Continuity mistake: When Maurice arrives at the castle and loses his hat, the bricks the hat is over change between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the slightly changed version with the song 'Human Again' added, when Cogworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip etc. are talking about there being "Something there that wasn't there before...", just after the "Something There" song, In this scene Chip's chip is in the left side of his cup. It is meant to be in the right. (00:53:35)
Continuity mistake: When Maurice is being chased by the wolves, he runs up to the gates of the Beast's castle and grabs the bars. You can see in a wideshot that he is holding the bars around the area of the patterned strip of the gate. However when it cuts to a closer view, and he pushes the gates open, he isn't holding the patterned strip of the gate, but just the normal bars. (00:12:35)
Continuity mistake: When Belle talks to the baker during the 'Provincial Life' song, the book in her hand flips between shots - watch the spine of the book - it swaps sides. (00:03:45)
Continuity mistake: When Belle is walking home with her book and goes up a wheelbarrow, the sacks of flour on the wheelbarrow move closer together between shots.
Continuity mistake: During the song "Gaston", Lefou throws a lot of eggs in the air, but very few come back down.
Continuity mistake: When Gaston and Lefou are talking to the man in the bar, Gaston throws the bag of gold to the lantern's right. However, when this man says, "So you want me to throw her father into the asylum?", the bag is now on the lantern's left.
Continuity mistake: When Lumiere and Belle go into the dining room before the 'Be our Guest' song, in a wide shot when Lumiere says "Ma chere mademoiselle," you can see by the left wall there is a stone statue of a bird. However when it cuts to the following closeup of him, the statue has gone. (00:36:40)
Continuity mistake: In the "Be Our Guest" number, Mrs. Potts notices a large spot of dirt on her side. Then when the napkins wipe her, you can see the one large spot of dirt had turned into three small spots of dirt. (00:39:05)
Continuity mistake: When Gaston comes to Belle's house to propose to her, you can notice that he leaves the door open, but when he backs Belle against it, the door has magically shut. It is definitely the same door - note the items surrounding the door, and the door itself are all the same. (00:17:05 - 00:17:50)
Continuity mistake: When Gastons mob start to bang the front doors with the tree trunk, in one shot of them banging, the door handles are gone. Then two shots later they've returned. (01:10:55)
Continuity mistake: When Belle is coming to the West Wing there is a big statue of a monster with its mouth open very near the door. When Belle is shown running out of the West Wing later, this statue has disappeared.
Audio problem: In the first shot of Gaston losing his balance, he cries "Woah, ah" or something, but his lips don't move.
Audio problem: Gaston throws his metal beer mug into the fire, and we hear the smash of glass.
Continuity mistake: After Belle lets Mrs. Potts in and walks backwards into the wardrobe, the panelled wall is bare. Then in a later wide shot when the wardrobe says "We all think so." there is a wall candelabra in between two panels which then disappears again later, when the wardrobe opens her doors and the moths flutter out. (00:30:20 - 00:31:10)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film the Beast smashes through the glass window and a lot of it lands on the balcony. When Belle is with the wounded Beast, the glass has vanished.
Continuity mistake: When Belle is in her bedroom at the castle for the first time, Mrs Potts and Chip come in to give Belle a cup of tea. There is tea in Chip when Belle drinks but as the camera closes in on Chip there is no tea. Then as Chip bounces out of the door tea comes spilling out.
Continuity mistake: After the scene where Chip bursts into the cellar, there is a wide shot of outside of the castle as the villagers get beaten up in which the windows next to the doors are gigantic. In other scenes, the windows are nowhere near that big.
Continuity mistake: When Lumiere and Cogsworth are following Belle, they open a door and run into a tower. The shape of the bolt at the bottom of the door changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: For most of the scene where Maurice is sitting by the fire, the chair he is on is over the checkered part of the carpet. However, when the Beast enters the room and growls "Who are you? What are you doing here?" two of the legs are over the red part of the carpet.
Answer: In the prologue, it states that the Beast must find true love by his 21st birthday, and that he had been cursed for ten years, so since his relationship with Belle takes place as the deadline approaches, he must have been 10 when he was cursed.