That "tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme" returns to the screen, now in 3-D. But "Beauty and the Beast," the greatest animated film ever made and one of the screen's great musicals, hardly needs this sort of sprucing up.

A timeless French fairy tale about a cruel young man cursed to live as a beast in his enchanted home if he cannot change and be worthy of another's love, it features sparkling wit, lovely songs, stunning animation, terrific vocal performances by Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson as the leads, and just enough Disney cute to earn that overused label "masterpiece."

There's marvelous new depth of field to the images — flowers or rain or snow in the foreground — in many scenes. Details from the background pop out more — a fishmonger's customer waggling a fish at him, unacceptable because there's a cat dangling from the tail.

And 3-D does give Gaston's riotous bar brawl and other fights more of an in-your-face quality. But at other times, the limitations of cell animation are thrown into sharp relief, character movement made jerkier by the conversion.

No matter. It's still glorious, from story to songs to vocal performances to the message that this nonprincess Disney princess tale from 1991 passes on: Don't let custom and social restrictions hold you back. Be yourself, girls, especially if you "want much more than this provincial life."

Twenty years later, no child's cartoon has topped that for message.

This was the high-water mark of the great music and lyrics team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Ashman was dying of AIDS as this film was made, and it's always seemed as if the glorious and poignant title song was his farewell to love and life and imagination. Thanks to these two, "Beauty and the Beast" still can move you to tears.

Even if you've had it on video for years, even if your kids outgrew it, this jewel in Disney's crown still works, still grabs, tickles and moves you.

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"Beauty and the Beast"

Four stars (out of four) • Rating G • Run time 1:24