182 Fun Facts About Beauty and the Beast

Which two first-time directors made Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, both first-time feature directors, took over after Richard Purdum's non-musical version was scrapped in favour of a musical.

The 1991 movie premiered as an unfinished work in progress at which event two months before its release?

The New York Film Festival screened the rough cut on 29 September 1991, with pencil tests in place of finished animation; that version was later included on the 2002 Platinum Edition DVD.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first animated film ever nominated for which Academy Award?

Best Picture: at the 1992 ceremony it became the first animated film nominated for the top award, eighteen years before the category widened to ten nominees.

Which two Disney films had earned the studio's only Best Picture nominations before Beauty and the Beast?

Mary Poppins (1964) and Touchstone's Dead Poets Society (1989) were Disney's only earlier Best Picture nominees; neither The Little Mermaid nor Who Framed Roger Rabbit made the cut.

How many of the film's songs were nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar, a record at the time?

'Beauty and the Beast' won over 'Belle' and 'Be Our Guest'; The Lion King, Dreamgirls and Enchanted later matched the feat.

How old was lyricist Howard Ashman when he died eight months before the film's release?

Ashman was 40, born 17 May 1950 and dead of AIDS complications on 14 March 1991; he never saw the finished film, and Tim Rice completed his unfinished Aladdin lyrics.

Which song was cut from the 1991 film over timeline problems and restored for the 2002 IMAX edition?

Human Again was dropped over story-timeline problems, revived for the 1994 Broadway show, and finally animated as a second-act number for the 2002 IMAX special edition.

Angela Lansbury reportedly recorded the Oscar-winning title song in how many takes?

She had doubted she was the right singer for it; Menken and Ashman asked for one take and she reduced the studio to tears.

Before Ashman pushed for simple names, Mrs. Potts was nearly called what?

Mrs. Chamomile was her working name until Ashman asked for short, simple names for the household objects, which is how we got Mrs. Potts, Chip, Lumière and Cogsworth.

Which Broadway singer voiced Belle, chosen partly because she sounded a little like Judy Garland?

Paige O'Hara, a Broadway veteran of Show Boat, won the part after the filmmakers decided they wanted a heroine who sounded 'more like a woman than a girl'.

Which former teen idol of Ice Castles and One on One voiced the Beast?

Robby Benson, star of One on One (1977) and Ice Castles (1978), voiced the Beast; he had screen-tested for Luke Skywalker in 1975 and later directed episodes of Friends.

The Beast's head and horns were modelled on which animal?

An American bison (buffalo) supplied the head and horns; the animators assembled the rest of the Beast from a menagerie of other animals.

Which actor voiced Lumière, the French-accented candelabra?

Jerry Orbach, later Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order and a Tony winner for Promises, Promises, voiced Lumière and sang lead on 'Be Our Guest'.

David Ogden Stiers voiced Cogsworth and also performed which other job in the film?

Stiers narrated the prologue as well as voicing Cogsworth, the castle's mantel-clock majordomo; the Enchantress has no lines and Monsieur D'Arque was voiced by Tony Jay.

'Be Our Guest' was originally written to be sung to which character?

It was first staged for Maurice, Belle's father, and partly animated before the directors decided the showstopper belonged to the heroine, so it was restaged for Belle.

What invention is Belle's father taking to the fair when he gets lost and stumbles on the Beast's castle?

Maurice's wood-chopping machine is the invention he hauls toward the fair; when his horse comes home alone, Belle rides it back to the Beast's castle.

Gaston bribes Monsieur D'Arque, the warden of what, to have Belle's father locked up?

The plan is to blackmail Belle into marriage in exchange for her father's release.

Which actor was rejected as Gaston for not sounding arrogant enough, then landed Prince Charming in Shrek?

Rupert Everett auditioned but was told he did not sound arrogant enough; he later voiced Prince Charming in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.

Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast used CAPS, a digital ink-and-paint system developed for Disney by which company?

Pixar built CAPS with Disney in 1989; it scanned pencil drawings and coloured them digitally, which let the ballroom's swooping computer-generated backgrounds blend with hand-drawn characters.

In 1987 Disney revived Beauty and the Beast as a non-musical drama at a satellite studio in which city?

London: Disney's satellite studio there had been set up for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Richard Purdum was hired to direct the non-musical version that was later scrapped.

What was the 1991 film's initial worldwide gross, making it the third-highest-grossing film of the year?

$331 million on first release, the third-biggest worldwide total of 1991; it was also the first animated film to pass $100 million in the United States.

Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to win which Golden Globe?

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, at the January 1992 Golden Globes; The Lion King (1995) and Toy Story 2 (2000) later repeated the win for animation.

In which year was the 1991 film added to the US National Film Registry?

2002, the same year as its IMAX re-release: the Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry that December, and the AFI later ranked it the seventh-best animated film ever.

The pop single of 'Beauty and the Beast' paired Celine Dion with which American singer?

Peabo Bryson was hired because Disney feared the then-little-known Dion could not carry US radio alone; the duet won a Grammy.

At the 1993 Grammys the Dion–Bryson duet lost Record and Song of the Year to which track?

Eric Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven' took both Record and Song of the Year at the February 1993 ceremony; the duet still won a Juno for Single of the Year.

How many Oscars did Alan Menken win for his Disney films from 1989 to 1995?

Eight: score and song Oscars for each of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas; he later completed an EGOT with a Daytime Emmy in 2020.

The Broadway musical opened in April 1994 and ran for how many performances?

5,461 performances: it opened at the Palace Theatre on 18 April 1994 and closed 29 July 2007 as Broadway's sixth-longest-running show at the time.

Which lyricist wrote the six new songs for the Broadway musical with Alan Menken?

Tim Rice, who had finished Ashman's Aladdin lyrics, wrote the new Broadway songs including 'If I Can't Love Her' and 'Home'; the show was Disney's first Broadway musical and won one Tony, for costumes.

Who directed the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

Bill Condon, director of Dreamgirls and the two Breaking Dawn films, made the 2017 remake, his first musical since Dreamgirls and the biggest hit of his career.

Which actor played the Beast opposite Emma Watson in 2017?

Dan Stevens, formerly Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey, played the Beast through motion capture and sang the new ballad 'Evermore' inside the film.

In the 2017 film, Josh Gad played which character?

Josh Gad played LeFou, Gaston's sidekick, fresh from voicing Olaf in Frozen; his brief 'gay moment' with another of Gaston's cronies drew headlines worldwide.

The 2017 remake grossed roughly how much worldwide?

$1.26 billion, second only to Star Wars: The Last Jedi for 2017; it passed Mamma Mia! as the highest-grossing live-action musical within ten days of release.

Which country's censors demanded a cut to a 'gay moment' in 2017, prompting Disney to postpone the release?

Malaysia's censorship board demanded the LeFou scene be cut, so Disney pulled the 16 March 2017 release and later opened the film there uncut with a P13 rating; a drive-in in Henagar, Alabama refused to show it.

Celine Dion returned for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast to sing which new song over the end titles?

'How Does a Moment Last Forever' came after she hesitated following the death of her husband René Angélil, who had helped secure the original 1991 duet for her.

Which French novelist published the original 'Beauty and the Beast' in 1740?

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's long version was cut down and republished in 1756 by Leprince de Beaumont, whose telling became the standard one.

The fairy tale 'Beauty and the Beast' is thought to have been influenced by which ancient Latin story from The Golden Ass?

Cupid and Psyche, the tale within Apuleius' second-century Latin novel, sends a bride to an unseen, supposedly monstrous husband; Villeneuve's 1740 tale echoes it.

Which French poet directed the celebrated 1946 film La Belle et la Bête?

Jean Marais played the Beast and Josette Day was Belle, in a surrealist take on the 1756 Beaumont version.

The 1987 CBS series Beauty and the Beast starred Ron Perlman and which actress as Catherine?

Linda Hamilton, between her two Terminator films, played lawyer Catherine Chandler opposite Ron Perlman's Vincent in Ron Koslow's series set in tunnels beneath New York City.

The 1997 direct-to-video Christmas sequel to the animated film featured Tim Curry as which villain?

Forte, the castle's pipe organ, was Tim Curry's villain in The Enchanted Christmas; Haley Joel Osment voiced Chip, and Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson returned.

In the film's prologue, the old beggar woman offers the prince what in exchange for shelter from a storm?

A single rose: when the prince sneers at the gift, the beggar reveals herself as an enchantress and transforms him, and he must love and be loved before the rose's last petal falls.

Which Disney executive scrapped the non-musical Beauty and the Beast and had it rebuilt as a musical?

Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney's studio chairman, rejected Richard Purdum's dark non-musical reels and ordered a restart as a Broadway-style musical in the vein of The Little Mermaid.

In which 2007 Disney film did Belle's original voice actress play a soap-opera character named Angela?

