225 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.

Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished work in progress at which festival?

The New York Film Festival showed it on 29 September 1991 with storyboards and pencil tests filling the unfinished scenes, and the audience still gave it a standing ovation.

Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney animated feature to have what finished before storyboarding began?

A complete screenplay came first: Linda Woolverton's script was written before the artists began storyboarding, reversing the studio's habit of working the story out in drawings.

Which two films were Disney's only Best Picture nominees before Beauty and the Beast?

Mary Poppins and Dead Poets Society were the studio's only earlier nominees, both live-action; Dead Poets Society counts because Disney released it under its grown-up Touchstone label.

Which film musical later matched Beauty and the Beast's record of three Best Original Song nominations?

Dreamgirls earned three Best Original Song nominations in 2007 and lost all three to a song from the climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

In the 1991 film, how does Belle win her father's release from the Beast's dungeon?

She takes his place: Belle offers to stay as the Beast's prisoner forever if her ailing father goes free, and the startled Beast accepts.

Which song was cut from Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast, then restored with new animation in 2002?

Human Again, a long number for the castle's servants, was dropped during production, revived for the 1994 Broadway show and finally animated for the 2002 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 actress beat about 500 hopefuls to become the voice of Belle in 1991?

Paige O'Hara got the call on her birthday, after five auditions; the filmmakers had 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 recorded his scenes standing beside his co-star rather than alone, an unusual and costlier set-up that she later credited for the pair's chemistry.

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

An American bison: the Beast's lead animator spotted a stuffed buffalo head in a taxidermist's shop and kept it on his wall, struck by the sad, heavy way the animal hangs its head.

Which actor voiced Lumière, the French-accented candelabra?

Jerry Orbach, a Broadway veteran, pitched the candelabra's accent partly on the amorous cartoon skunk Pepé Le Pew, and he sang 'Be Our Guest' himself.

As well as voicing Cogsworth, David Ogden Stiers did which other job on Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

Narrated the prologue: David Ogden Stiers opens the film as its storyteller, then plays the fussy clock, a part he won only after auditioning for the candelabra and losing.

In Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Gaston's tavern song boasts that he uses what in all of his decorating?

Antlers cover the tavern walls, and the line is one of a string of boasts his cronies sing back at him to cheer him up after Belle turns him down.

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 returns without him, Belle rides it back to the Beast's castle.

Which actor, rejected as Gaston for not sounding arrogant enough, later voiced Prince Charming in Shrek 2?

Rupert Everett was told he did not sound arrogant enough for Gaston; years later he made the vain Prince Charming of the Shrek sequels as arrogant as he could.

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

Pixar built the system with Disney years before the two made Toy Story; it let artists scan their drawings and paint them digitally, which made hand-painted cels obsolete.

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.

On first release, Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to pass which US box-office milestone?

$100 million had been out of reach for animated features on first release: the record, set by Disney only two years earlier, was $84 million, and this film left it far behind.

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

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy went to an animated film for the first time in January 1992, a win Disney's marketers credit with waking Oscar voters up to it.

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

Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion sing the pop version over the end credits, and the pair performed it at the 1992 Oscars on the night the song won.

At the 1993 Grammys, Beauty and the Beast's pop duet lost Record and Song of the Year to which track?

Tears in Heaven, the ballad Eric Clapton wrote after the death of his young son, won both Record and Song of the Year, so the Disney duet settled for a pop-vocal award instead.

Alan Menken won two Oscars apiece for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and which later Disney film?

Pocahontas won Alan Menken both the score Oscar and, for 'Colors of the Wind', the song Oscar in 1996, his seventh and eighth Academy Awards in just seven years.

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 stepped in because the film's lyricist, Howard Ashman, had died in 1991; he had already finished Ashman's incomplete lyrics for Aladdin.

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

Bill Condon set off a row weeks before release by saying LeFou would have a brief 'gay moment' on screen, then called the fuss overblown.

Which actor played the Beast opposite Emma Watson in 2017?

Dan Stevens acted every scene twice: once on set in a heavy grey motion-capture suit, and again later with his face sprayed with dots so cameras could record each expression.

Who played LeFou, Gaston's sidekick, in the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

Josh Gad, the voice of Olaf in Frozen, played the sidekick, who in this version finally sees through Gaston and changes sides in the middle of the battle for the castle.

Which 2017 film outgrossed Disney's Beauty and the Beast remake?

The Last Jedi, the Star Wars sequel released that December, was the only 2017 film to pass the remake's $1.26 billion, which had been the year's best total since the spring.

