title: Jesus in Islam

text: The Quran does not convey the specific teachings of Jesus. What has developed over the years was authored by later followers of Islam. What is found in the Quran about Jesus is that his teaching conformed to the prophetic model: a human sent by God to present both a judgment upon humanity for worshipping idols and a challenge to turn to the one true God. In the case of Jesus, Muslims believe that his mission was to the people of Israel and that his status as a prophet was confirmed by numerous miracles. The Quran's description of specific events at the end of Jesus’ life have continued to be controversial between Christians and Muslims, while the classical commentaries have been interpreted differently to accommodate new information. Jesus is written about by some Muslim scholars as the perfect man.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: The Hadith are reported sayings of Muhammad and people around him. The Hadith containing Jesus legend have been influenced by the non-canonical ('heretical') Christianity that prevailed in the Arab peninsula and further in Abyssinia. The Hadith developed a canonical status in the third Muslim century as a source of authority for the Muslim community. The Muslim perception of Jesus emerging from the Hadith is of a miraculous, sinless, and eschatological figure, pointing people, again according to the Muslim's perspective of prophethood, to the Muslim faith (Muslim; one who submits to the will of God).


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Hadith have played a very important part shaping Jesus' image among common Muslims, having become further developed when incorporating Hadiths and Tafsirs weaved into great amounts of legendary writings and reports. With the Muslim reshaping, the void of Jesus is surprising. What is instead written about is the ascetic magician, helped by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is seen as a book to be preached and is only referred to in passing without mentioning actual teachings. Strikingly, the fictitious sayings and supposed teachings of Jesus are given preeminence in Hadith-collections, in Shia Islam, and in Sufi representations of Jesus.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: In "Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal", al-Shahrastani (d. 1153), an influential Persian historian, historiographer, scholar, philosopher and theologian, records a portrayal of Jesus very close to the orthodox tenets while continuing the Islamic narrative:


title: Jesus in Islam

text: "The Christians. (They are) the community ("umma") of the Christ, Jesus, son of Mary (peace upon him). He is who was truly sent (as prophet; "mab'uth") after Moses (peace upon him), and who was announced in the Torah. To him were (granted) manifest signs and notable evidences, such as the reviving of the dead and the curing of the blind and the leper. His very nature and innate disposition ("fitra") are a perfect sign of his truthfulness; that is, his coming without previous seed and his speaking without prior teaching. For all the (other) prophets the arrival of their revelation was at (the age of) forty years, but revelation came to him when he was made to speak in the cradle, and revelation came to him when he conveyed (the divine message) at (the age of) thirty. The duration of his (prophetic) mission ("da'wa") was three years and three months and three days."


title: Jesus in Islam

text: In the Nahj al-Balagha, the fourth caliph Ali () is reported to have talked about the simplicity of Jesus. Ali says that "Jesus used a stone for his pillow, put on coarse clothes and ate rough food. His condiment was hunger. His lamp at night was the moon. He had no wife to allure him, nor any son to give grief, neither wealth to deviate. His two feet were his conveyance and his two hands were his servant". According to Ja'far al-Sadiq, a great-great grandson of Ali, the time between David and Jesus was four hundred years. Ja'far further says that the religion of Jesus was monotheism () and purity (). The 'Injil' (Gospel) was sent down to him and the pledge that other prophets took was also taken from Jesus: to establish prayer with religion, enjoin the good and forbid the evil, allowing what is allowed and forbidding what has been forbidden. Admonitions and parables were sent down to him in the 'Injil', but there was no law of retribution in it nor precepts of retribution (ahkam al-hudud), and no obligations for inheritance. He was sent what was an alleviation of what was sent down to Moses in the Torah. Jesus commanded of his followers that they believe in the law of the Torah and the 'Injil'.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: According to Qadi al-Nu'man, a famous Muslim jurist of the Fatimid period, Jesus is referred to as the Messiah () in the Quran because he was sent to the people who responded to him in order to remove ("masaha") their impurities, the ailments of their faith; whether apparent ("zahir") or hidden ("batin"). Qadi al- Nu'man, in his work "Foundation of Symbolic Interpretation" ("Asās al-ta'wīl"), talks about the spiritual birth ("milad al-batin") of Jesus, as an interpretation of his story of physical birth ("milad al-zahir") mentioned in the Quran. He says that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a metaphor for someone who nurtured and instructed Jesus ("lāhiq"), rather than physically giving birth to him. Qadi al-Nu'man explains that Jesus was from the pure progeny of Abraham, just as Ali and his sons were from the pure progeny of Muhammad, through Fatima.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Early Sufis adopted the sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and an ascetic dimension. The submission and sacrifice Jesus exemplified shows the Muslim is to be set apart from worldly compromises. In poetry and mysticism, Jesus was celebrated as a prophet close to the heart of God achieving an uncommon degree of self-denial.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Although the writings developed over the centuries embellished Jesus’ miracles, the lessons of Jesus can be seen as metaphors of the inner life. These rich and diverse presentations of Jesus in Sufi traditions are the largest body of Jesus-texts in any non-Christian tradition.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: The miraculous birth and life of Jesus becomes a metaphor for Rumi of the spiritual rebirth that is possible within each human soul. This rebirth is not achieved without effort; one needs to practice silence, poverty, and fasting—themes that were prominent in Jesus’ life according to Islamic traditions.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Ibn Arabi stated Jesus was Al-Insān al-Kāmil, the spirit and simultaneously a servant of God. Jesus is held to be "one with God" in whole coincidence of will, not as a being. Due to the spirit of God dwelling in Jesus, God spoke and acted through him. Yet Jesus is not considered to be God, but a person within God's word and spirit and a manifestation of God's attributes, like a mirror.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: The conception of Jesus as described by Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), an Andalusian scholar, Sufi mystic, poet and philosopher, in the "Bezels of Wisdom":


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Jesus is widely venerated in Muslim ascetic and mystic literature, such as in Muslim mystic Al-Ghazali's "Ihya ʿulum ad-Din" ("The revival of the religious sciences"). These works lay stress upon Jesus' poverty, his preoccupation with worship, his detachment from worldly life and his miracles. Such depictions also include advice and sermons which are attributed to him. Later Sufic commentaries adapted material from Christian gospels which were consistent with their ascetic portrayal. Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi described Jesus as "the seal of universal holiness" due to the quality of his faith and "because he holds in his hands the keys of living breath and because he is at present in a state of deprivation and journeying".


title: Jesus in Islam

text: The Gospel of Barnabas, which is generally agreed to correspond with the one found in the two known manuscripts and is reported to be contained in Morisco manuscript BNM MS 9653 in Madrid, claims that Jesus predicted the advent of Muhammad. This was written about 1634 by Ibrahim al-Taybili in Tunisia. While describing how the Bible predicts Muhammad, he speaks of the "Gospel of Saint Barnabas where one can find the light" ("y así mismo en Evangelio de San Bernabé, donde se hallará la luz"). The first published account of the Gospel was in 1717, when a brief reference to the Spanish text is found in "De religione Mohamedica" by Adriaan Reland; and then in 1718, a much more detailed description of the Italian text by the Irish deist John Toland.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: The Ahmadiyya Movement considers Jesus was a prophet and a mortal man, who was crucified and remained on the cross for six hours, until darkness fell. Jesus was taken down from the cross alive and unconscious. He was treated for three days and nights by saint physician Necdemus in a cave like tomb (especially built for Joseph of Arimathea). Thereafter, Jesus recuperated from his wounds, met his trusted disciples on the Mount of Olives, and left Judea towards the sea of Galilee on his way to Damascus. After his dramatic escape from crucifixion, Jesus traveled to the eastern lands in search of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Finally, he died a natural death in Kashmir, India, as opposed to having been raised up alive to Heaven.


title: Jesus in Islam

text: Based upon several Hadith narrations of Muhammad, Jesus can be physically described thus (with any differences in Jesus’ physical description being due to Muhammad describing him when seeing him at different occasions, such as during his ascension to Heaven, or when describing Jesus during Jesus' second coming):


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: Torrey Joël DeVitto (born June 8, 1984) is an American actress and former fashion model. Her first starring role was as Karen Kerr on the ABC Family drama series "Beautiful People" (2005–2006). She followed this up with recurring roles as Carrie in The CW drama series "One Tree Hill" (2008–2009), as Melissa Hastings in the ABC Family/Freeform mystery drama series "Pretty Little Liars" (2010–2017), and as Dr. Meredith Fell in The CW fantasy drama series "The Vampire Diaries" (2012–2013). DeVitto went on to star as Maggie Hall in the final season of Lifetime's drama series "Army Wives" (2013) and as Dr. Natalie Manning in the NBC medical drama series "Chicago Med" (2015–2021).


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: Torrey Joel DeVitto was born and raised in Huntington on Long Island, New York and Winter Park, Florida. Her parents are Mary and Liberty DeVitto; her father was a long-time drummer for Billy Joel. They met in 1983. DeVitto is of Italian descent, her paternal grandmother is from Naples while her paternal grandfather is from Sicily.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: As a child, DeVitto spent a lot of time touring with her parents. She described her childhood to "CVLUX" magazine by saying: "We spent every Thanksgiving at Billy Joel's house. I grew up with his daughter, Alexa; it was a lot of warm, happy memories." Her mother Mary had been Stevie Nicks's best friend since the late 1970s and met Liberty when he was the drummer on Stevie's Wild Heart Tour. On the day of her birth, Joel was performing at the Wembley Arena and made a special note before beginning "The Longest Time" that DeVitto's wife was having a baby, causing a standing ovation for DeVitto, who was playing the drums at the concert. She was named Torrey after her mother's maiden name. She has two sisters, Devon and Maryelle. Her sister Maryelle was in the TV series "Endurance".