Enchanted: Paige O'Hara, Belle's original voice, appears on a television soap as Angela; Amy Adams's Giselle in that film is itself a knowing riff on Disney's animated princesses.

What box-office record did the 2017 remake set within ten days of release?

Highest-grossing live-action musical ever: within ten days it overtook Mamma Mia!, which had held the mark since 2008, and it finished behind only Frozen among all musicals at the time.

Which Broadway actress made her debut as the original Belle in 1994 and earned a Tony nomination for it?

Susan Egan made her Broadway debut as Belle and was nominated for the 1994 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical; Terrence Mann was her Beast.

In which century is Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast set?

The 18th century: the film places Belle's provincial French village and the Beast's Rococo-styled castle in the 1700s, the era of the original 1740 Villeneuve tale.

Which two decades saw Walt Disney himself try and fail to adapt Beauty and the Beast?

The 1930s and 1950s: Walt Disney's story staff tried the tale twice and gave up both times because the second half, with Belle confined to the castle, proved too hard to dramatise.

Who produced Beauty and the Beast (1991)?

Don Hahn produced the film after serving as associate producer on Who Framed Roger Rabbit; he went on to produce The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Which directing duo turned down Beauty and the Beast, saying they were 'tired' after their 1989 hit?

John Musker and Ron Clements, worn out after The Little Mermaid, passed on the project and went on to make Aladdin instead.

Trousdale and Wise had previously directed the animated sections of which EPCOT attraction?

Cranium Command, the 1989 Wonders of Life pavilion show at EPCOT: Trousdale and Wise directed its animated segments before Beauty and the Beast became their first feature.

Pre-production was moved from London to a Residence Inn in which New York town to be near the ailing Howard Ashman?

Fishkill, in the Hudson Valley: the crew worked from a Residence Inn there so Ashman, seriously ill with AIDS, could keep writing with Alan Menken close to home.

Which oafish suitor in the 1946 French film is seen as a precursor to Disney's Gaston?

Avenant, played by Jean Marais in Cocteau's 1946 film, is the handsome, boorish suitor often cited as a model for Gaston; Cocteau's castle also had living candelabra arms.

Which singer was first considered for Belle but judged to sound too much like a girl?

Jodi Benson, Ariel's voice in The Little Mermaid, was considered first, but the filmmakers wanted a heroine who sounded 'more like a woman than a girl' and chose Paige O'Hara.

Paige O'Hara competed against roughly how many hopefuls for the role of Belle?

About 500 actresses auditioned; O'Hara won partly because Howard Ashman admired her singing on the Show Boat cast recording and the team heard a hint of Judy Garland in her voice.

Which Monty Python member was among those considered to voice Cogsworth?

John Cleese was among those considered for Cogsworth before David Ogden Stiers was cast, in what became Stiers's first Disney film role.

Which Mary Poppins star turned down the role of Mrs. Potts?

Angela Lansbury was cast instead.

Which Seinfeld actor was originally considered to voice LeFou?

Jesse Corti got the part.

Beauty and the Beast was made on a compressed schedule of how many years?

Two years: after the 1989 restart the film had to be finished for November 1991, half the four years a Disney animated feature traditionally took.

Which Disney film was the first made with CAPS, before Beauty and the Beast became the second?

CAPS was developed for Disney by Pixar.

The final dance between Belle and the Prince reused animation from which earlier Disney film?

Sleeping Beauty: the 1959 waltz of Aurora and Prince Phillip was traced over for Belle and the Prince's final dance, which Trousdale called the easiest way to hit the deadline.

Which Pixar software helped render the CGI ballroom in the 1991 film?

RenderMan, Pixar's rendering software, produced the ballroom's sweeping three-dimensional camera moves; its success convinced Disney executives to invest further in computer animation.

Which song was the first Ashman and Menken wrote for the film?

'Belle', the operetta-style opening number, was the first song Ashman and Menken wrote for the film; at over five minutes its length worried them, but the number stayed intact.

Which song replaced 'Human Again' late in production?

'Something There' was written quickly to replace 'Human Again', letting Belle and the Beast voice their growing fondness in a short montage rather than a long household number.

The title song was originally conceived in what musical style?

It became the Broadway-style ballad Angela Lansbury made famous.

What does the closing-credits tribute say Howard Ashman gave a beast?

'…who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul.'

The Dion-Bryson pop version of the title song peaked at what position on the Billboard Hot 100?