Which country's censors demanded a 'gay moment' be cut from Beauty and the Beast in 2017, prompting Disney to delay it?

Malaysia's censors asked for the scene to be removed; Disney refused to edit the film and postponed its release there rather than show a censored version.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, which villager lends Belle his few precious books?

The chaplain keeps a couple of dozen books in his chapel and urges Belle to borrow them; in the 1991 film she gets her reading from a bookseller instead.

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.

Beauty and the Beast is thought to descend from which ancient love story in the Latin novel The Golden Ass?

Cupid and Psyche, the tale inside Apuleius's second-century novel, sends a bride to an unseen husband she is told is a monster, and scholars trace the fairy tale back to it.

In the classic 1756 telling of Beauty and the Beast, a fairy turns Beauty's envious sisters into what?

Statues: the fairy sets the two sisters at the palace gate, still able to think, to watch Beauty's happiness until they own up to their faults.

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

Linda Hamilton played lawyer Catherine Chandler for two seasons; when she left, the character was killed off and a profiler investigating her murder became the new female lead.

In Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Tim Curry voices which villain?

Forte, a pipe organ, is the one servant who likes the curse: the Beast finally appreciates his gloomy music, so he schemes to keep Belle and his master apart.

In the prologue of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, what does the old beggar woman offer the prince for shelter?

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 watched the first storyboard reels in 1989, told the team it was 'not going in the right direction', and ordered the film restarted as a musical.

In Disney's 2007 film Enchanted, Belle's original voice actress has a cameo as what?

A soap-opera character named Angela is her brief part; the film, a send-up of Disney's fairy tales, also found small roles for the voices of two other animated heroines.

Which film did the 2017 Beauty and the Beast overtake to become the top-grossing live-action musical?

Mamma Mia! had held the record for nine years, and the remake needed only ten days in cinemas to pass its worldwide total.

Which actress made her Broadway debut as the original Belle in Beauty and the Beast in 1994?

Susan Egan earned a Tony nomination for the part, though she had not seen the film when she auditioned and was keener on other shows she was up for.

Which room of his castle does the Beast give Belle?

The library, with shelves from floor to ceiling, is the gift he hopes will please a book-lover whose neighbours think her odd for reading.

Walt Disney twice shelved Beauty and the Beast because which part of the story would not work?

The second half, with the heroine shut inside the castle, beat his story team in both the 1930s and the 1950s; they found it too claustrophobic to dramatise.

Who produced Beauty and the Beast (1991)?

Don Hahn was producing his first film, and recalled being horrified when the studio's chairman rejected nine months of early work and made the team start again.

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.

In Beauty and the Beast, the grown-up Gaston sings that he eats five dozen of what?

Eggs: as a boy he ate four dozen every morning to help him 'get large', and now he eats five dozen, which he says makes him 'roughly the size of a barge'.

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.

In the classic 1756 telling, what do Beauty's sisters rub on their eyes to fake tears at her leaving?

An onion does the trick: the two envious sisters force out tears as Beauty leaves for the Beast's palace, while she alone parts from her family without crying.

Which singer from Disney's previous animated hit was first considered for the role of Belle?

Jodi Benson, the singing voice of that earlier film's heroine, auditioned and says the choice came down to her and one other singer, whom she phoned the night before to wish luck.

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, by one account, the voice the writers had in mind for the fussy clock and turned it down; the part went to an American, David Ogden Stiers of M*A*S*H.

Which actress was considered for Mrs. Potts before Angela Lansbury was cast?

Julie Andrews was the studio's early idea for the motherly teapot and, by one account, turned it down before the part went to Angela Lansbury.

While voicing Mrs. Potts, Angela Lansbury was also starring in which long-running TV mystery series?

Murder, She Wrote was still in production, so she recorded the teapot's lines during breaks from playing the amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher.

In which format did Beauty and the Beast return to cinemas in 2012, twenty-one years after its debut?

3D was the draw: the hand-drawn film was converted for a 2012 cinema reissue, ten years after an earlier return to the big screen in IMAX.

A stage show of Beauty and the Beast opened at which Florida theme park on the film's own release day?

Disney-MGM Studios, now Disney's Hollywood Studios, opened the show on 22 November 1991; a small team of animators based at the same park had worked on the film.

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

Sleeping Beauty: with the deadline close, the animators traced the 1959 dance of Aurora and Prince Phillip for Belle and her prince's last scene, which the directors called the quickest way to finish.

Which software helped create the computer-generated ballroom in Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

RenderMan turned the computer model of the ballroom into finished images, and the scene's success helped persuade Disney's executives to invest further in computer animation.

