Beauty and the Beast

My favorite folk tale is Beauty and the Beast because both of the main characters, Belle and the Beast, are surprisingly deep and it proves to be a very dramatic love story that both children and adults are apt to enjoy.
The Disney version is the telling that I am most acquainted with, so this description will be based off of it. In this story, Belle, a misunderstood, yet beautiful and intelligent young woman, wanders into a forest in search of her missing father. When she finds him imprisoned by a terrifying beast, she offers herself in exchange for her father's emancipation. From the intro of the film, the audience knows that the Beast is really a prince who refused to let an old woman stay in his mansion, and was thus cursed. After transforming him into a beast and his servants into common household items, the old woman gave him a rose and a magic mirror and warned him that if he could not love and be loved by time the last petal falls, he would remain a beast forever.
In the Beast's castle, considerable tension arises between the Beast and Belle who refuses his invitation to dinner. Though the Beast instructs his servants not to feed her, they disobey him and become friends with the maiden. Eventually, Belle and the Beast become good friends and share some endearing moments together such as a snowball fight and an elegant ballroom dance. Because of his deep admiration for Belle, the Beast even allows her to use his magic mirror, in which she sees her father dying in the woods. Although there are only a few hours left before all the petals fall from the rose, the Beast allows Belle to save her father.
When they both safely arrive back at their house, Gaston, Belle's narcissistic suitor, arrives with a mob and threatens to lock her father in a madhouse for his belief in the Beast if she does agree to marry him. With the aid of the Beast's magic mirror, she proves his existence, but then the mob turns their hostilities toward the Beast and runs to his mansion in an attempt to slay him. After an epic duel, the Beast kills Gaston but is mortally wounded himself. Belle arrives in the nick of time and confesses her love to him, changing him and his servants back to human form.
In my opinion, the best part of this tale is the strong bond that the Beast and Belle form. At first they have nothing but utter disdain for one another, but eventually that disdain turns into pure, unequivocal love that allows the Beast to save Belle's father over himself. This bond is the major element that I wish to stress in my unique telling of the Beauty and the Beast.