Where Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel all have a certain level of young adult naiveté to them, Belle is the first Disney heroine who feels like a grown woman.

Yes, it has the innocence that has become a Disney trademark, but there is also an intelligence, sophistication, verve, the kind of kinesis and crackle usually associated with a hit Broadway show.

Beauty and the Beast arrives with a cartload of promises that it is a return to the great days of Disney, the art of animation, blah blah. It delivers in spades.

This Beauty and the Beast is truly lovely, even haunting. It is a feature-length animation of a quality I'd thought lost forever. The people at Disney have long thrown out the word "magic" entirely too carelessly; they should have saved it for this.