At the end of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Mrs. Potts's son asks if he must still sleep where?

In the cupboard is where a teacup belongs, so the boy's worry, voiced just after the spell breaks, gets the film's final laugh.

Which song was written late in production to replace a longer number for the castle's servants?

Something There was written quickly as a simple love song for Belle and the Beast, taking the place of a far more elaborate ensemble number that had been cut.

The title song of Disney's Beauty and the Beast was originally conceived in which musical style?

Rock was the first idea, and the demo's style made Angela Lansbury doubt she was the right singer; it was reworked into the gentle ballad heard in the film.

In the closing credits of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the tribute to Howard Ashman says he gave a beast what?

His soul: the dedication thanks the lyricist, who died eight months before the film opened, as the man 'who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul'.

Where does Gaston have Belle and her father locked up while he leads the mob to the castle?

In their cellar, so that they cannot warn the Beast; a small stowaway from the castle breaks them out with one of the old man's own inventions.

In the classic fairy tale, what does the Beast ask Beauty every evening after supper?

To marry him: each night he asks 'Will you be my wife?', each night she gently refuses, and only when she finds him dying of grief does she finally say yes.

Which comedian voiced the Wardrobe in Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

Jo Anne Worley, a television regular since the Merv Griffin Show, gave the Wardrobe her booming voice and returned for the Christmas sequel six years later.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast went on general release in November 1991 on the same day as which animated film?

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West opened the same day and finished with about $22 million in US cinemas, roughly a seventh of what the Disney film went on to take.

Which American Idol winner recorded a new version of the title song for the film's 2010 re-release?

Jordin Sparks recorded the song and its video for the 2010 Blu-ray release, and also hosted a sing-along edition of the film in cinemas that autumn.

In his tavern song in Beauty and the Beast, Gaston declares that he is 'especially good at' what?

Expectorating is a grand word for spitting, and he proves the boast on the spot by hitting a spittoon dead centre.

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 film was North America's biggest box-office hit of 1991, two places ahead of Beauty and the Beast?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day took about $205 million and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves about $165 million; the hand-drawn musical beat every other 1991 release with about $146 million.

Who accepted the late Howard Ashman's Oscar for the title song of Beauty and the Beast?

His partner, Bill Lauch, collected the award and told the audience it was the first Oscar given to someone lost to AIDS.

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

The Silence of the Lambs swept the five top awards that night even though its studio, Orion, was bankrupt; its campaign chief spent the morning of the ceremony in a bankruptcy meeting.

Which film was the first to match Beauty and the Beast's six Oscar nominations for an animated feature?

WALL-E earned six nominations at the 2009 ceremony but won only Best Animated Feature, a category that did not exist when Beauty and the Beast earned its six.

In the classic fairy tale, what must Beauty lay on a table at bedtime to return to the Beast's palace?

Her ring: the Beast lets her visit her sick father on a promise to come back, and leaving the ring on a table overnight carries her to his palace by morning.

In Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, what does Belle teach the Beast to do?

Skate: the lesson on the frozen castle grounds goes well until the villain has it sabotaged and the pair crash into the snow.

Belle has a brief walk-on in the Disney film about which hero?

Quasimodo sings from the cathedral roof in The Hunchback of Notre Dame while, in the street below, Belle walks by with her nose in a book, just as she does through her own village.

Which star of classic Hollywood did Belle's animators study when designing her European look?

Vivien Leigh, the British star of Gone with the Wind, was a model for Belle's face because the animators wanted a heroine who looked European and a little more mature.

The prologue of Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast tells the prince's story through what kind of images?

Stained-glass windows show the vain prince being cursed, and the film ends on one more, this time showing him restored with Belle at his side.

Disney's marketing team wanted Belle's ballgown to be which colour before it was made gold?

Pink was the marketers' choice, thought likelier to appeal to girls; the filmmakers went for gold so that Belle would stand apart from the earlier princesses.

Which Disney animator supervised the Beast?

Glen Keane sketched zoo animals on his daily walk to work during early development, then studied a big male gorilla at the Los Angeles Zoo that gave him the Beast's menacing presence.

What first name, never spoken in the films, have Disney tie-ins given the Beast's human prince?

Adam appears in a 1998 Disney trivia computer game and on later merchandise, yet Disney's own archive says the prince has no official name.

Which habit of Belle's did the animators borrow from the actress who voiced her?

Brushing hair from her face was a habit the animators spotted on film of the recording sessions; the actress's sisters laughed when they saw it on screen and said, 'That's you!'

In the first Kingdom Hearts game, which villain has Belle seized as one of the seven Princesses of Heart?

