Beauty and the Beast (Disney song) author Jerry Griswold believes that the song's opening line "tale as old as time" alludes to the fact that Belle's story is an ancient, timeless one "deliberately situated within the context of other traditional tales;" hers is simply "the newest incarnation" of it. "The Translation of the Songs in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast": an example of Manipulation" author Lucía Loureiro Porto agrees that although the song "does not tell any story, it is made of phrases that imply that love is as old a feeling as mankind." According to Perry Seibert of AllMovie, "Beauty and the Beast" is "as
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast widower, has three daughters; Grace, Hope, and Honour. When Honour was a child she asked what her name meant and afterwards said she'd rather be named Beauty, a nickname which soon stuck. As she grows older, she feels the nickname is increasingly ill-fitting, as she remains plain while her sisters become lovelier and more socially adept. Grace becomes engaged to Robert Tucker, one of her father's ship captains, and Hope to a blacksmith named Gervain Woodhouse. When all of Huston's ships are lost at sea, Robert is presumed dead and the family become destitute. Gervain, who has decided to return