Number nine: the duet reached the Billboard Hot 100 top ten in 1992, Dion's second US top-ten hit after 'Where Does My Heart Beat Now'.

Which Grammy did the Dion-Bryson duet actually win?

Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was the duet's Grammy at the February 1993 ceremony, where it had also been nominated for Record and Song of the Year.

Roughly what share of the animation was finished for the 1991 New York Film Festival screening?

About 70% of the animation was done; storyboards and pencil tests filled in the rest, and the 29 September 1991 screening drew a ten-minute standing ovation.

Beauty and the Beast expanded to wide release on November 22, 1991 alongside which animated film?

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, from Spielberg's Amblimation, opened the same day and was soundly beaten; Beauty and the Beast had premiered at the El Capitan Theatre nine days earlier.

Which singer hosted the 2010 sing-along theatrical edition?

Jordin Sparks, the 2007 American Idol winner, hosted the September 2010 sing-along edition and recorded a new version of 'Beauty and the Beast' with its own music video.

By October 1993 the VHS release had sold a record how many units?

The UK release sold a record 8.5 million.

The 2010 Diamond Edition Blu-ray was the year's second-best seller behind which film?

It sold 1.1 million units in its first week.

Which two films outgrossed Beauty and the Beast in North America in 1991?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($204 million) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ($165 million) finished ahead of its $145 million domestic take, which made it the year's third-biggest film.

In Italy the 1991 film became the highest-grossing film ever, beating which Roberto Benigni comedy?

Stecchino had grossed 39 billion lira.

Which film beat Beauty and the Beast to Best Picture at the 1992 Oscars?

The Silence of the Lambs swept the top five awards that night; Beauty and the Beast lost Best Sound to Terminator 2 but won Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Which Pixar film matched Beauty and the Beast's then-record six Oscar nominations for an animated film?

WALL-E (2008) also earned six nominations, including Animated Feature, Screenplay, Score and Song; Beauty and the Beast's six spanned only four categories because of its three song nods.

Which was the next animated film after Beauty and the Beast to be nominated for Best Picture?

Up, at the 2010 ceremony, the first with ten Best Picture nominees; Toy Story 3 followed a year later, while The Lion King and Spirited Away were never nominated for Best Picture.

Beauty and the Beast was the first musical nominated for Best Picture since which 1979 film?

All That Jazz, Bob Fosse's 1979 film, had been the last musical nominated for Best Picture; after Beauty and the Beast the next was Moulin Rouge! (2001).

In 2010, which outlet named Beauty and the Beast the greatest animated film of all time?

Filmsite called it 'arguably the most successful Disney animated film of all time'.

Belle is which number Disney Princess in the franchise line-up?

Fifth: she follows Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora and Ariel in the Disney Princess line-up, with Jasmine sixth.

Belle's looks were partly inspired by which Gone with the Wind actress's eyebrows and lips?

Animators wanted her to look more European than Ariel.

Which two animators supervised Belle?

James Baxter and Mark Henn shared supervision of Belle, with Sherri Stoner, who had also been the live-action reference for Ariel, acting out her scenes.

Disney's marketing wanted Belle's ballgown to be which colour before art director Brian McEntee chose gold?

Pink was what the marketing department wanted; art director Brian McEntee chose gold, which set Belle's gown apart from the other Disney princesses.

Which Disney animator supervised the Beast?

Glen Keane supervised the Beast, visiting the zoo to study the animals whose features he combined; he went on to supervise Aladdin, Pocahontas and Tarzan.

Why was the human prince never given a name in the 1991 film, per his supervising animator?

Everyone was too busy: Glen Keane said nobody on the crew thought to name the prince during production, and 'Adam' only surfaced later in licensed tie-ins.

Which 1998 trivia video game is among the licensed works that named the prince 'Adam'?

The D Show, a 1998 Disney trivia CD-ROM game, called him Prince Adam, a name the film itself never uses.

In the Kingdom Hearts video game, the Beast's castle is attacked by the Heartless led by which villain?

Maleficent, who gathers the Princesses of Heart in the first Kingdom Hearts, has the Heartless overrun the Beast's world and take Belle to Hollow Bastion, where the Beast comes looking for her.

Gaston's supervising animator based his handsome looks on what?

Andreas Deja created a grotesque version of Prince Charming.

Gaston replaced which originally planned villain in early drafts of the Disney film?

A female relative: in Richard Purdum's draft the antagonist was Belle's cruel aunt Marguerite; Gaston began as a foppish aristocrat and evolved into a relentless suitor.