Maleficent leads the band of Disney villains hunting the seven Princesses of Heart, whose hearts together open the way to Kingdom Hearts, and Belle is one of the seven.

What complaint did Disney's studio chief make on seeing Gaston's early animation?

Not handsome enough, he said: the story is about not judging by appearances, so its villain had to look like the hero while being completely full of himself.

In an early draft of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the main villain was which relative of Belle?

Her aunt, a snob named Marguerite, schemed to marry Belle off to Gaston, who was then more nuisance than villain; the rewrite dropped her and made him the threat.

What does LeFou's name mean in French?

The Madman is the literal sense of 'le fou', a word French also uses for a fool or a court jester, which is why the name doubles as a pun on the English 'fool'.

In the Beauty and the Beast stage musical, the Wardrobe, a former opera diva, takes which name?

Madame de la Grande Bouche means, roughly, Madame Big Mouth, a joke on the booming voice of a wardrobe who used to be an opera star.

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.

In Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast films, the castle dog turned into a footstool is named what?

Sultan, the castle's pet dog, spends the curse as a footstool and turns back into a dog when the spell breaks; Frank Welker 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 credited as what in Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

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 gave the Beast his bulky arms and body, joined to a lion's mane, a gorilla's brow and a wolf's legs and tail; his animator insisted that only the eyes stay human.

Which future co-director of Lilo & Stitch drafted early Beast designs based on birds, insects and fish?

Chris Sanders, then a story artist, sketched Beasts based on birds, insects and fish before the mammal design won out; he went on to create and voice Stitch.

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

Jo March: Woolverton drew Belle's bookish independence from Katharine Hepburn's Jo in the 1933 Little Women rather than from the celebrated 1946 French film of the fairy tale.

Which pair, including the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, wrote the 2017 remake?

Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos share the credit: Spiliotopoulos wrote the first draft, and Chbosky, who had directed Emma Watson in the film of his own novel, was hired to rewrite it.

Which actress plays Mrs. Potts in the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

Emma Thompson plays Mrs. Potts, the housekeeper turned teapot, and sings the title ballad on the soundtrack as Belle and the Beast share their ballroom dance.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, Belle invents a crude version of which appliance to free up time for reading?

A washing machine: Emma Watson said the remake made Belle an inventor to explain why she never fit in with her village, beyond simply liking books.

With its new songs overlooked, the 2017 Beauty and the Beast earned Oscar nominations in which two categories?

Production Design and Costume Design were its only nominations at the 2018 Oscars; it lost the first to The Shape of Water and the second to Phantom Thread, and went home empty-handed.

Emma Watson turned down a lead role in which musical film in order to play Belle?

La La Land: Watson chose Belle over the role of Mia, which went to Emma Stone and won her an Oscar, while Ryan Gosling passed on playing the Beast to make the same film.

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 Beauty and the Beast?

Idris Elba told People in 2017 that he rang up to ask for a try at Gaston and sang on tape for it, a recording he says has since gone missing.

Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, a trackless ride through the story, opened in 2020 at which Disney park?

Tokyo Disneyland was due to open the ride in April 2020, but the pandemic shut the park and its first guests had to wait until late September.

Which Loire Valley château, known for its double-helix staircase, inspired the Beast's castle in the 2017 film?

Chambord, built as a royal hunting lodge, lent the Beast's castle its forest of turrets; for the ballroom scene the director looked to New York's International Debutante Ball.

The Beast's actor in the 2017 remake performed in a forty-pound grey suit on what?

Stilts lifted the actor inside a forty-pound grey suit for much of the shoot; he learned to waltz on them for the ballroom scene, while his face was captured separately.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, 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 character in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast is a neurotic composer turned into a harpsichord?

Cadenza, played by Stanley Tucci, is a court composer invented for the remake; as a harpsichord his keys are his teeth, so his cavities make him hit the odd sour note.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, which villager rescues Maurice after Gaston leaves him to the wolves?

Agathe, the beggar woman Gaston mocks, saves Maurice and brings him back to the village; at the end she is revealed as the enchantress who cursed the prince.

How did Belle's mother die in the backstory of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

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.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, the footstool Frou-Frou is what breed of dog?

A Yorkshire Terrier, Frou-Frou spends the spell as a stool; when its deadline passes he freezes into lifeless furniture with the other servants, until the curse is lifted after all.

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

'Home', Belle's first-act ballad from the Broadway show, plays as an instrumental when she is shown to her room; none of the songs written for the stage were sung in the film.

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

Ariana Grande and John Legend recorded the end-credits version; in the video she stands in a red gown while dancers circle her to form a rose, and he plays piano in the ballroom.

