I Suck At Beauty And The Beast

Surprisingly, the most interesting part of Saturday was not the birthday party celebration for Karen's grandmother who turned the ripe old age of 91. Don't get me wrong. The celebration, which was held in Dedham, was a nice event.

There were a whole slew of people at the party which included my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my favorite sister-in-law (Janine) and her family. There were also a bunch of other relatives on Karen's father's side that she hardly sees who were also in attendance.

And like many other outings, I spent much if not all of the event doing the parental thing as my two year old daughter (Briana) wanted to run around and play on the lawn in the drizzling rain. Fun. It appears though that the hot topic of the party seemed to be the fact that Karen's grandfather's brother looked exactly like Karen's deceased grandfather. At least, that is what I have been told.

Needless to say, I think Karen's grandmother had a good time which is all that matters. Following the party, Karen and I got sucked into a movie when the kids went to bed. It was sort of an impromptu date night. Getting sucked into a movie rarely happens in my household, primarily because Karen doesn't watch as many movies as I do. But there we were on Saturday, sitting in the couch and glued to the television.

The movie that we were so intent on watching was Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Now, I suck at Beauty and the Beast. It just so happened that ABC Family was showing the movie (back to back). Karen and I haven't watched Beauty and the Beast in quite some time. Surprisingly enough, we still knew most of the words to the songs and some parts of the movie. I don't know if that is sad or not.

Without a doubt though, Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney's better films. After all, the movie was the first animated film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. I'm still partial to the Little Mermaid which I have seen over 50 times. Beauty and the Beast, though, might be second on my list.

For anyone curious, back in 1991 when the movie was released, I saw Beauty and the Beast with my friends (Jenny and Robin). It was Jenny and Robin's feeble attempt at getting me to admit that the movie was better than the Little Mermaid. Even with my selective memory, I do remember watching that movie in the theaters with the two of them, probably because Robin gave me candy during the movie. I was a flirtatious youth back in the day. Now, I'm a crotchety old man shaking his fist at things like the irony of social networking making people anti-social when they are actually face to face.

Anyway, I had a blast watching Beauty and Beast again. It was definitely the highlight of my day on Saturday.