What does LeFou's name mean in French?

LeFou means 'The Madman' (le fou), a nod to his crazed devotion to Gaston; the name also puns on the English word 'fool'.

Chip was originally written with how many lines before Bradley Pierce impressed the filmmakers?

His expanded role replaced a mute Music Box character.

The Wardrobe is known by what name in the stage musical?

Madame de la Grande Bouche, an opera singer, is the Wardrobe's name in the stage musical; early film drafts called her Madame Armoire and the 2017 film Madame de Garderobe.

What is the name of Belle's horse?

Philippe, Maurice's draft horse, bolts from the wolves and leaves him at the castle gates, then carries Belle there; his sounds were performed by veteran voice actor Hal Smith.

The castle's dog-turned-footstool is named what?

Sultan is the castle dog turned footstool; Frank Welker, who also voiced the wolves, supplied his barks.

What is the name of Lumière's sweetheart in the 2017 live-action remake?

Plumette, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, is the 2017 name for the feather duster, who is Babette in the stage musical and Fifi in Belle's Magical World.

Monsieur D'Arque, whom Gaston bribes, is the warden of what institution?

Tony Jay voiced the sadistic warden.

The trio of village maidens who fawn over Gaston are known as what?

The Bimbettes, identical blonde triplets Claudette, Laurette and Paulette, swoon over Gaston throughout 'Belle'; on stage they are the 'Silly Girls'.

The Beast's arms and body were modelled on which animal?

A bear supplied the Beast's bulky body and arms; his mane came from a lion, his brow from a gorilla and his legs and tail from a wolf.

Which storyboard artist drafted early Beast designs based on birds, insects and fish?

Chris Sanders, then a story artist, sketched early Beast concepts drawn from birds, insects and fish before the final mammal-based design won out; he later co-directed Lilo & Stitch.

Linda Woolverton based Belle on Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of which literary character?

Jo March: Woolverton modelled Belle's bookish independence on Katharine Hepburn's Jo in the 1933 Little Women, and refused to watch Cocteau's 1946 film for reference.

Which two writers scripted the 2017 remake?

Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos share the screenplay credit; Chbosky had directed Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Spiliotopoulos co-wrote The Huntsman: Winter's War.

Where was the 2017 film mainly shot?

Shepperton Studios, outside London, hosted principal photography from 18 May to 21 August 2015, with the village and castle built on its stages.

What was the estimated production budget of the 2017 remake?

$255 million was the gross estimate, about $160 million after UK tax credits, plus a reported $140 million for marketing.

Where did the 2017 film hold its world premiere on February 23, 2017?

The US premiere followed at the El Capitan in Hollywood.

The 2017 film was nominated for Oscars in which two categories?

Production Design (Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer) and Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran) were its two nominations at the 2018 Oscars; it lost to The Shape of Water and Phantom Thread respectively.

Which Disney studio chairman made Emma Watson his first and only choice for Belle?

Alan F. Horn, Disney's studio chairman from 2012, had run Warner Bros. through the Harry Potter films and pushed for Watson from the start.

Emma Watson was paid how much upfront for the 2017 film?

$3 million upfront, with a back-end deal reported to lift her total to about $15 million if the film matched Maleficent's $750 million gross.

Which actor also auditioned for Gaston in the 2017 film?

Luke Evans won the role.

Which town in southern France inspired the look of the 2017 film's village?

Conques, a medieval village in Aveyron, was production designer Sarah Greenwood's model for Villeneuve, the fictional village built for the film.

Which French château inspired the castle in the 2017 film?

Chambord, the Loire Valley château with the famous double-helix staircase, was the model for the Beast's castle; Condon cited the Waldorf-Astoria's International Debutante Ball for the ballroom scene.

Dan Stevens played the Beast in a forty-pound grey suit on what?

Stilts: Stevens wore a forty-pound padded suit on stilts so Belle would look small beside him, and learned to waltz on them for the ballroom scene while his face was captured separately.

In the 2017 film, Maurice makes what for a living?

Music boxes: the 2017 Maurice is an artist and tinkerer who crafts intricate music boxes, whereas the 1991 Maurice was an inventor of odd machines.

Which 2017 character is a neurotic composer turned into a harpsichord?

Maestro Cadenza, played by Stanley Tucci, is the court composer transformed into a harpsichord; he is married to the opera singer Madame de Garderobe, the wardrobe.

Who played the enchantress Agathe, living incognito in Belle's village, in the 2017 film?