Who sings 'Evermore' over the closing credits of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Josh Groban recorded 'Evermore' for the closing credits; within the film it is the Beast's own lament, sung just after he sets Belle free to go to her father.

Which actor plays Maurice, Belle's father, in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Kevin Kline plays Maurice, rewritten from the 1991 film's eccentric inventor into a widowed artist; early in the remake he sings a new ballad while remembering his late wife.

How does Gaston die at the end of the 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

He falls from the castle: spared by the Beast, Gaston stabs him in the back while clinging to a balcony, then loses his footing and plunges to his death.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, LeFou's much-debated 'gay moment' is a brief dance with which villager?

Stanley, one of Gaston's three henchmen, ends up dancing with LeFou at the closing ball; the director called the fuss over those few seconds 'overblown'.

Which country gave the 2017 Beauty and the Beast 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.

The Disney+ prequel about Gaston and LeFou, put on hold in 2022, took which title from the opening words of 'Belle'?

Little Town was announced in 2020 to reunite the remake's Gaston and LeFou, with new Alan Menken songs; Disney put it on hold in 2022, and in 2024 its star said 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.

Broadway's original Belle went on to voice which wisecracking Disney heroine in 1997?

Megara, the sardonic heroine of Hercules, went to the same actress while she was still playing Belle; Disney at first would not let her audition, feeling the two characters were too different.

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 in late 1993, after its director lobbied hard for the premiere and even drew in Governor Ann Richards.

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

The Lunt-Fontanne took the show in November 1999, when it left the Palace with a downsized cast, and housed it until the final performance on 29 July 2007.

Broadway's Beauty and the Beast 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 got a song the film never had: 'Me', written for the stage, in which his Gaston proposes to Belle by singing his own praises.

The 1996 CBS ice special of Beauty and the Beast starred which Olympic champion as Belle?

Ekaterina Gordeeva skated Belle opposite Viktor Petrenko's Beast, a year after the death of her husband and pairs partner Sergei Grinkov, with whom she had won two Olympic golds.

The West End production of Beauty and the Beast won which prize at the 1998 Olivier Awards?

Best New Musical went to the West End production at the 1998 Oliviers, the top prize Broadway had withheld: the 1994 Tony for Best Musical went to Sondheim's Passion.

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 of Beauty and the Beast?

Josette Day, on screen since the age of five, played Belle opposite Jean Marais and gave up films for good only four years later, in 1950.

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

Picking a rose from the Beast's garden as a present for Belle is his offence: the Beast appears the moment it is plucked and threatens to kill him for the theft.

In the 1946 French Beauty and the Beast, the Beast will die of grief unless Belle returns 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, the 1946 film's Beast, played which figure of Greek myth for the same director?

Orpheus (1950) moved the myth to modern Paris and cast Marais as a famous poet, four years after the same director had hidden him under the Beast's fur.

In the 1987 CBS series Beauty and the Beast, 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 Beauty and the Beast?

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 of Beauty and the Beast starred which actress as Belle?

Léa Seydoux played Belle opposite Vincent Cassel's Beast in a Franco-German film that goes back to the 1740 tale rather than Disney: Belle is one of six children in a family ruined when its ships are lost.

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 married couple starred in the 1976 Hallmark TV film Beauty and the Beast?

George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere fell in love filming The Last Run in 1971, a thriller in which his then wife, Colleen Dewhurst, also had a part; five years later they were Beast and Beauty.

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 1978 Czechoslovak film Panna a netvor translates literally as what?

'The Virgin and the Monster' is the literal meaning of Panna a netvor, Juraj Herz's 1978 Czechoslovak retelling, which plays the fairy tale as a Gothic horror film.

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.

Which American fantasy author retold Beauty and the Beast twice, in Beauty (1978) and Rose Daughter (1997)?

Robin McKinley's first book, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to; almost twenty years later she returned to the same tale with Rose Daughter.

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

The Bloody Chamber (1979) retells the tale twice: 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' ends with the Beast made human, while 'The Tiger's Bride' ends the other way round, with the heroine becoming a tigress.

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

The Wild Heart (1983) ends with 'Beauty and the Beast', taped in a single three-hour session with grand piano and a full string orchestra; Nicks took the title from the 1946 French film, a favourite of hers.

Beaumont, who wrote the best-known 1756 version of Beauty and the Beast, 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 covered his face and body in hair; sent to Henry II's court as a gift at about ten, he stayed on as a courtier, married, and passed the condition to most of his children.