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: She attended Fort Salonga Elementary School, part of Kings Park Central School District. By the fourth grade, she was playing violin with the local high school orchestra. When DeVitto was 12 years old, she played a solo violin piece at Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook's wedding. She played in the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra (1995–1997) and in the Florida Youth Artist Orchestra (1998–1999). She attended Youngsville Elementary School, part of Kings Park Central School District. She studied dance with the Kings Park Dance Center in New York and took acting classes at Zoe & Company in Orlando, Florida. After graduating from Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Florida, she spent her summer in Japan working as a model and had earlier spent time in Chicago.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto's modeling career started at age 15, when she began appearing in commercials, which she described to be a stepping stone to get to TV and film jobs. She was signed to Ford and Avenue One modeling agencies. Staying true to her love of music in 2002, she played violin with the Tommy Davidson Band at the Sunset Room in Hollywood. She also played violin on Raphael Saadiq's 2004 album, "Ray Ray," as well as Stevie Nicks' 2011 album "In Your Dreams".


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto landed her first acting role in 1999 when she participated in The WB drama series "Safe Harbor". In 2000, she appeared in the Nickelodeon comedy series "Noah Knows Best". In 2002, she landed a lead role in playwright Lee Blessing's play "Eleemosynary", which was performed at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Her performance received praise and positive reviews in the "Orlando Sentinel". DeVitto co-starred in the ABC Family drama series "Beautiful People" as aspiring model Karen Kerr from 2005 to 2006. DeVitto made her film debut in the dramatic short film "Starcrossed" (2005), which concerns two brothers who develop a sexual attraction to one another. She also appeared in the horror film sequel "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" (2006) as Zoe Warner. She guest-starred on "Drake & Josh", "Scrubs", "Jack & Bobby" and had a small part in the romantic drama short film "Forbidden Love". She had a lead role as an actress Sierra Young in the comedy film "Heber Holiday" (2007) and co-starred in the comedy-drama film "Green Flash" (2008) alongside David Charvet and Kristin Cavallari. DeVitto appeared in the horror comedy film "Killer Movie" (2008) with then-boyfriend Paul Wesley, Kaley Cuoco and Leighton Meester. From 2008 to 2009, DeVitto had a recurring role in the fifth and sixth seasons of The CW drama series "One Tree Hill", where she played nanny Carrie. In 2013, DeVitto told "Entertainment Tonight" that her role as Carrie garnered strong reactions from the show's viewers and she often gets approached by fans about "One Tree Hill".


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto appeared in Will.I.Am's Vote Obama video "We Are The Ones" (2008) and Stevie Nicks' music video for the song "Moonlight" (2011). In 2010, DeVitto began a recurring role as Melissa Hastings in the ABC Family mystery drama series "Pretty Little Liars" based on Sara Shepard's book series of the same name. In 2017, Samantha Simon of "InStyle" wrote that "for Torrey DeVitto, playing super-sketchy Melissa Hastings on "Pretty Little Liars" wasn't exactly a challenge. Because, despite the seemingly endless web of lies surrounding the eldest Hastings sister on the show, it all looks like child's play compared to DeVitto's other unforgettable role as psychotic Nanny Carrie on "One Tree Hill"." She played Nina in the horror film "The Rite" (2011) alongside Anthony Hopkins, Alice Braga and Colin O'Donoghue. It received favorable reviews from critics and grossed over $97 million at the worldwide box office.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: In November 2011, DeVitto was confirmed to have a recurring role in The CW fantasy drama series "The Vampire Diaries" as Dr. Meredith Fell, who is fascinated by Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis), when she notices how quickly he recovers from an injury. She portrayed Margo in the comedy-drama film "Cheesecake Casserole" (2012), released on July 3, 2012. In November 2012, it was reported that she had signed on to star as Maggie Hall in the seventh season of the Lifetime drama series "Army Wives". Maggie Hall is a mother of two and former soldier who moves to Fort Marshall with her family. On September 24, 2013, Lifetime announced the show's cancellation, it honored the show with a two-hour retrospective special with the cast members which aired in 2014. She had a lead role as Jennie Stanton in the Hallmark Channel television film "Best Christmas Party Ever" in 2014.In August 2015, DeVitto signed on to star in the NBC medical drama series "Chicago Med". She was cast as Dr. Natalie Manning, the ED pediatrician. She has also appeared as Dr. Natalie Manning in "Chicago P.D." and "Chicago Fire". DeVitto's character exited the show after six years in the season 6 finale. "All good things must come to an end. It has been such an honor and pure joy to bring Dr. Natalie Manning to life for all of you on "Chicago Med" for the past 6 seasons. But it is now time for me and her to bow out and say goodbye," she wrote on Instagram.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: She portrayed Angie in the psychological thriller "The Hoaxing" (2018), a short film that she also helped produce. In 2019, she started producing a documentary film, "Saving Daisy" that follows Daisy Coleman's journey of healing from lifelong trauma and PTSD. She starred in Hallmark Channel's television film "Write Before Christmas" (2019) alongside Chad Michael Murray. The film centers around Jessica, portrayed by DeVitto, who sends Christmas cards to five people who have impacted her life. "The New York Times" placed the film on its list of "Five Holiday Movies Worth Bingeing This Season".


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: She played Cathy in the thriller film "Divertimento" (2020) alongside Kellan Lutz and Ola Rapace. The film won numerous awards, including "Best Ensemble" at the Seattle Film Festival in 2021. Shot in a 18th-century French castle, the film follows a chess player haunted by his tragic past, Jonas (Kellan Lutz), who is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, Divertimento. Filmmaker Keyvan Sheikhalishahi wanted to create a film in which the six main characters each represent a chess piece.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: On August 31, 2021, "Deadline" announced that DeVitto had joined the cast of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries film called "The Christmas Promise" alongside Dylan Bruce and Patrick Duffy. Production began in early September in Vancouver, Canada. In the film, DeVitto stars as Nicole, a woman dealing with grief with help from her grandfather and a carpenter she hires to help renovate her home. The film premiered on October 30, 2021, and aired again during Hallmark's popular countdown to Christmas. She played organic farmer Sarah in Hallmark Movies & Mysteries romantic time travel film, "Rip in Time", which premiered on May 22, 2022.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto's style has earned praise from periodicals such as "Us Weekly". She was named one of "Us Weekly's" Most Stylish New Yorkers of 2018. DeVitto has been featured in several fashion blogs and magazines such as "Cliché Magazine", "Miami Living", "Bello", "CVLUX", "Most Magazine, Crookes Magazine" and "Obscurae." She also modeled for "TV Guide, That Magazine" and "Chicago Splash." She has frequently worn vegan fashion and her favorite vegan clothing is designed by Stella McCartney, Matt and Nat, Cri de Coeur, Bourgeois Boheme and Good Guys Don't Wear Leather.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto has developed an online and social media presence and endorses products such as beauty and wellness products on Instagram. She has partnered with several brands such as the FabFitFun beauty subscription box and Dickinson's Witch Hazel. She has used Instagram as a platform to raise awareness of current topics and her charitable causes such as sexual trafficking, hospices, racism and the Black Lives Matter movement. She encouraged her Instagram followers to vote in November 2022, writing: "Bans off our bodies! We do not vote for the sake of voting — we vote to elect leaders we can then hold accountable. Get out and VOTE this November to continue the fight to protect abortion rights!"


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto dedicates much of her time to philanthropy and notably supports various charities. She has been A Hospice Ambassador for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization since 2011. In 2013, she received National Hospice Foundation's Buchwald Spirit Award for Public Awareness. While filming for television series "Chicago Med" in Chicago, she works with Rainbow Hospice. DeVitto has been particularly involved in hospice care, saying "The notion that 'No one dies alone' was so beautiful to me and one I knew I needed to be a part of. There is no difference to me helping those coming into this world and those going out. It is equally important and should be treated as such. End of life care is something I will always be involved with."


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: She has also dedicated her time to organizations including IMAlive, Kindred Foundation for Adoption, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Maddie's Fund and The Humane Society. She designed a shirt to raise money for suicide prevention organization IMAlive, which hosts a live online crisis chat. She hosted a screening of the Hospice Foundation's first documentary, "Okuyamba", at UCLA's James Bridges Theatre in 2012. DeVitto was part of the Hospice Foundation's documentary film crew that spent three and a half weeks of filming in Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. She is the narrator of the documentary film titled "Road to Hope" (2015) that follows palliative care nurses in Uganda and the challenges they face in bringing comfort to those in the country's remote villages.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: An animal rights advocate, DeVitto has two rescued dogs, Beau and Homie, and partnered with the Shelter Pet Project to promote adoption. In 2016, she teamed up with HSUS and their Be Cruelty-Free campaign. She declared herself "vegan in my fashion and vegetarian in my food".


