, one of Disney's most beloved and independent heroines, and Robby Benson (TV's "American Dreams") delivers a powerful portrayal of the Beast. Three-time Oscar®-nominated screen star (The Manchurian Candidate in 1963, The Picture of DorIan Grey in 1946, and Gaslight in 1945) and six-time Golden Globe® award winner (TV's "Murder, She Wrote" in 1992, 1990, 1987 and 1985, The Manchurian Candidate in 1963, and The Picture of DorIan Grey in 1946), Angela Lansbury gives a bubbly performance as Mrs. Potts. The late Jerry Orbach (TV's "Law and Order," "House of Mouse") shines as the voice of Lumiere, the passionate candelabra, and David Ogden-Stiers (TV's "M*A*S*H," Lilo & Stitch) is Cogsworth, the tightly-wound mantel clock who functions as the head of the household.

Beauty and the Beast was also the first Disney animated film to inspire a Broadway stage production by the same name. Highlighting the film's music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, seven new songs were written for the stage musical. Beauty... was nominated for nine Tony Awards in 1994 and ran on Broadway for 5,464 performances until 2007, becoming Broadway's sixth-longest running production in history.

To view a clip of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: 3D Diamond Edition, click here