Petrus Gonsalvus, a possible model for the Beast, was born around 1537 on which of the Canary Islands?

Tenerife was his birthplace, and it stuck: after he was sent to the French court as a boy, he became known across Europe as the 'wild gentleman of Tenerife'.

Grétry's 1771 opera Zémire et Azor moves the Beauty and the Beast story to which setting?

Persia: Azor is a Persian prince trapped in a frightening form. The opera was such a hit that Catherine the Great is said to have named a favourite greyhound Zemira after its heroine.

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.

A 2016 study found the tale behind Beauty and the Beast to be how old?

About 4,000 years: researchers in Durham and Lisbon traced the tale back through the Indo-European language family, far beyond the 16th and 17th centuries such stories were thought to date from.

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

The Blue Fairy Book (1889) set Beauty and the Beast beside Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin; it became a classic, and Lang followed it with eleven more colour-titled collections.

Which bestselling novelist wrote for the 1987 CBS series Beauty and the Beast?

George R. R. Martin spent years hearing that his TV scripts were too big for the budget, so he went back to novels and began A Game of Thrones, a story he thought could never be filmed.

In The Enchanted Christmas, the piccolo who serves the villain is named what?

Fife, the nervous piccolo voiced by Paul Reubens, is promised a solo by his master 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 in a special that mixed the animated film with live numbers; the 1991 voices of Belle and Gaston turned up in cameos as the Bookseller and the Baker.

Which country-pop star played Mrs. Potts in ABC's 2022 special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration?

Shania Twain played Mrs. Potts and sang the title ballad with Alan Menken at the piano, a tribute to Angela Lansbury, who had died two months earlier.

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

Fantasyland's Be Our Guest ended a dry spell as old as the park: in 2012 it became the first Magic Kingdom restaurant to serve alcohol, pouring wine and beer with dinner.

The Disney Renaissance, which Beauty and the Beast helped cement, ended with which film?

Tarzan (1999) is seen in retrospect as the era's last film, and it broke the formula: its directors would not have Tarzan burst into song, so Phil Collins sings the songs as a narrator.

Which Disney animated film underperformed at the box office the year before Beauty and the Beast opened?

The Rescuers Down Under opened in November 1990 on the same day as that season's runaway Christmas comedy, and fell well short of the studio's 1989 hit at the box office.

In Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast, what is the swaggering Gaston by trade?

A hunter: the animated Gaston is the village's prize shot and nothing more, while the 2017 remake keeps the hunting but adds a past as a soldier in the French royal army.

Which Disney animator supervised Gaston in the 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

Andreas Deja supervised Gaston and stayed with the studio's villains, going on to animate Jafar in Aladdin and Scar in The Lion King.

Who plays Gaston in the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

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 Beauty and the Beast?

Ewan McGregor plays Lumière, the castle's maître d' turned candelabra, and leads the remake's 'Be Our Guest', the showstopper served up with Belle's first dinner.

Which enchanted object does Audra McDonald play in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Madame de Garderobe, the wardrobe, is the castle's opera singer; when the villagers attack she fights back by dressing three of Gaston's men in gowns.

Angela Lansbury, the voice of Mrs. Potts, won her first Tony for which musical?

Mame made Lansbury a Broadway star in 1966 and brought her first Tony; four more followed, for Dear World, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Blithe Spirit, and a lifetime award in 2022.

Which future pop star played the teacup Chip in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast as a child?

Nick Jonas was a busy Broadway child actor long before the Jonas Brothers, with Tiny Tim, Little Jake and Gavroche also on his list of roles.

Which Happy Days star originated the role of Belle's father in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast?

Tom Bosley, also a Murder, She Wrote regular, was the most recognisable name in an original cast made up largely of little-known actors.

Which 1980s teen pop star, who topped the charts with 'Foolish Beat', later played Belle on Broadway?

Debbie Gibson stepped into Belle's shoes about a decade after 'Foolish Beat' made her the youngest woman to write, produce and perform a US number-one single.

Broadway's Beauty and the Beast won just one Tony Award in 1994, honouring which part of the show?

Its costumes won the Tony for designer Ann Hould-Ward, who spent a year studying mid-1700s household objects so that actors could become clocks and candlesticks.

Which Sopranos cast member took over as Belle in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast for five months?

Jamie-Lynn Sigler made her Broadway debut as Belle while playing Meadow, the daughter of mob boss Tony Soprano, on HBO.

How was Belle's enormous ballgown stored between performances of the original Broadway Beauty and the Beast?

Hoisted into the rafters on wires, the gown was too big for the leading lady's dressing room and needed a team of backstage crew just to take off.