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: In other charitable endeavors, she performed with Erik Nye at the New Horizons Havana Nights Gala in April 2015. DeVitto has worked alongside the National Alliance on Mental Illness to raise awareness for Mental Health Month in May. She also joined NAMI to share her own story and the importance of living stigma-free of mental illnesses. She is a member of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network's National Leadership Council (NLC), which is a group of dedicated individuals who are committed to RAINN's mission of supporting survivors and ending sexual violence. In August 2019, DeVitto announced that she became an official board member of SafeBae. In 2020, she teamed up with The Tote Project to launch a "Free to Blossom x Torrey DeVitto Pouch," made from recycled saris by sex trafficking victims in India. "Glamour" placed it on its list of "35 Eco-Friendly Gifts That Do Right by Mother Earth." A portion of each sale was donated to SafeBae, which works to prevent sexual assault among teens. On November 18, 2021, DeVitto visited South Kingstown High School as part of a tour of several schools in Rhode Island on behalf of SafeBae. She talked to students about the dangers of sexual assault and held a presentation about sexual assault prevention.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: DeVitto began dating her "Killer Movie" co-star Paul Wesley in 2007, and they married in a private ceremony in April 2011. DeVitto and Wesley filed for divorce in July 2013 after two years of marriage, with their divorce finalized in December 2013. DeVitto was in a two-year relationship with comedian Rick Glassman from 2014 to 2016.


title: Torrey DeVitto

text: In May 2022, DeVitto revealed that she had an abortion at age 21, saying "I just started making money but with taxes and agent fees and manager fees, you don't really take home that much, and I didn't have the funds to do this. I was living in a house in Los Angeles with three other roommates and very scared, very confused, and so I made the decision that was best for me. And he made that decision as well".


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Thiruchitrambalam is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mithran R Jawahar and produced by Kalanidhi Maran, under the banner of Sun Pictures. The film stars Dhanush and Nithya Menen in the lead roles. Whilst Bharathiraja, Prakash Raj, Raashii Khanna and Priya Bhavani Shankar appears in the supporting roles. The music and score are composed by Anirudh Ravichander, with cinematography by Om Prakash and editing by Prasanna GK.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: The film's title was announced on 5 August 2021, along with principal photography for the film which began with a pooja ceremony in Chennai. The filming was wrapped on early-October 2021. Post-Production works of the film began on 14 February 2022. "Thiruchitrambalam" was released theatrically on 18 August 2022, to highly positive reviews from critics. The film became a critical and commercial success at the box office.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Thiruchitrabalam "Pazham" is a delivery agent, with a food delivery company, who lives with his strict father Inspector Neelakandan and namesake paternal grandfather. His mother and sister died in an accident, because of his father's negligence. Unable to forgive his father, Pazham avoids talking to him even though they live under the same roof. His only comfort is his childhood friend Shobhana with whom he opens up to. As Pazham navigates through his life, he ends up falling for his childhood crush Anusha. On a date, he confesses his feelings to her, but she rejects and apologizes to him for flirting and leading him to think that she has a romantic interest in him. Pazham reconciles with Neelakandan after the latter suffers a stroke, and they leave for his mother's village for a wedding with Shobhana.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Pazham meets Ranjani and falls for her. Pazham asks Ranjini for her phone number but she scoffs at his request saying they are both strangers and have no reason to be in contact which leaves Pazham embarrassed. On his way back home, Pazham laments his bad luck in finding love with Sr. Thiruchitrambalam, who asks Pazham to rethink his relationship with Shobhana and hints that they are destined to be husband and wife. Pazham, who saw Shobhana as his friend until then, starts developing a romantic interest in her. Pazham confesses his feelings to Shobana, but Shobhana rejects him. This causes awkwardness and strain in their relationship and they both stop talking with each other for a while. Shobana decides to leave for Canada for work and tells Pazham to meet her at the airport. On his way to the airport, Pazham's vehicle is stopped by the police and Shobana gets on the flight.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Pazham regrets spoiling his relationship with Shobana, only to learn later through Shobana's brother that she has been loving Pazham, who has been ignoring her romantic cues and innuendos for years since 6th grade and that she has treasured letters and gifts for him over the years. He further tells Pazham that she rejected him because she doesn't want to be in a rebound relationship. One month passes by and Pazham calls Shobana, where she tells him that she hates Canada and wants to return back to India. In a twist of events, Pazham tells her to turn back, and she is shocked to see him there. Pazham apologizes for ignoring her feelings and being selfish for not asking about her feelings and thoughts all these years and using her as his agony aunt. They return to India and get married.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: In December 2019, the film production studio Sun Pictures, headed by Kalanithi Maran, announced a new project with Dhanush. The film marked Dhanush's first active project as a producer, as Sun Pictures had earlier distributed "Padikkadavan" (2009), "Aadukalam" and "Mappillai" (2011). Mithran R Jawahar, who earlier directed "Yaaradi Nee Mohini" (2008), "Kutty" and "Uthamaputhiran" (2010), with Dhanush in the lead was rumoured to direct the film, while his involvement was being undisclosed. Anirudh Ravichander was announced as the film's music composer in October 2020. The film's title "Thiruchitrambalam" was announced on 5 August 2021.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Nithya Menen got 2-3 offers to act with Dhanush before Thiruchitrambalam including for "Aadukalam" but she couldn't do that for other reasons. Dhanush also planned to direct a movie in 2018 which would have Nithya collaborating with him, but again that project didn't materialize. While writing the script for Thiruchtrambalam Dhanush had Nithya in mind for the lead role. Finally, in 2020 Nithya Menen was cast as the main female lead as Dhanush's friend character Shobhana. Later Raashii Khanna and Priya Bhavani Shankar was announced to play supporting roles along with Prakash Raj and Bharathiraja.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Principal photography for the film began with a pooja ceremony in Chennai on 5 August 2021. On 10 August, Prakash Raj took a short break for surgery after he fractured his shoulder during the shooting. Raashii Khanna joined the film's sets in Chennai on 25 August. The crew went to film the song sequences in Pondicherry after the Chennai schedule being completed. In late-August, stills from the film, featuring Dhanush and Khanna, were leaked and went viral on internet. In September, a song shoot featuring Dhanush and Nithya Menen was choreographed by Jani Master and filmed in the outskirts of Pondicherry. Stills from the song shoot were leaked onto the internet. The film's shooting, which took place for 50 days, has been completed in early-October 2021. On 14 February 2022, it was announced that dubbing for the film has begun.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: The music and original score is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, reuniting with Dhanush after six years since their last film, "Thanga Magan" (2015). It marks Anirudh's fifth collaboration with Dhanush and his first with Mithran Jawahar.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: The film was released worldwide theatrically on 18 August 2022. It is Dhanush's first theatrical release post-pandemic lockdown since "Karnan" (2021) as "Jagame Thandhiram" (2021), "Atrangi Re" (2021), "Maaran" (2022) and "The Gray Man" (2022) were assigned direct-to-streaming releases.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: The satellite rights of the film have been retained by Sun TV and the streaming rights of the film were bought by Sun NXT. The film was digitally streamed on the streaming platform from 23 September 2022.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: On the first day of its release, the film earned over on its opening day, and grossed over in Tamil Nadu. On the second day of its release the film crossed over at the box office. On the third day of its release, the film has collected only in its box office. On its opening weekend, the film grossed only


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: . On the thirteenth day of its release the film crossed the worldwide and became one of the Highest-grossing Tamil films of the year. At the end of 23 days of theatrical run the film crossed worldwide. and become Dhanush's highest grossing film worldwide.


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Thiruchitrambalam got highly positive reviews from critics. Haricharan Pudipeddi of "Hindustan Times" called "Thiruchitrambalam" a "simple film with its heart at the right place", going on to add that the "simplistic storytelling along with the highly-relatable characters make the film endearing and wholesome", while praising Nithya Menen as "phenomenal".


