Beauty and the Beast (1991) - 16 questions

Question: When the objects attack the villagers, and the villagers all run away in fear, wouldn't they wonder afterwards what happened to Gaston, since if he 'did' kill the Beast, why did he never come back? Also wouldn't they be surprised to see Belle and Maurice riding towards the castle considering the last time they saw the two of them, they were locked in their cellar?

Answer: The villagers would have learned what happened to Gaston but it isn't traditional in Disney movies to show the 'aftermath' of the villain's death, as the movies always finish on a happier note (Belle and Adam's party.) It may have surprised some of them to see Belle and her father but it is more probable that they are already too distracted by the strange happenings in the castle.

Question: Why doesn't Gaston go off with one of the three blond women who fancy him instead of chasing after Belle, who he can see is not interested in his advances?

Answer: Either he only wants what he can't have (Belle) or the women who fancy him are not the type he would consider suitable as his wife and the mother of his children.

Question: The timing of the Beast's curse has always confused me. The movie states he has until the rose wilts completely to break the spell, and that said rose will bloom until his twenty first year. So was the Beast's deadline his 21st birthday or would the rose begin to wilt on his 21st birthday and he would then have only a little under a year (judging from how much time appears to pass in the film) till all the petals fell off?

Answer: I would assume it would be until his 21st birthday, as that is really the 21st year since his birth. After his 21st birthday he'd be older then 21.

Question: On the double-disc special edition there's a game called Break the Spell. It says that it runs over from disc one to disc two and you need a code to get to the second disc part. The code is star-moon-cloud and that's all very well and good, but where is the game on disc two? It's not a solely computer part cos the laptop isn't picking it up and I can't find it on disc two. There's three stained glass windows; Cogsworth and Lumiére, Chip, and Mrs. Potts and I've clicked on all of them and can't find the second part of the game. Help?

Answer: With the three stained glass windows there is also another option, which is the red rose. Upon clicking it a few times the Beast will not allow you to enter, but if you are persistent and keep clicking on the rose he'll let you in eventually.

Question: Does Chip really have as many siblings as there are cups in the kitchen? Seems a bit too many, and also they aren't seen as real children at the end of the movie.

Answer: The servants in the castle are transformed into enchanted objects because of the spell, but there are still plenty of other objects in the castle which were not originally people.

Question: Why, at the end, does Cogsworth try to make it out like he was the one who said that Belle was going to be the one to break the spell, when both he and the audience know that Lumiere actually said that?

Answer: Because he a Lumiere have a bit of a "friendly" rivalry. He's either teasing Lumiere or genuinely trying to take credit for it to spite him.

Question: In the West Wing, the Beast covers the rose and says "Do you realize what you could have done?" to Belle. What would have happened if she had touched the rose?

Answer: She could have inadvertently knocked more petals off, giving the beast less time to break his curse.

Question: Why do Gaston and his mob proceed to enter the castle, when it is clear from the looks on their faces that they are a little confused and suspicious as to why a bunch of objects just happen to be lining the entrance hall?

Answer: Because they're there for the beast. They aren't just going to turn back simply because some stuff was out of place.

Question: To anyone who's seen the Broadway musical: are the Beast and the Prince played by two different people? It seems that it would be difficult to execute the transformation scene that quickly on stage.

Answer: SPOILER ALERT. DO NOT READ THIS ANSWER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW. It is the same actor. Not to spoil the magic, but they figure out a way to have the Beast onstage and in costume, send him into the air and have the transformation done in the blink of an eye. The way they do it, they couldn't change the actor if they wanted to. He never disappears from view. One thing to be aware of, though, is that during the fight with Gaston, you don't get a really good look at the Beast. That's because his makeup is already off. Can't really say more than that, as I do not know the tricks of the trade. The effect is astonishing.

Question: What happened to Belle's mother? And where are the beast's parents, the king and queen?

Answer: It's never explained, but we're to assume they are dead. In the case of Belle the absence of the mother is a typical plot scenario for Disney heroines, i.e. Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, etc., but is never explained.

Question: What is that castle seen in the beginning? It can't be the beast's castle before it's cursed, because it has stained glass decorations of the night the prince became a beast. It can't be the castle during or after the curse, because it looks nothing like it.

Answer: It is the beast's castle before the curse. The stained glass windows were added as foreshadowing.

Question: In the song "Be Our Guest" what do they say after "Course by course, one by one, till you shout" I can never quite understand it.

Answer: From the lyrics this is what it reads "'Til you shout, "Enough! I'm done!. Then we'll sing you off to sleep as you digest. Tonight you'll prop your feet up. But for now, let's eat up" then it goes into the chorus again.

Question: If the beast was a young boy when he was turned into a beast, why is it the portrait of him he tears up looks like he does at the end of the film?

Answer: "Boy" is a rather broad term, and it can refer to someone who is grown but has not quite reached full manhood.

Question: Were all of the enchanted objects once people or are they just that, enchanted objects?

Answer: They were people, the staff of the castle, and are turned back to their human forms at the end of the film.

Question: When the Beast lets Belle go and she goes back home with her sick father, and "proves" to the village that there really is a Beast via the magic mirror, and Gaston and his posse invade the Beast's castle - How did the anthropomorphic objects and the Beast know that Belle didn't *send* Gaston to kill the Beast? I mean, we know Belle hates Gaston, but the objects and Beast don't know that. For all they know, Belle could have said to Gaston, "There's this beast, and he was keeping me in his castle, and he thinks I like him but I've been faking it."

Answer: I think the simplest answer is that they trust her. Belle showed what kind of a person she was when she volunteered to take her father's place as a prisoner, and also when she returned to the castle with the wounded Beast instead of running away. Plus, the Beast voluntarily released her, and he did treat her kindly most of the time. I think suspecting her of a hidden hatred that would result in sending people to attack the castle would be kind of a stretch.

Question: When Gaston is rounding up townspeople to attack the castle, he says, "We'll rid the village of this Beast." The castle is on mountains and apparently far away from town, so why would he say that (besides the way to scare the women into wanting the beast gone)?

Answer: He hates the Beast because Belle likes the Beast. Therefore, even though Gaston knows the Beast is no threat, he wants him destroyed anyway. The townspeople will do anything Gaston says.