Which That's So Raven actress was the last Belle when Broadway's Beauty and the Beast closed in 2007?

Anneliese van der Pol made her Broadway debut in the part, playing the final months of a run that had lasted thirteen years.

What name did the stage musical Beauty and the Beast give the maid turned feather duster, unnamed in the 1991 film?

Babette was Linda Woolverton's choice when she expanded the feather duster from a bit part into a full supporting role for the stage.

Gary Beach, Tony-nominated as Lumière in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, later won the award for which musical comedy?

The Producers brought him the 2001 featured-actor Tony as Roger De Bris, a part he went on to repeat in the film version.

Which Stephen Sondheim musical beat Beauty and the Beast to the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1994?

Passion is often described as Sondheim's own version of the same fairy tale, so the 1994 ceremony set two takes on one story against each other.

Which future Hollywood star played Gaston in the original Australian stage production of Beauty and the Beast?

Hugh Jackman followed the swaggering villain with Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, years before he first unsheathed Wolverine's claws on screen.

Which farm animal ends up on Gaston's head when he lands in the mud after Belle rejects his proposal?

A pig sits where his face should be for a moment, a sight gag that turns the handsome suitor into the half-man, half-animal he later hunts.

Which feature of Gaston was settled by a contest among the animators of Disney's Beauty and the Beast?

His chest hair, bared during the tavern number, was so fiercely debated that the animators competed to draw it; early attempts looked oddly combed from the inside out.

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton said she based the blockheaded suitor Gaston on which people from her own life?

Her former boyfriends shaped the vain hunter, who has no counterpart in the old French tale and was invented to give the film a proper villain.

Which 1970s teen idol played Gaston at the final Broadway performance of Beauty and the Beast in 2007?

Donny Osmond first joined the cast as the villain in 2006, and one newspaper columnist judged his turn charmingly campy and declared him divine.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, how does Gaston leave Belle's father to die in the forest?

Tied to a tree and left for the wolves, the old man is saved by the town hermit Agathe, who turns out to be far more than she seems.

What did Disney's animators hide in Gaston's irises as he plunges from the Beast's castle?

Skulls flash by in a blink, drawn in to confirm that the villain really does die from his fall instead of surviving it.

In Disney's Descendants 2, Uma rules the Isle of the Lost with Captain Hook's son Harry and which son of Gaston?

Gil, played by Dylan Playfair, sails in Uma's pirate crew alongside Harry Hook, and he came back for Descendants 3.

The 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast gives the hunter Gaston which new piece of backstory?

A war veteran in this telling, he keeps the hunter's swagger of the animated original but has also served as a soldier in the French Royal Army.

Before becoming a brawny hunter, Gaston was drawn in Disney's early Beauty and the Beast drafts as what?

A foppish aristocrat, weaselly and rather wimpy, was the suitor of the abandoned first version, before the story was rebuilt around a villain with real menace.

Which Simpsons character sings 'See My Vest', a parody of 'Be Our Guest' about his plans for some puppies?

Mr. Burns croons it in the episode Two Dozen and One Greyhounds, where the writers used a jolly show tune as a light way to reveal his scheme for a puppy-skin tuxedo.

Which enchanted object sings the title ballad of Disney's Beauty and the Beast as the couple waltz in the ballroom?

The teapot, Mrs. Potts, sings it for her teacup son Chip, though Angela Lansbury at first feared the ballad did not suit her ageing voice.

Alongside its Oscar for the title song, Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast won which other Academy Award?

Best Original Score went to Alan Menken, whose soundtrack album was also the first from an animated film to be nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.

The male singer of the 1991 Beauty and the Beast pop duet returned to Disney a year later for which song?

A Whole New World, the love theme from Aladdin, was his second Disney duet, and he went on to record a third for the 1997 Christmas sequel.

Belle's defiant reprise of her opening song in Disney's Beauty and the Beast borrows from which classic film musical?

The Sound of Music inspired the staging of the moment, sung just after she turns down a marriage proposal, and her voice actress later confirmed the debt.

What delayed Angela Lansbury's flight on the day she was due to record the title song of Beauty and the Beast?

A bomb threat forced her plane to make an emergency landing in Las Vegas before she could continue on to the recording studio.

The dancing plates and cutlery of 'Be Our Guest' are staged in the style of which Hollywood choreographer?

Busby Berkeley made his name with vast, kaleidoscopic formations of dancers, and animation let Disney take the idea further, free of any limit on what a camera could see.

In 'The Mob Song', Gaston rallies the villagers with a line borrowed from which Shakespeare tragedy?