title: Thiruchitrambalam

text: Ranjini Krishnakumar of "News9" gave 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "This endearment for Pazham that the film evokes is not entirely written in. A good part of it is, in fact, Dhanush, who moves us with his boy-next-door charm." Bhavana Sharma of "Pinkvilla" gave the film's rating 3 out of 5, stating that "Thiruchitrambalam is worth watching for all the right reasons, and especially for Dhanush and Nithya Menen." Sowmya Rajendran of "The News Minute" gave 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "What a relief to see such a simple, well-told story in Tamil cinema after so long! Nourishing and no fuss, just like a pazham." Sudhir Srinivasan of "Cinema Express" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated that "It's tragic really when a film, on the cusp of excellence, makes a dated choice that ends up leaving a sour aftertaste." Soundarya Athimuthu of "The Quint" gave the film's rating 4.5 out of 5, stating that "With impactful dialogues, the film eases out the unnecessary guilt that senior citizens and people with disabilities usually feel and treats them with dignity." "Outlook India" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated that "In all, 'Thiruchitrambalam' is an entertainer and a full-fledged one at that!" Karthik Kelamalu of "Firstpost" gave the film's rating 3.5 out of 5 and stated that "For a director who's mostly made remakes ("Yaaradi Nee Mohini", 2008; "Uthamaputhiran", 2010), the richness of Thiruchitrambalam will surely yield fresh fruits." "Behindwoods" gave the film's rating 3 out of 5 stars stating that "Dhanush, Nithya Menen & Bharathiraja's fantastic performances make Thiruchitrambalam, an enjoyable feel-good film, that's thoroughly engaging." Suhasini Srihari of "Deccan Herald" gave the film's rating 4 out of 5 and stated that "'Thiruchitrambalam' is a narrative that comes afresh with newer ways of telling an old story. Felix of "Movie Herald" gave 4 out of 5 and stated "For its entertaining journey and some heartwarming connections that anyone would wish to be a part of, Thiruchitrambalam is a must-watch." "Ananda Vikatan" rated the film 44 out of 100.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 30th Disney animated feature film and the third released during the Disney Renaissance period, it is based on the 1756 fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (who was only credited in the French dub), while also containing ideas from the 1946 French film of the same name directed by Jean Cocteau. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (in their feature directorial debuts) and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast" focuses on the relationship between the Beast (voice of Robby Benson), a prince who is magically transformed into a monster and his servants into household objects as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle (voice of Paige O'Hara), a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle in exchange for her father. To break the curse, the Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose or else he will remain a monster forever. The film also features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Walt Disney first attempted to adapt "Beauty and the Beast" into an animated film during the 1930s and 1950s, but was unsuccessful. Following the success of "The Little Mermaid" (1989), Walt Disney Pictures decided to adapt the fairy tale, which Richard Purdum originally conceived as a non-musical period drama. After seeing a test reel, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg scrapped Purdum's idea and ordered that the film be a musical similar to "The Little Mermaid" instead. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken wrote the film's songs. Ashman, who additionally served as the film's executive producer, died of AIDS-related complications six months before the film's release, and the film is thus dedicated to his memory.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast" premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, followed by its theatrical release as a completed film at the El Capitan Theatre on November 13. The film grossed $331 million at the box office worldwide on a $25 million budget and received widespread critical acclaim for its romantic narrative, animation (particularly the ballroom scene), characters, and musical numbers. "Beauty and the Beast" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the first animated film to ever win that category. It also became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song and received additional nominations for Best Original Song and Best Sound. In April 1994, "Beauty and the Beast" became Disney's first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical, which ran until 2007.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: An IMAX version of the film was released in 2002 and included the new song "Human Again", originally an eight-minute storyboarded musical sequence ultimately replaced with "Something There", but later revised in the 1994 musical as a five-minute piece. That same year, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". After the success of the 3D re-release of "The Lion King", the film was reissued in 3D in 2012. A live-action adaptation of the film directed by Bill Condon was released on March 17, 2017. In 2014, "Time" magazine ranked "Beauty and the Beast" as the greatest film of the Disney Renaissance and one of the greatest animated films of all time.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: An enchantress disguised as a beggar woman visits a castle and offers an enchanted rose to a cruel and selfish prince in exchange for shelter from a storm. When he refuses, she reveals her identity and, for the prince's arrogance, transforms him into a beast and his servants into household objects. She warns the prince that the spell will only be broken if he learns to love another and be loved in return before the last petal falls, or he will remain a beast forever.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Several years later, in a nearby village, Belle, the book-loving daughter of an eccentric inventor named Maurice, dreams of adventure. She frequently tries avoiding Gaston, a narcissistic hunter who wants to marry her because of her beauty. On route to a fair to showcase his latest invention, an automatic wood-chopper, Maurice gets lost in the forest and seeks refuge in the Beast's castle; There, the Beast finds Maurice and imprisons him for trespassing. When Maurice's horse returns alone, Belle ventures out searching for her father, finding him locked in the castle dungeon. The Beast agrees to free Maurice if she takes his place as prisoner.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Belle befriends the castle's servants: Lumière the candelabra, Cogsworth the clock, Mrs. Potts the teapot, and her son Chip, the teacup; they serve her a dinner through song. When she wanders into the forbidden west wing and finds the rose, the Beast catches her and angrily forces her to flee the castle. In the woods, she is ambushed by a pack of wolves, but the Beast rescues her and is injured in the process. As Belle nurses his injuries, a rapport develops between them and as time passes, they begin to fall in love.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Meanwhile, Maurice returns to the village and fails to convince the townsfolk of Belle's predicament. Hearing Maurice's statements about the Beast, Gaston hatches a plan: He bribes Monsieur D'Arque, the warden of the town's insane asylum, to have Maurice locked up as a lunatic. Gaston will use this to force Belle into marrying him in exchange for Maurice's release. Before they can act, however, Maurice leaves for the castle to attempt a rescue alone.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle uses the Beast's magic mirror to check on her father and sees him collapsing in the woods. The Beast releases her to save Maurice, giving her the mirror as a memento. After Belle takes her father to the village, a band of villagers led by Gaston arrives to detain Maurice. Belle uses the mirror to show the Beast to the townsfolk, proving her father's sanity. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, a jealous Gaston locks Belle and her father in the cellar, and rallies the villagers to help him slay the Beast. Chip, who arrived at their house as a stowaway, activates Maurice's wood-chopping machine, freeing Maurice and Belle from the cellar.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: When the villagers arrive at the castle, the Beast's servants fend them off. Meanwhile, Gaston attacks the Beast, who is too depressed from Belle's departure to fight back but regains his spirit upon seeing Belle return. He defeats Gaston but spares his life before reuniting with Belle. However, Gaston fatally stabs the Beast with a knife before losing footing and falling to his death. The Beast dies in Belle's arms before the last petal falls. Belle tearfully professes her love to the Beast, and the spell is undone, reviving the Beast and restoring his human form along with his servants and castle. The Prince and Belle host a ball for the kingdom, where they dance happily.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: After the success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937, Walt Disney sought out other stories to adapt into feature films, with "Beauty and the Beast" being among the stories he considered. Attempts to develop the "Beauty and the Beast" story into a film were made in the 1930s and 1950s, but were ultimately given up because it "proved to be a challenge" for the story team. Peter M. Nichols states Disney may later have been discouraged by Jean Cocteau having already done his 1946 version.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Decades later, during the production of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in 1987, the Disney studio resurrected "Beauty and the Beast" as a project for the satellite animation studio it had set up in London, England to work on "Roger Rabbit". Richard Williams, who had directed the animated portions of "Roger Rabbit", was approached to direct but declined in favor of continuing work on his long-gestating project "The Thief and the Cobbler". In his place, Williams recommended his colleague, English animation director Richard Purdum, and work began under producer Don Hahn on a non-musical version of "Beauty and the Beast" set in 19th-century France. At the behest of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, "Beauty and the Beast" became the first Disney animated film to use a screenwriter. This was an unusual move for an animated film, which is traditionally developed on storyboards rather than in a scripted form. Linda Woolverton wrote the original draft of the story before storyboarding began, and worked with the story team to retool and develop the film.