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Film 915: Beauty and the Beast

Trivia: Sherri Stoner was used as the model for Belle.

Art director Brian McEntee color keyed Belle so that she is the only person in her town who wears blue. This is symbolic of how different she is from everyone else around. Later, she encounters the Beast, another misfit, also wearing blue. It symbolized good in the film whereas red symbolized evil (the color of Gaston's shirt is red).

Chip originally had only one line, but the producers liked Bradley Pierce's voice so much that extra dialogue and business was written and storyboarded for the character.

The original "cute" character of the movie was a music box, which was supposed to be a musical version of Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But when the character Chip's role was expanded, the music box idea was scrapped. However the music box can be seen for a brief moment on a table next to Lumière just before the fight between the enchanted objects and the villagers in the Beast's castle.

Computer technology was considered for the rooftop fight and the forest chase, but the primitive state of the technology only allowed time to use it for the ballroom scene. Even for that scene, they had a fallback strategy: what they called the "Ice Capades" version, with just a spotlight on the two characters against a black background.

In the French release, Cogsworth's name is Big Ben, after the famous clock in London. The landmark's real name is "The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster", while Big Ben is actually the name of the largest bell in the tower. The clock is seldom referred to by any name other than Big Ben.

The dance between Belle and her Prince in the finale is actually reused animation of the dance between Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty. The original Sleeping Beauty pair had been drawn over to become the new Beauty and the Beast pair, and this was done because they were running out of time during the production of the movie.

Angela Lansbury, the voice of Mrs. Potts, thought that another character would be better suited to sing the ballad "Beauty and the Beast". The director asked her to make at least one recording to have for a back up if nothing else worked, and that one recording ended up in the film.

The smoke seen during the transformation of the Beast to the Prince is actually real smoke, not animated. It was originally used in The Black Cauldron and was re-used for Beauty and the Beast.

Many of paintings on the walls of the castle are undetailed versions of famous paintings by such artists as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Goya.

It was lyricist and executive producer Howard Ashman who came up with the idea of turning the enchanted objects into living creatures with unique personalities.

Glen Keane, the supervising animator on the Beast, created his own hybrid beast by combining the mane of a lion, the beard and head structure of a buffalo, the tusks and nose bridge of a wild boar, the heavily muscled brow of a gorilla, the legs and tail of a wolf, and the big and bulky body of a bear. He also has blue eyes, the one physical feature that does not change whether he is a beast or a human.

Robby Benson's voice was altered by the growls of real panthers and lions so that it is virtually unrecognizable. This is why near the end when the Beast transforms into the prince his voice changes. His voice is also not changed on the original motion picture soundtrack.

The majority of the sculptures seen in the castle are different earlier versions of the Beast.

Scheduling conflicts with Star Trek: The Next Generation forced Patrick Stewart to turn down the role of Cogsworth.

When Paige O'Hara was auditioning, a bit of her hair flew in her face and she tucked it back. The animators liked this so they put it in the movie.

Until Disney-Pixar's Up was nominated in 2010, this was the only animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Rupert Everett auditioned for the role of Gaston, but was told by the directors he didn't sound arrogant enough. He remembered this when he voiced Prince Charming in Shrek 2.

HIDDEN MICKEY: There's a hidden classic Mickey in the 'Mob Song' when Gaston and Co. are chopping down the tree. The Mickey is located after the tree's chopped down - there are 3 droplets of water that form an upside-down classic Mickey head. Also, a trio of stones by the roots to the left of the cottage at the beginning form an upside-down vision of the symbol.