Hattie Morahan played Agathe, the village beggar who is secretly the Enchantress, and her voice narrates the prologue.

How did Belle's mother die in the 2017 film's backstory?

The plague: the Enchantress's book takes Belle and the Beast to the Paris garret where her mother, played by Zoë Rainey, died of plague and Maurice fled with the baby.

The 2017 film's footstool Frou-Frou is what breed of dog?

He belongs to Cadenza and Madame de Garderobe.

Which stage-musical song appears as an instrumental when Belle enters her room in the 2017 film?

'Home', Belle's first-act ballad from the Broadway show, is heard as underscore when Belle is shown to her room; Menken otherwise wrote four new songs for the film.

Which duo recorded the title song for the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

Ariana Grande and John Legend remade the 1991 original; their video premiered on Freeform in March 2017.

Who sings 'Evermore' over the 2017 film's closing credits?

Josh Groban recorded 'Evermore' for the closing credits; Dan Stevens performs it in the film itself, where Menken and Rice wrote it as the Beast's lament after he frees Belle.

Which actor sings 'How Does a Moment Last Forever' as Maurice in the 2017 film?

Kevin Kline, as Maurice, sings it in his workshop early in the film; Belle reprises it in Paris and Celine Dion sings a pop version over the credits.

The 2017 teaser trailer set a record with how many views in 24 hours?

91.8 million views in its first 24 hours in May 2016, then the record for a teaser; the full trailer that November drew 127.6 million.

The 2017 'gay moment' involved LeFou briefly waltzing with which of Gaston's friends?

Stanley, one of Gaston's cronies, ends up dancing with LeFou at the finale ball; Bill Condon called the fuss over the moment 'overblown'.

Which country gave the 2017 film a 16+ rating after a politician pushed for a ban?

Russia: after Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov urged a ban, the culture ministry let the film open with a 16+ rating rather than banning it.

A 2023 jury ordered Disney to pay $600,000 for using whose motion-capture software on the Beast?

Rearden LLC, owner of the MOVA Contour facial-capture system, won about $600,000 after a 2023 jury found the Beast's face had been captured with software Disney's contractor had no right to use.

What was the title of the shelved Disney+ series about Gaston and LeFou?

It nodded to the lyrics of 'Belle'; Luke Evans said in 2024 it was 'not on the table'.

Which Disney CEO was encouraged by critics to take Beauty and the Beast to Broadway?

Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO, was spurred by New York Times critic Frank Rich calling the film the best Broadway musical score of 1991, and had it adapted for the stage by 1994.

How old was Susan Egan when cast as Broadway's original Belle?

She thought putting 'a cartoon on Broadway' was a terrible idea and hadn't seen the film.

Terrence Mann, Broadway's first Beast, had earned a Tony nomination as which Les Misérables character?

Javert: Mann was Tony-nominated for the 1987 Broadway Les Misérables, and won the Beast after auditioning before a theatre full of Disney executives on 42nd Street.

Gary Beach accepted the role of Broadway's Lumière only at the insistence of which comedian?

He had prior commitments to her upcoming show.

Which new Broadway song was Gaston's, alongside 'Me'?

'Maison des Lunes', sung by Gaston with LeFou and Monsieur D'Arque as they plot to lock up Maurice, joined 'Me', his mock proposal to Belle.

Which song was written in 1998 specifically for Toni Braxton when she joined the Broadway cast?

'A Change in Me' was added in 1998 when Toni Braxton took over as Belle, and it remained in later productions of the show.

How much did Belle's yellow ballgown for the Broadway show weigh?

Ann Hould-Ward based it on historic portraits.

Before Broadway, the musical premiered in November 1993 in which city?

Houston: Theatre Under The Stars co-produced the tryout at the city's Music Hall from November 1993 to January 1994 before the Broadway opening.

The Broadway show opened at the Palace Theatre and closed in 2007 at which theatre?

The Lunt-Fontanne, to which it moved in November 1999 after five years at the Palace; it closed there on 29 July 2007.

The Broadway production closed in 2007 to make way for which Disney princess musical?

The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway in January 2008, taking over the same theatre; Disney feared two princess shows would split audiences.

Who directed the original Broadway production?

Robert Jess Roth directed the original production, with Matt West as choreographer and Stan Meyer designing the sets.

Who played Gaston in the original Broadway cast and later reprised it in the West End?

Burke Moses originated Gaston on Broadway and repeated the role when the West End production opened at the Dominion Theatre in 1997.

The 1996 CBS ice special starred which Olympic champion as Belle?