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Upon seeing the initial storyboard reels in 1989, Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg was dissatisfied with Purdum's idea and ordered that the film be scrapped and started over from scratch. A few months after starting anew, Purdum resigned as director. The studio had approached John Musker and Ron Clements to direct the film, but they turned down the offer, saying they were "tired" after just having finished directing Disney's recent success "The Little Mermaid". Katzenberg then hired first-time feature directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. Wise and Trousdale had previously directed the animated sections of "Cranium Command", a short film for a Disney EPCOT theme park attraction. In addition, wanting another musical film, Katzenberg asked songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who had written the song score for "The Little Mermaid", to turn "Beauty and the Beast" into a Broadway-style musical film in the same vein as "Mermaid". Ashman, who at the time had learned he was dying of complications from AIDS, had been working with Disney on a pet project of his, "Aladdin", and only reluctantly agreed to join the struggling production team. To accommodate Ashman's failing health, pre-production of "Beauty and the Beast" was moved from London to the Residence Inn in Fishkill, New York, close to Ashman's New York City home. Here, Ashman and Menken joined Wise, Trousdale, Hahn, and Woolverton in retooling the film's script. Since the original story had only two major characters, the filmmakers enhanced them, added new characters in the form of enchanted household items who "add warmth and comedy to a gloomy story" and guide the audience through the film, and added a "real villain" in the form of Gaston.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: These ideas were somewhat similar to elements of the 1946 French film version of "Beauty and the Beast", which introduced the character of Avenant, an oafish suitor somewhat similar to Gaston, as well as inanimate objects coming to life in the Beast's castle. The animated objects were, however, given distinct personalities in the Disney version. By early 1990, Katzenberg had approved the revised script, and storyboarding began again. The production flew story artists back and forth between California and New York for storyboard approvals from Ashman, though the team was not told the reason why.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Disney had originally considered casting Jodi Benson from "The Little Mermaid" as Belle. They eventually decided upon Broadway actress and singer Paige O'Hara in favor of having a heroine who sounded "more like a woman than a girl". According to co-director Kirk Wise, O'Hara was given the role because she "had a unique quality, a tone she would hit that made her special", reminiscent to that of American actress and singer Judy Garland. O'Hara, who, after reading about the film in "The New York Times", competed for the role against 500 hopefuls, believes the fact that lyricist Howard Ashman admired her cast recording of the musical "Show Boat" proved integral in her being cast. Laurence Fishburne, Val Kilmer and Mandy Patinkin were originally considered to voice the Beast, the role was eventually given to actor Robby Benson. John Cleese was originally intended to voice Cogsworth, but later turned it down to voice Cat. R. Waul in the Universal Pictures animated film "", and the role was eventually given to David Ogden Stiers. Julie Andrews was originally considered to voice Mrs. Potts, the role was eventually given to Angela Lansbury.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Production of "Beauty and the Beast" was to be completed on a compressed timeline of two years rather than the traditional four-year Disney Feature Animation production schedule; this was due to the loss of production time spent developing the earlier Purdum version of the film. Most of the production was done at the main Feature Animation studio, housed in the Air Way facility in Glendale, California. A smaller team at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida assisted the California team on several scenes, particularly the "Be Our Guest" number.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast" was the second film, after "The Rescuers Down Under", produced using CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), a digital scanning, ink, paint, and compositing system of software and hardware developed for Disney by Pixar. The software allowed for a wider range of colors, as well as soft shading and colored line effects for the characters, techniques lost when the Disney studio abandoned hand inking for xerography in the early 1960s. CAPS/ink & paint also allowed the production crew to simulate multiplane effects: placing characters and/or backgrounds on separate layers and moving them towards/away from the camera on the Z-axis to give the illusion of depth, as well as altering the focus of each layer.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: In addition, CAPS/ink & paint allowed an easier combination of hand-drawn art with computer-generated imagery, which before had to be plotted to animation paper and then xeroxed and painted traditionally. This technique was put to significant use during the "Beauty and the Beast" waltz sequence, in which Belle and Beast dance through a computer-generated ballroom as the camera dollies around them in simulated 3D space. The filmmakers had originally decided against the use of computers in favor of traditional animation, but later, when the technology had improved, decided it could be used for the one scene in the ballroom. Before that, CGI environments had first been printed out as wireframe, but this was the first time Disney made use of 3D rendering. The success of the ballroom sequence helped convince studio executives to further invest in computer animation. The technology hardware that was used for the CGI was SGI, and the software that was used is Pixar's RenderMan.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The final dance between Belle and the Prince was reused from the final dance sequence between Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip from the 1959 film "Sleeping Beauty". According to Trousdale, this was done because production of the film was nearing the deadline, and this was the easiest way to do that sequence.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Ashman and Menken wrote the "Beauty" song score during the pre-production process in Fishkill, the opening operetta-styled "Belle" being their first composition for the film. Other songs included "Be Our Guest", sung (in its original version) to Maurice by the objects when he becomes the first visitor to eat at the castle in a decade, "Gaston", a solo for the swaggering villain and his bumbling sidekick, "Human Again", a song describing Belle and Beast's growing love from the objects' perspective, the love ballad "Beauty and the Beast (Tale as Old as Time)" and the climactic "The Mob Song". As story and song development came to a close, full production began in Burbank while voice and song recording began in New York City. The "Beauty" songs were mostly recorded live with the orchestra and the voice cast performing simultaneously rather than overdubbed separately, in order to give the songs a cast album-like "energy" the filmmakers and songwriters desired.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: During the course of production, many changes were made to the structure of the film, necessitating the replacement and re-purposing of songs. After screening a mostly animated version of the "Be Our Guest" sequence, story artist Bruce Woodside suggested that the objects should be singing the song to Belle rather than her father. Wise and Trousdale agreed, and the sequence and song were retooled to replace Maurice with Belle. The film's title song went through a noted bit of uncertainty during production. Originally conceived as a rock-oriented song, it was changed to a slow, romantic ballad. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken asked Angela Lansbury to perform the song, but she did not think her voice was suited for the melody. When she voiced her doubts, Menken and Ashman asked her for at least one take and told her to perform the song as she saw fit. Lansbury reportedly reduced everyone in the studio to tears with her rendition, nailing the song in the one take asked of her. This version went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. "Human Again" was dropped from the film before animation began, as its lyrics caused story problems about the timeline over which the story takes place. This required Ashman and Menken to write a new song in its place. "Something There", in which Belle and Beast sing (via voiceover) of their growing fondness for each other, was composed late in production and inserted into the script in place of "Human Again".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Menken would later revise "Human Again" for inclusion in the 1994 Broadway stage version of "Beauty and the Beast", and another revised version of the song was added to the film itself in a new sequence created for the film's Special Edition re-release in 2002. Ashman died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 40 on March 14, 1991, eight months before the film's release. He never saw the finished film, though he did get to see it in its unfinished format. Ashman's work on "Aladdin" was completed by another lyricist, Tim Rice. Before Ashman's death, members of the film's production team visited him after the film's well-received first screening, with Don Hahn commenting that "the film would be a great success. Who'd have thought it?", to which Ashman replied with "I would." A tribute to the lyricist was included at the end of the credits crawl: "To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman: 1950–1991." A pop version of the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson over the end credits, was released as a commercial single from the film's soundtrack, supported with a music video. The Dion/Bryson version of "Beauty and the Beast" became an international pop hit and performed considerably well on charts around the world. The song became Dion's second single to land within the top-10 of the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number nine. The song peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot Adult Contemporary chart. In Canada, "Beauty and the Beast" peaked at number two. Outside of North America, the song peaked within the top ten in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while peaking within the top twenty in Australia, Netherlands, and Ireland. The song sold over a million copies worldwide. This version of the song was also nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Vocal Performance at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards, winning the latter.