Macbeth lends the villain a call to courage as he frightens the villagers into believing the creature will kill them, then leads the march on the castle.

Howard Ashman wanted the opening village number of Disney's Beauty and the Beast to play like a full-fledged what?

An operetta was his model for a bustling opener that introduces the heroine and her arrogant suitor in a single sweep, very much in the manner of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Alan Menken called his prologue music for Beauty and the Beast his own version of which classical work?

The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns was his model, a fittingly French inspiration for a fairy tale set in the French countryside.

What does the Beast give Belle as a gift after she nurses his wounds in Disney's Beauty and the Beast?

The castle library seals their friendship, and Belle's voice actress, a book lover herself, called the scene one of the fastest she ever recorded.

Belle broke with tradition as the first Disney princess to be drawn with which hair colour?

Brown hair was new for a Disney princess, and her habit of brushing loose strands from her face was copied from her voice actress and her live-action model.

The art director of Disney's Beauty and the Beast made Belle the only villager dressed in which colour?

Blue marks her out as an outsider among her neighbours, and the Beast later wears it too, a quiet sign that the two belong together.

Emma Watson refused to wear which period garment as Belle in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

A corset would have restricted her movement, so Watson's Belle went without and wore riding boots as well, to keep the heroine active.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, an enchanted book carries Belle and the Beast to her childhood home in which city?

Paris was where she lived as an infant, and what the pair find in her old home finally explains why her father took her away.

Which Disney heroine did Emma Watson turn down playing before she accepted the role of Belle?

Cinderella was offered to her for Kenneth Branagh's live-action film, but Watson declined because she did not connect with the character.

In ABC's Once Upon a Time, which fairy-tale figure takes the Beast's place as Belle's love interest?

Rumplestiltskin is the show's version of the Beast, and in its retelling he even turns her fiancé Gaston into a flower.

Linda Woolverton objected when a scene of Belle choosing travel destinations on a map was redrawn to show what?

Baking a cake struck the screenwriter as wrong for so independent a heroine, so she proposed the activity that came to define the character: reading a book.

Which Hollywood actress posed as Belle in Annie Leibovitz's Disney Dream Portrait series of celebrity photographs?

Penélope Cruz was paired with Jeff Bridges as her beastly partner in a 2011 photograph shot for a Disney Parks advertising campaign.

In the Kingdom Hearts video games, Belle belongs to which group of seven heroines sought by the villains?

Princesses of Heart are heroines whose hearts hold no darkness at all, which is exactly why the antagonists of the games see them as a danger.

Which part of the castle does the Beast forbid Belle to enter in Disney's 1991 Beauty and the Beast?

The West Wing hides the enchanted flower that counts down his curse; when she slips inside and nearly touches it, his rage sends her fleeing into the woods.

Which enchanted object is the Beast's only window on the outside world in Disney's Beauty and the Beast?

A magic mirror shows him whatever he asks to see, and it is how Belle later learns that her father is in trouble.

Which physical feature of Disney's Beast stays exactly the same when he turns back into a human prince?

His eyes were the single feature his lead animator insisted must remain human, so they look the same in both of his forms.

In Disney's Descendants films, what is the name of Belle and the Beast's teenage son, the newly crowned king?

Ben, played by Mitchell Hope, sets the story going by inviting the children of four notorious villains to attend school in his kingdom.

In the extended edition of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Belle teaches the Beast to read using which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet turns up in a restored musical sequence in which the household staff do all the singing while the two leads share a book.

Which ballad did the stage musical Beauty and the Beast add to give the Beast a solo closing the first act?

If I Can't Love Her exists because he barely sings in the animated film; the 2017 remake nearly reused it before its writers chose to compose a new solo instead.

Which French actor, also seen in Black Swan, played the Beast in the 2014 French film Beauty and the Beast?

Vincent Cassel plays a prince whose obsession with hunting brings the curse down on him, in a film that returns to the 1740 French tale instead of Disney's version.

Which British actor played the cursed teenager in Beastly, the 2011 modern-day retelling of Beauty and the Beast?

Alex Pettyfer spent most of the film bald, scarred and heavily tattooed, a transformation that took 67 separate make-up pieces to achieve.

In the original 1740 tale of Beauty and the Beast, who transforms the prince after he refuses to marry her?

His fairy guardian, left to raise him while his mother was away at war, proposed once he was grown and cursed him in a rage when he said no.

In the stage musical Beauty and the Beast, Belle reads the Beast a story about which legendary figure?

King Arthur was the choice in the songwriters' original demo too, though the animated film's restored reading scene uses a different book.