Scott Hamilton skated as Lumière.

The West End production won which award at the 1998 Olivier Awards?

Best New Musical at the 1998 Olivier Awards, beating Enter the Guardsman, The Fix and Lady in the Dark.

Which actor took over the role of the Beast in the West End production?

John Barrowman, later the star of Torchwood, took over as the Beast during the West End run at the Dominion Theatre; Michelle Gayle was among the replacement Belles.

Which two performers met on the first US national tour and married?

He played Lumière and she played Babette.

Roughly how many people saw the first three US national tours?

They visited 137 venues in 90 cities.

Which actress played Belle opposite Jean Marais in the 1946 French film?

Josette Day played Belle opposite Jean Marais; Cocteau shot the film in 1945–46, with exteriors at the Château de Raray.

In the 1946 French film, Belle's father is sentenced to death for what?

Picking a rose from the Beast's garden for Belle is the offence; the Beast demands his life or that of a daughter, and Belle goes in his place.

In the 1946 film, the Beast says he will die of grief if Belle does not return within what period?

A week: the Beast lets Belle visit her dying father but warns he will die of grief if she does not return within seven days, and she overstays.

Jean Marais, Cocteau's Beast, had become the director's lover in which year?

1937: Marais, then 23, met Cocteau through a stage production and became his lover and muse; Cocteau later wrote L'Éternel retour and Orphée for him.

In the 1987 CBS series, Vincent and Catherine share what kind of connection?

An empathic bond: Vincent senses Catherine's emotions and danger from afar, which makes him her guardian beneath the city.

Ron Perlman won which award for playing Vincent in the 1987 CBS series?

Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 1989, for playing the lion-faced Vincent under Rick Baker's make-up; he later played Hellboy.

The 2012 CW series Beauty & the Beast starred Jay Ryan and which Smallville actress?

Kristin Kreuk, Smallville's Lana Lang, played detective Catherine Chandler opposite Jay Ryan's Vincent; the series ran four seasons and was filmed in Toronto.

Christophe Gans's 2014 French film starred which actress as Belle?

Léa Seydoux played Belle opposite Vincent Cassel's Beast in Christophe Gans's lavish 2014 version, released in France in February 2014.

The 2011 film Beastly relocated the fairy tale to which modern setting?

New York City: Alex Pettyfer's Kyle is a Manhattan prep-school student cursed by a witch played by Mary-Kate Olsen, with Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy.

Which real-life married couple starred in the 1976 Hallmark TV film Beauty and the Beast?

George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, married since 1972, played the Beast and Beauty in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production directed by Fielder Cook.

The 1962 US film Beauty and the Beast featured monster make-up by which legendary artist?

Jack Pierce, who had created Universal's Frankenstein and Wolf Man make-ups, designed the werewolf-like Beast for the 1962 film starring Mark Damon.

The Russian version of the tale, The Scarlet Flower, was written by whom?

Sergey Aksakov published The Scarlet Flower in 1858 as an appendix to his memoir Childhood Years of Bagrov's Grandson; in Russia the tale is known mainly through it.

The 1978 Czechoslovak film Panna a netvor translates literally as what?

'The Virgin and the Monster': Juraj Herz's 1978 film gives the tale a Gothic-horror treatment, with a bird-like Beast.

Which Australian actress played Belle in ABC's Once Upon a Time?

Emilie de Ravin, Claire on Lost, played Belle opposite Robert Carlyle's Rumplestiltskin, the show's Beast figure.

Rose Daughter (1997) was Robin McKinley's second retelling of the tale; what was the first called?

McKinley won the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown.

Angela Carter's Beauty and the Beast retellings appear in which 1979 story collection?

The Bloody Chamber (1979) contains both 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' and 'The Tiger's Bride', Carter's two reworkings of the tale.

Stevie Nicks's song 'Beauty and the Beast' closes which 1983 album?

The Wild Heart (1983) ends with 'Beauty and the Beast', a piano-and-strings ballad that Nicks said was inspired by Cocteau's film.

Beaumont, who wrote the best-known 1756 version, worked as what before her literary career?

A governess: after moving to London in 1748 she worked as a governess and teacher, and wrote Le Magasin des enfants (1756), the collection with her abridged Beauty and the Beast, for her pupils.

Petrus Gonsalvus, a possible inspiration for the Beast, was notable for which condition?

Hypertrichosis, which covered his face and body in hair; brought to Henry II's court in 1547, he was educated there and later married Catherine, with whom he had several hairy children.