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: In a first-time accomplishment for The Walt Disney Company, an unfinished version of "Beauty and the Beast" was shown at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991. The film was deemed a "work in progress" because roughly only 70% of the animation had been completed; storyboards and pencil tests were used in replacement of the remaining 30%. Additionally, certain segments of the film that had already been finished were reverted to previous stages of completion. At the end of the screening, "Beauty and the Beast" received a ten-minute-long standing ovation from the film festival audience. The completed film was also screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. The finished film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 13, 1991, beginning a limited release before expanding wide on November 22, along with "".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The film was restored and remastered for its New Year's Day, 2002 re-release in IMAX theatres in a special-edition edit, including a new musical sequence. For this version of the film, much of the animation was cleaned up, a new sequence set to the deleted song "Human Again" was inserted into the film's second act, and a new digital master from the original CAPS production files was used to make the high-resolution IMAX film negative.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: A sing along edition of the film, hosted by Jordin Sparks, was released in select theaters on September 29 and October 2, 2010. Prior to the showing of the film, Sparks showed an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the newly restored film and the making of her new "Beauty and the Beast" music video. There was also commentary from producer Don Hahn, interviews with the cast and an inside look at how the animation was created.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: A Disney Digital 3D version of the film, the second of a traditionally animated film, was originally scheduled to be released in US theatres on February 12, 2010, but the project was postponed. On August 25, 2011, Disney announced that the 3D version of the film would make its American debut at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre from September 2–15, 2011. Disney spent less than $10 million on the 3D conversion. After the successful 3D re-release of "The Lion King", Disney announced a wide 3D re-release of "Beauty and the Beast" in North America beginning January 13, 2012.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: On October 30, 1992, in the United States and Canada, Walt Disney Home Video (currently known as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) released the film to VHS and LaserDisc as part of the Walt Disney Classics series, and later put it on moratorium on April 30, 1993, it was not included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. This version contains a minor edit to the film: skulls that appear in Gaston's pupils for two frames during his climactic fall to his death were removed for the original home video release. No such edit was made to later reissues of the film. The "work-in-progress" version screened at the New York Film Festival was also released on VHS and LaserDisc at this time; however, said version was the only one available on the latter format until the fall of 1993, when the completed theatrical version was released. This measure was to diminish the threat of video pirates making copies derived from the LaserDisc (which are not copy-protected) and selling them in international markets, where the film was yet to be available for home release. By October 1993, the VHS sold a record 20-22 million units. In 1993, the film was also released on home video in different countries, including the United Kingdom on September 20 of that year, and sold a record 8.5 million units.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast: Special Edition", as the enhanced version of the film released in IMAX/large-format is called, was released on a THX certified "Platinum Edition" two-disc DVD and VHS on October 8, 2002. The DVD set features three versions of the film: the extended IMAX Special Edition with the "Human Again" sequence added, the original theatrical version, and the New York Film Festival "work-in-progress" version. This release went to "Disney Vault" moratorium status in January 2003, along with its direct-to-video follow-ups "" and "Belle's Magical World". The Special Edition DVD was released on November 2, 2002, in the United Kingdom, while the other 50 international territories released on Autumn 2002 as "Special Limited Edition".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The film was released from the vault on October 5, 2010, as the second of Disney's Diamond Editions, in the form of a three-disc Blu-ray Disc and DVD combination pack—the first release of "Beauty and the Beast" on home video in high-definition format. This edition consists of four versions of the film: the original theatrical version, an extended version, the New York Film Festival storyboard-only version, and a fourth iteration displaying the storyboards via picture-in-picture alongside the original theatrical version. Upon its first week of release, the Blu-ray sold 1.1 million units, topping the Blu-ray sales chart and finishing in third place on the combined Blu-ray and DVD sales chart for the week ending on October 10, 2010. It was the second-best-selling Blu-ray of 2010, behind "Avatar". A two-disc DVD edition was released on November 23, 2010. A five-disc combo pack, featuring Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray 2D, DVD and a digital copy, was released on October 4, 2011. The 3D combo pack is identical to the original Diamond Edition, except for the added 3D disc and digital copy. The Blu-ray release went into the Disney Vault along with the two sequels on April 30, 2012.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: A 25th-anniversary Signature Edition was released on Digital HD September 6, 2016, and was followed by Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on September 20, 2016. Upon its first week of release on home media in the U.S., the film topped the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, and debuted at number 3 in the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, behind "" and "". The film was released on 4K digital download and Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 10, 2020.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: For its original theatrical run, "Beauty and the Beast" earned $9.6 million in its opening weekend, ranking in third place behind "The Addams Family" and "Cape Fear". During its initial release in 1991, the film grossed $145.9 million in revenues in North America and $331.9 million worldwide. It ranked as the third-most successful film of 1991 in North America, surpassed only by the summer blockbusters "" and "". At the time "Beauty and the Beast" was the most successful animated Disney film release, and the first animated film to reach $100 million in the United States and Canada in its initial run.<ref name="http://www.thetech.org/about-us/media-room/disneys-animated-beauty-and-beast-celebrates-10th-anniversary-worldwide-large"></ref> In its IMAX re-release, it earned $25.5 million in North America and $5.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $31 million. It also earned $9.8 million from its 3D re-release overseas. During the opening weekend of its North American 3D re-release in 2012, "Beauty and the Beast" grossed $17.8 million, coming in at the No. 2 spot, behind "Contraband", and achieved the highest opening weekend for an animated film in January. The film was expected to make $17.5 million over the weekend; however, the results topped its forecast and the expectations of box office analysts. The re-release ended its run on May 3, 2012, and earned $47.6 million, which brought the film's total gross in North America to $219 million. It made an estimated $206 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $425 million. It was the highest-grossing film in Italy, surpassing the 39 billion lira grossed by "Johnny Stecchino".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Upon its release, "Beauty and the Beast" received near-universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its animation, screenplay, characters, musical score, musical numbers, and voice acting. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Enchanting, sweepingly romantic, and featuring plenty of wonderful musical numbers, "Beauty and the Beast" is one of Disney's most elegant animated offerings." The film also holds a score of 95/100 on Metacritic, which indicates the reviews as "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised the film with the following statement, "Two years ago, Walt Disney Pictures reinvented the animated feature, not only with an eye toward pleasing children, but also with an older, savvier audience in mind. Disney truly bridged a generation gap with "The Little Mermaid" ... Now, lightning has definitely struck twice with "Beauty and the Beast"." Awarding the film a perfect score of four stars, Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" compared "Beauty and the Beast" positively to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio", writing, ""Beauty and the Beast" reaches back to an older and healthier Hollywood tradition in which the best writers, musicians and filmmakers are gathered for a project on the assumption that a family audience deserves great entertainment, too." In 2001 Ebert again gave the IMAX re-release a full 4 out of 4 stars. James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" rated the film similarly while hailing it as "the finest animated movie ever made", writing, ""Beauty and the Beast" attains a nearly-perfect mix of romance, music, invention, and animation." The use of computer animation, particularly in the ballroom sequence, was singled out in several reviews as one of the film's highlights. Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" gave the film a positive review, calling the film "A delightfully satisfying modern fable, a near-masterpiece that draws on the sublime traditions of the past while remaining completely in sync with the sensibility of its time." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" gave the film a positive review, saying "It is a surprise, in a time of sequels and retreads, that the new film is so fresh and altogether triumphant in its own right." Dave Kehr of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film three out of four stars, saying ""Beauty and the Beast" is certainly adequate holiday entertainment for children and their more indulgent parents ... But the film has little of the technical facility, vivid characterization and emotional impact of Disney past."


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Jay Boyar of the "Orlando Sentinel" gave the film four out of five stars, saying "It's not an especially scary movie, but right from the start, you can tell that this "Beauty and the Beast" has a beauty of a bite." John Hartl of "The Seattle Times" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "It's exceptionally difficult to make an audience care for animated characters unless they're mermaids or anthropomorphized animals or insects, yet the Disney animators, with a big assist from the vocal talents of a superb cast, have pulled it off." Gene Siskel, also of the "Chicago Tribune", gave the film four out of four stars, saying ""Beauty and the Beast" is one of the year's most entertaining films for both adults and children." On their "Beauty and the Beast" edition of "Siskel & Ebert", both Siskel and Roger Ebert proclaimed that the film is "a legitimate contender for Oscar consideration as Best Picture of the Year". Michael Sragow of "The New Yorker" gave the film a positive review, saying "It's got storytelling vigor and clarity, bright, eclectic animation, and a frisky musical wit." Eric Smoodin writes in his book "Animating Culture" that the studio was trying to make up for earlier gender stereotypes with this film. Smoodin also states that, in the way it has been viewed as bringing together traditional fairy tales and feminism as well as computer and traditional animation, the film's "greatness could be proved in terms of technology narrative or even politics". Animation legend Chuck Jones praised the film, in a 1992 guest appearance on "Later with Bob Costas" he claimed he "Loved it. I think it should have won [Best Picture] ... I think the animation on the beast is one of the greatest pieces of animation I've seen".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Animation historian Michael Barrier wrote that Belle "becomes a sort of intellectual less by actually reading books, it seems, than by hanging out with them", but says that the film comes closer than other "Disney-studio" films to "accepting challenges of the kind that the finest Walt Disney features met". David Whitley writes in "The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation" that Belle is different from earlier Disney heroines in that she is mostly free from the burdens of domestic housework, although her role is somewhat undefined in the same way that "contemporary culture now requires most adolescent girls to contribute little in the way of domestic work before they leave home and have to take on the fraught, multiple responsibilities of the working mother". Whitley also notes other themes and modern influences, such as the film's critical view of Gaston's chauvinism and attitude towards nature, the cyborg-like servants, and the father's role as an inventor rather than a merchant.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast" has been named one of Disney's most critically acclaimed films. In 2010, IGN named "Beauty and the Beast" as the greatest animated film of all time, directly ahead of "WALL-E", "The Incredibles", "Toy Story 2", and "The Iron Giant".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Most critics regard the 1991 animated film as superior to the 2017 live-action remake. Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" stated that the 1991 film "worked wonderfully because it was pure Broadway, written for the screen, blending comedy and romance and magic and just enough snark in the margins", while the 2017 remake got lost in translation since "The movie takes our knowledge and our interest in the material for granted. It zips from one number to another, throwing a ton of frenetically edited eye candy at the screen, charmlessly." Phillips also wrote of the 2017 film that "too often we're watching highly qualified performers, plus a few less conspicuously talented ones ..., stuck doing karaoke, or motion-capture work of middling quality". Dana Schwartz of the "Observer" criticized some of the 2017 film changes to characters such as the Beast and Gaston as regressive by watering down their distinguishing personalities from the 1991 film, further arguing that the added backstory to the characters in the 2017 version failed to "advance the plot or theme in any meaningful way". David Sims of "The Atlantic" wrote that the 2017 film "feels particularly egregious, in part, because it's so slavishly devoted to the original; every time it falls short of its predecessor (which is quite often), it's hard not to notice".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's song "Beauty and the Beast" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, while Menken's score won the award for Best Original Score. Two other Menken and Ashman songs from the film, "Belle" and "Be Our Guest", were also nominated for Best Original Song. "Beauty and the Beast" was the first picture to receive three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, a feat that would be repeated by "The Lion King" (1994), "Dreamgirls" (2006), and "Enchanted" (2007). Academy rules have since been changed to limit each film to two nominations in this category, due to the consecutive unintentional failures of "Dreamgirls" and "Enchanted" to win the award.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Sound. It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, and remained the only animated film nominated until 2009 when the Best Picture field was widened to ten nominees, and it remains the only animated film nominated for the award when it had five nominees. It became the first musical in twelve years to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year, following "All That Jazz" (1979), and the last one to be nominated until "Moulin Rouge!" (2001), ten years later. It lost the Best Picture award to "The Silence of the Lambs" and the Best Sound award to "". With six nominations, the film currently shares the record for the most nominations for an animated film with "WALL-E" (2008), although, with three nominations in the Best Original Song category, "Beauty and the Beast"s nominations span only four categories, while "WALL-E"s nominations cover six individual categories.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: While "The Little Mermaid" was the first to be nominated, "Beauty and the Beast" became the first animated film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. This feat was later repeated by "The Lion King" and "Toy Story 2".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: In 2002, "Beauty and the Beast" was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten" lists of the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres, based on polls of over 1,500 people from the creative community. "Beauty and the Beast" was acknowledged as the seventh-best film in the animation genre. In previous lists, it ranked number 22 on the institute's list of best musicals and number 34 on its list of the best romantic American films. On the list of the greatest songs from American films, "Beauty and the Beast" ranked number 62.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: According to an article in the "Houston Chronicle", "The catalyst for Disney's braving the stage was an article by "The New York Times" theater critic Frank Rich that praised "Beauty and the Beast" as 1991's best musical. Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) executive director Frank Young had been trying to get Disney interested in a stage version of "Beauty" about the same time Eisner and Katzenberg were mulling over Rich's column. But Young couldn't seem to get in touch with the right person in the Disney empire. Nothing happened till the Disney execs started to pursue the project from their end. When they asked George Ives, the head of Actors Equity on the West Coast, which Los Angeles theater would be the best venue for launching a new musical, Ives said the best theater for that purpose would be TUTS. Not long after that, Disney's Don Frantz and Bettina Buckley contacted Young, and the partnership was under way." A stage condensation of the film, directed by Robert Jess Roth and choreographed by Matt West, both of whom moved on to the Broadway development, had already been presented at Disneyland at what was then called the Videopolis stage. "Beauty and the Beast" premiered in a joint production of Theatre Under The Stars and Disney Theatricals at the Music Hall, Houston, Texas, from November 28, 1993, through December 26, 1993.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: On April 18, 1994, "Beauty and the Beast" premiered on Broadway at the Palace Theatre in New York City to mixed reviews. The show transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 11, 1999. The commercial success of the show led to productions in the West End, Toronto, and all over the world. The Broadway version, which ran for over a decade, received a Tony Award, and became the first of a whole line of Disney stage productions. The original Broadway cast included Terrence Mann as the Beast, Susan Egan as Belle, Burke Moses as Gaston, Gary Beach as Lumière, Heath Lamberts as Cogsworth, Tom Bosley as Maurice, Beth Fowler as Mrs. Potts, and Stacey Logan as Babette the feather duster. Many well-known actors and singers also starred in the Broadway production during its thirteen-year run, including Kerry Butler, Deborah Gibson, Toni Braxton, Andrea McArdle, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Christy Carlson Romano, Ashley Brown, and Anneliese van der Pol as Belle; Chuck Wagner, James Barbour, and Jeff McCarthy as the Beast; Meshach Taylor, Patrick Page, Bryan Batt, Jacob Young, and John Tartaglia as Lumière; Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, and Donny Osmond as Gaston; and Nick Jonas, Harrison Chad, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Chip. The show ended its Broadway run on July 29, 2007, after 46 previews and 5,461 performances. , it is Broadway's tenth-longest-running show in history.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: In June 2014, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a live-action film adaptation of the original animated film was in the works, with Bill Condon directing and Evan Spiliotopoulos penning the screenplay. Condon originally planned on not only drawing inspiration from the animated film, but also to include most, if not all, of the Menken/Rice songs from the Broadway musical, with the intention of making the film as a "straight-forward, live-action, large-budget movie musical". In September 2014, it was announced that Stephen Chbosky would re-write the script. In January 2015, Emma Watson announced via her Facebook page that she would portray Belle in the live-action film. In March 2015, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Emma Thompson, Josh Gad, Audra McDonald, and Kevin Kline joined the film as the Beast, Gaston, Mrs. Potts, Lefou, Garderobe, and Maurice, respectively. The following month, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw joined the cast, as Cogsworth, Lumière, Cadenza, and Plumette, respectively. Composer Alan Menken returned to score the film's music, with new material written by Menken and Tim Rice. In June 2015, Menken said the film would not include the songs that were written for the Broadway musical. Filming began on May 18, 2015, in London, and at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. Production officially wrapped in August 2015. The film was released on March 17, 2017.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: In 2018, a live concert celebration took place at the Hollywood Bowl, directed by Richard Kraft and Kenneth Shapiro. The cast included Zooey Deschanel as Belle, Anthony Evans as the Beast, Taye Diggs as Gaston, Kelsey Grammer as Lumiere, Rebel Wilson as LeFou, Jane Krakowski as Mrs. Potts, and Baraka May as Chip. They were accompanied by a live orchestra, singing songs from the original film.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: On July 5, 2022, ABC reported that a live-action/animation special was in development that would air on December 15, 2022, with Hamish Hamilton set to direct and Jon M. Chu as executive producer. ABC said that it would include live never-before-seen musical performances, along with new sets and costumes inspired by the classic story. On July 20, 2022, it was reported that H.E.R. was cast to play Belle. In September 2022, Josh Groban, Joshua Henry, and Rita Moreno, had been cast as the Beast, Gaston, and the narrator, respectively. David Alan Grier was later announced to play Cogsworth. During the month, Martin Short and Shania Twain entered final talks to play Lumiere and Mrs. Potts, respectively. Rizwan Manji, Jon Jon Briones, and Leo Abelo Perry complete the cast as LeFou, Maurice, and Chip, respectively. On December 12, 2022, D23 revealed that Paige O'Hara (the original voice of Belle), Richard White (the original voice of Gaston), and composer Alan Menken would cameo in the special as, respectively, the Bookseller, the Baker, and a piano player during "Belle".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: "Beauty and the Beast" merchandise cover a wide variety of products, among them storybook versions of the film's story, a comic book based on the film published by Disney Comics, toys, children's costumes, and other items. In addition, the character of Belle has been integrated into the "Disney Princess" line of Disney's Consumer Products division, and appears on merchandise related to that franchise. In 1995, a live-action children's series entitled "Sing Me a Story with Belle" began running in syndication, remaining on the air through 1999. Two direct-to-video followups (which take place during the timeline depicted in the original film) were produced by Walt Disney Television Animation: "" in 1997 and "Belle's Magical World" in 1998; in contrast to the universal acclaim of the original, reception to the sequels was extremely negative. Disney on Ice produced an ice version of the movie that opened in 1992 in Lakeland, Florida. The show was such a huge commercial and critical success, touring around the world to sell-out crowds, that a television special was made when it toured Spain in 1994. The show ended its run in 2006, after 14 years.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The first video game based on the film was titled "Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest" and is an action platformer for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Developed by Software Creations, the game was released in North America in 1993. It is one of two video games based on the film that Sunsoft published for the Mega Drive/Genesis, the other being "Beauty and The Beast: Roar of the Beast". Characters from the film like Gaston can help the player past tricky situations. As Belle, the player must reach the Beast's castle and break the spell to live happily ever after. To succeed, she must explore the village, forest, castle, and snowy forest to solve puzzles and mini-games while ducking or jumping over enemies. Belle's health is represented by a stack of blue books, which diminishes when she touches bats, rats, and other hazards in the game. Extra lives, keys and other items are hidden throughout the levels. While there is no continue or game saving ability, players can use a code to start the game at any of the seven levels.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The second video game based on the film was titled "Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast" and is a side-scrolling video game for the Genesis. As the Beast, the player must successfully complete several levels, based on scenes from the film, in order to protect the castle from invading villagers and forest animals and rescue Belle from Gaston.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The third and fourth video games based on the film are action platformers developed by Probe Software and published by Hudson Soft. One, titled "Beauty and the Beast", was released in Europe in 1994 for the NES, while the other, "Disney's Beauty and the Beast", was released in North America in July 1994 and in Europe on February 23, 1995, for the SNES. The entire games are played through the perspective of the Beast. As the Beast, the player must get Belle to fall in love so that the curse cast upon him and his castle will be broken. The final boss of the game is Gaston. The Beast can walk, jump, swipe, stomp, super stomp, and roar, the last of which is used to both damage enemies and reveal hidden objects.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The fifth video game based on the film was titled "Disney's Beauty and the Beast: A Boardgame Adventure" and is a Disney Boardgame adventure for the Game Boy Color. It was released on October 25, 1999.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The video game series "Kingdom Hearts" features a world based on the film, named "Beast's Castle", along with several of the film's characters. In the first game, the world has been destroyed and Belle kidnapped by the Heartless, led by Maleficent, but the Beast travels to Maleficent's stronghold and works with Sora to defeat Maleficent and rescue Belle and the other captured princesses. In "Kingdom Hearts II", the world has since been restored following Ansem's defeat, but Beast and Belle are having difficulties due to the enigmatic Xaldin of Organization XIII attempting to bring out the Beast's darker side in order to turn him into a Heartless and a Nobody, but the Beast eventually comes to his senses and works with Sora once again to defeat Xaldin once and for all. In the game's ending credits, the Beast turns back into the Prince. In "", the world is featured as a playable level but the story is not essential to the main plot. In "Kingdom Hearts χ", the world is featured again, this time as a hallucination that follows the plot of the movie more closely. The characters featured in the series are Beast, Belle, Lumiere, Gaston, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Maurice, and the Wardrobe. After Gaston is defeated, the Beast transforms back into the Prince. Gaston does not appear in "Kingdom Hearts II", the world's primary antagonist being Xaldin, an original character created for the series, but who shares several traits with Forte, the main antagonist of "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas".