Petrus Gonsalvus was born around 1537 on which island?

Tenerife, in the Canary Islands: Gonsalvus was brought to France as a boy of about ten and raised at the court of Henry II.

Grétry's 1771 opera Zémire et Azor was first performed by the Comédie-Italienne where?

Fontainebleau: the Comédie-Italienne gave the premiere before the court on 9 November 1771, then played it in Paris that December; its coloratura showpiece is 'La Fauvette'.

Which Italian tale in Straparola's Facetious Nights (c.1550) influenced Beauty and the Beast?

'The Pig King' (Il re porco), in which a prince born as a pig marries three sisters in turn, is the Straparola animal-bridegroom tale usually cited as an ancestor of Beauty and the Beast.

Researchers at a university in which city traced the tale's antecedents back about 4,000 years?

Lisbon: Sara Graça da Silva of NOVA University Lisbon, with Durham's Jamshid Tehrani, used phylogenetic methods in 2016 to date the tale type to roughly 4,000 years ago.

Andrew Lang retold Beauty and the Beast in which 1889 collection?

The Blue Fairy Book (1889), the first of Lang's twelve coloured Fairy Books, includes Beauty and the Beast alongside Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin.

The direct-to-video Enchanted Christmas sold how many VHS tapes in 1997?

Its main story is a flashback to Belle and the Beast's first Christmas.

In The Enchanted Christmas, Forte's piccolo minion is named what?

Fife, the nervous piccolo voiced by Paul Reubens, is promised a solo by Forte for sabotaging Belle and the Beast.

The castle's decorator in The Enchanted Christmas was transformed into what?

An angel ornament: Angelique, the castle's former decorator voiced by Bernadette Peters, was transformed into a tree-top angel and has lost faith in Christmas.

Belle's Magical World (1998) was assembled from episodes of what?

A failed TV series: the segments were produced for a planned Beauty and the Beast television series that never aired, then stitched together as the third and final animated film.

In the 1995 series Sing Me a Story with Belle, Belle runs what in her village?

A bookshop: in the live-action Sing Me a Story with Belle she runs a book and music shop where she reads to visiting children and introduces vintage Disney shorts.

Which singer played Belle in ABC's 2022 special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration?

H.E.R. played Belle, with Josh Groban as the Beast, in the hybrid live-action and animated special; Jon M. Chu produced and Hamish Hamilton directed.

The 30th Celebration special marked the anniversary of what milestone?

It aired on ABC on December 15, 2022.

Be Our Guest Restaurant is located in which Magic Kingdom land?

Fantasyland's Be Our Guest resembles the Beast's Castle and opened with the 2012 expansion.

The Disney Renaissance, which Beauty and the Beast helped cement, spanned which years?

1989–1999: the Disney Renaissance runs from The Little Mermaid to Tarzan, ten features that also include Aladdin and The Lion King.

Which Disney film's underperformance made Beauty and the Beast the crucial test of the studio's revival?

Its success confirmed the Disney Renaissance.

Which American actor and opera singer voices Gaston in the 1991 animated film?

Richard White, an operatic baritone and stage actor, voiced Gaston, written as an arrogant hunter embodying hypermasculinity; his first audition was recorded on audio cassette.

Which Disney animator supervised Gaston, the studio's first attempt at a handsome villain?

Andreas Deja supervised Gaston, Disney's first attempt at a conventionally handsome villain; he went on to supervise Jafar and Scar.

Who plays Gaston in the 2017 live-action film?

Luke Evans's Gaston is a swaggering veteran captain of the French army who leads the village mob; Evans had played Bard in The Hobbit films.

Which actor plays the candelabra Lumière in the 2017 film?

Ewan McGregor voiced Lumière with a French accent he admitted was shaky; Ian McKellen played Cogsworth the mantel clock.

Which enchanted object does Audra McDonald play in the 2017 film?

Madame de Garderobe, the wardrobe: McDonald's character is a celebrated opera singer whose composer husband has been turned into a harpsichord.

In which US city was lyricist Howard Ashman born?

Baltimore: Ashman was born there on 17 May 1950, the son of an ice-cream-cone manufacturer, and wrote the lyrics for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid and Aladdin as well as Beauty and the Beast.

How many Tony Awards, including her 2022 lifetime honour, did Angela Lansbury win?

Six: five competitive Tonys for Mame, Dear World, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Blithe Spirit, plus a 2022 Lifetime Achievement Tony; she was made a Dame in 2014.