title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: The success of the film spawned three direct-to-video sequels: "" (1997) and "Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World" (1998), and "Belle's Tales of Friendship" (1999), all of which take place in the timeline of the original. This was followed by a live-action spin-off television series, "Sing Me a Story with Belle".


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (), are the 15 sovereign states that were union republics of the Soviet Union, which emerged and re-emerged from the Soviet Union following its dissolution in 1991.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Russia is the primary "de facto" internationally recognized successor state to the Soviet Union after the Cold War; while Ukraine has, by law, proclaimed that it is a state-successor of both the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union which remained under dispute over formerly Soviet-owned properties.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – were the first to declare their independence from the USSR, between March and May 1990, claiming continuity from the original states that existed prior to their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. The remaining 12 republics all subsequently seceded, all 12 of which joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and most of the 12 joining the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). In contrast, the Baltic states focused on European Union (EU) and NATO membership. EU officials have stressed the importance of Association Agreements between the EU and post-Soviet states.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Several disputed states with varying degrees of recognition exist within the territory of the former Soviet Union: Transnistria in eastern Moldova, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in northern Georgia and Artsakh in southwestern Azerbaijan. Since 2014, the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in far eastern Ukraine have claimed independence. All of these unrecognized states except Artsakh depend on Russian armed support and financial aid. Artsakh is integrated to Armenia at a de-facto level, which also maintains close cooperation with Russia. Prior to its annexation to Russia in March 2014, which is not recognized by most countries, Crimea briefly declared itself an independent state.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: In the political language of Russia and some other post-Soviet states, the term "near abroad" (Russian ) refers to the independent republics that emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Increasing usage of the term in English is connected to assertions of Russia's right to maintain significant influence in the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared the region to be a component of Russia's "sphere of influence", and strategically vital to Russian interests. The concept has been compared to the Monroe Doctrine.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The 15 states may be divided into four subregions. Not included in these categories are the several de facto independent states presently lacking international recognition (read below: Separatist conflicts).


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The dissolution of the Soviet Union took place as a result and against the backdrop of general economic stagnation, even regression. As the Gosplan, which had set up production chains to cross SSR lines, broke down, the inter-republic economic connections were also disrupted, leading to even more serious breakdown of the post-Soviet economies.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Most of the formerly Soviet states began the transition to a market economy from a command economy in 1990–1991 and made efforts to rebuild and restructure their economic systems, with varying results. In all, the process triggered severe economic declines, with gross domestic product (GDP) dropping by more than 40% overall between 1990 and 1995. This decline in GDP was much more intense than the 27% decline that the United States suffered in the wake of the Great Depression between 1930 and 1934. The reconfiguration of public finance in compliance with capitalist principles resulted in dramatically reduced spending on health, education and other social programs, leading to a sharp increase in poverty and economic inequality. The economic shocks associated with wholesale privatization resulted in the excess deaths of roughly 1 million working age individuals throughout the former Soviet bloc in the 1990s. A study by economist Steven Rosefielde asserts that 3.4 million Russians died premature deaths from 1990 to 1998, partly as the result of "shock therapy" imposed by the Washington Consensus.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The initial transition decline was eventually arrested by the cumulative effect of market reforms, and after 1995 the economy in the post-Soviet states began to recover, with GDP switching from negative to positive growth rates. A good example could be considered Armenia as its government worked on the stabilization of the economy between 1994-1995 and succeeded in decreasing the inflation rate of the country from 4 to 2 digits by 1996. By 2007, 10 of the 15 post-Soviet states had recovered and reached GDP greater than what they had in 1991. According to economist Branko Milanović in 2015, many former Soviet Republics and Warsaw Pact countries still have not caught up to their levels of output during the twilight of the Soviet era, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. He concluded that "only 1 out of 10 people living in "transition" countries have seen a successful transition to capitalism and more democracy." Commenting on Milanović's report in 2021, Kristen Ghodsee says this view is "essentially correct" and perhaps underestimates "the negative impacts of transition by focusing only on GDP, inequality and democratic consolidation" whereas Mitchell A. Orenstein says this view is "overly pessimistic" and notes that "living standards had increased in many countries."


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The economic changes were in harmony with the constitutional reforms, while provisions on public finances can be identified and in some countries, a separate chapter deals with public finances. Most of the constitutions define directly or indirectly the economic system of the countries parallel to the democratic transition of the 1990s: free market economy, which sometimes complemented with the social or socially (and ecologically) oriented attribute, economic development, or only the economic rights are included as a ground for the economy. In the case of fiscal policy, the legislative, the executive and other state organs (Budget Council, Economic and Social Council) define and manage the budgeting. The average government debt in the countries is nearly 44%, but the deviation is great, because the lowest figure is close to 10% but the highest is 97%. The trend shows, that the sovereign debt ratio to GDP in most of the countries has been rising. The constitutional background for taxation is similar. The contribution to cover the finances for common needs is declared, the principle of just tax burden sharing is supplemented sometimes with special aspects. Tax revenues expose typically 15 – 19% of the GDP, and rates above 20% only rarely can be found. The state audit of the government budget and expenditures is an essential control element in public finances, and an important part of the concept of checks and balances. The central banks are independent state institutions, which possess the monopoly on managing and implementing a state's or federation's monetary policy. Besides monetary policy, some of them even perform the supervision of the financial intermediary system. In the case of price stability function, the inflation rate, in the examined area, relatively quickly dropped to below 5% by 2000. The majority of the constitutions determine the national currency, legal tender or monetary unit. The local currency exchange rate to U.S. dollar shows that drastic interventions were not necessary. National wealth or assets are the property of the state and/or the local governments, and as an exclusive property, the management and protection of them aim at serving the public interest.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Economy of most Soviet republics started to decline in 1989–1990, thus indices for 1991 do not match pre-reform maximums.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: List of the present gross domestic product (GDP) (figures are given in 2021 United States dollars for the year 2021 according to the IMF)


title: Post-Soviet states

text: A number of regional organizations and cooperating blocs have sprung up since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Only organizations that are mainly (or completely) composed of post-Soviet states are listed in this section; organizations with wider memberships are not discussed. The 15 post-Soviet states are divided in their participation to the regional blocs:


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) consists of 10 former Soviet Republics that differ in their membership status. As of December 2010, 9 countries have ratified the CIS charter and are full CIS members (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), one country (Turkmenistan) is an associate member and two countries (Georgia, Ukraine) left the organization in 2009 and in 2018. In 2014, Ukraine declined its CIS chairmanship and considered withdrawal from the organization.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: In 1994, the CIS countries agreed to create a free trade area, but the agreements were never signed. On 19 October 2011, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine signed a free trade agreement. Uzbekistan joined the free trade area in 2013.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The Eurasian Economic Community (EURASEC), formerly the CIS Customs Union, was established by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Ukraine and Moldova have observer status in the community; however, Ukraine has declared its desire not to become a full member state. Because having common borders with the rest of the community is a prerequisite for full membership, Moldova is barred from seeking it. Uzbekistan applied for membership in October 2005, when the process of merging Central Asian Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community began; it joined on 25 January 2006. Uzbekistan subsequently suspended its membership in 2008.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: On 10 October 2014 an agreement on the termination of the Eurasian Economic Community was signed in Minsk after a session of the Interstate Council of the EAEC. The Eurasian Economic Community was terminated from 1 January 2015 in connection with the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan created a customs union that entered into force in July 2010. Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan indicated interest in joining at the time. Russia has been eager for Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine to join the custom union instead of the European Union, and the Moldovan break-away state of Transnistria has supported this. In 2013, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia announced plans to seek membership, but division over the issue in Ukraine led to the Revolution of Dignity after the Ukrainian government backed out of an EU Eastern Partnership in favor of the union. In 2014, voters in the Moldovan autonomous region of Gagauzia rejected closer ties to the EU in favor of the union.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: On 1 January 2012, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus established the Single Economic Space which ensures the effective functioning of a single market for goods, services, capital and labour, and to establish coherent industrial, transport, energy and agricultural policies. The agreement included a roadmap for future integration and established the Eurasian Economic Commission (modelled on the European Commission). The Eurasian Economic Commission serves as the regulatory agency for the Eurasian Customs Union, the Single Economic Space and the Eurasian Economic Union.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of post-Soviet states. The treaty aiming for the establishment of the EAEU was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015. Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October 2014 and 23 December respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on 2 January 2015. Although Kyrgyzstan's accession treaty will not come into force until May 2015, provided it has been ratified, it will participate in the EAEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state. Moldova and Tajikistan are prospective members.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Seven CIS member states, namely Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Armenia, have enhanced their military cooperation, establishing the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), this being an expansion of the previous Collective Security Treaty (CST). Uzbekistan which (alongside Georgia and Azerbaijan) withdrew from the CST in 1999, joined GUAM. Then in 2005, it withdrew from GUAM and joined the CSTO in 2006. On 28 June 2012, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the CSTO.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Three former Soviet states are members of NATO: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Georgia, where both public opinion and the ruling government favor NATO membership, is in the Intensified Dialogue program with NATO. Ukraine also declared joining NATO as its geopolitical goal once again in 2017 (the first time being right after the Orange Revolution and in the beginning of presidency of Viktor Yushchenko), after the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, during which the government officially declared neutrality and ceased to seek NATO membership.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Other states in the Partnership for Peace and Individual Partnership Action Plan program include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: Four member states, namely Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM group that was largely seen as intending to counter Russian dominance in the region. Notably, these four nations do not participate in any of the other regional organizations that sprang up in the region since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (other than the CIS).


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The Union State of Russia and Belarus was originally formed on 2 April 1996 under the name "Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus", before being tightened further on 8 December 1999. It was initiated by the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. On paper, the Union of Russia and Belarus intends further integration, beyond the scope of mere cooperation, including the introduction of the rouble as a common currency.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The Economic Cooperation Organization was originally formed in 1985 by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan but in 1992 the organization was expanded to include Afghanistan and the six primarily Muslim former Soviet republics: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.


title: Post-Soviet states

text: The post-Soviet disputed states of Abkhazia, Artsakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria are all members of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations which aims to forge closer integration.