Villagers from Beauty and the Beast

[TsWade2]

Hey everybody,

I just have a funny feeling about those villagers from Beauty and the Beast. I love the movie, I really do. I've been obsessed about those villagers being mean to Belle and Maurice cause of Gaston. The people called Belle odd and thinks Maurice is crazy. They're always on Gaston's side. The villagers thinks Gaston is a town hero, but in reality he's not. They want to see Gaston married Belle by blackmailing her to send Maurice into the asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him. When Belle reveal them that his father tells the truth that the Beast was real, their still on Gaston's side and lock Belle and Maurice in the cellar so they won't warn Beast. The villagers are useless and total jerks. But I'm sure they don't mean harm or something. Now, here's the difficult part, what happens to them after happily after, did they found out Gaston's death? If they did, what is their reaction? Did they thought Belle and Maurice disappeared? Did they found out that Belle was crown a princess? Did they find out about the prince is really formerly a beast? Does this mean villagers now respect Belle and Maurice now since she becomes royalty?

Thoughts?

[candydog]

Well, in The Enchanted Christmas we see all of the villagers (at least I assume they're the villagers going to the Beast's castle along with others from the kingdom, so I guess they must be happy enough with Belle being with the Prince.

In reality, I think that they should be taken as what they are: nameless one-dimensional characters used to tell the story. And remember, the villagers weren't unkind to Belle really, they just didn't understand her, the villagers we see her talk to are actually quite polite.

I guess it could also be argued that when the villagers attack the castle they weren't doing it as a selfish, evil act, they were misled by Gaston to believe that the Beast had to be killed for their own protection.

[TsWade2]

Well, in The Enchanted Christmas we see all of the villagers (at least I assume they're the villagers going to the Beast's castle along with others from the kingdom, so I guess they must be happy enough with Belle being with the Prince.

In reality, I think that they should be taken as what they are: nameless one-dimensional characters used to tell the story. And remember, the villagers weren't unkind to Belle really, they just didn't understand her, the villagers we see her talk to are actually quite polite.

I guess it could also be argued that when the villagers attack the castle they weren't doing it as a selfish, evil act, they were misled by Gaston to believe that the Beast had to be killed for their own protection.

I suppose that's true. Thanks.

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm assuming they remembered the Beast is their prince at the end after the spell is broken, which is where all the people in the final dancing scene would come from. Also, I suppose you could think the villagers are the ones singing the final chorus of “Beauty and the Beast” at the end.

But part of me thinks that, since Belle never cared about the villagers, we shouldn’t care what happened to them either, which is why they aren‘t given an explicit ending. To me, they're like the stepfamily from Cinderella for this film--nobody cares what happens to them now that they have no longer have the power to demean the protagonist.

Also, I just had this random thought that Belle and Gaston are kind of setup against each other as opposite avenues for the villagers. Without the prince (thanks to the spell), they’re easily mislead into oppressive/stupid behavior when they only have someone like Gaston to look up to. With a proper leader, ie Belle (someone intelligent and open-minded, who can see the good even in a beast), they have their happy ending? I would ignore that, but Belle is very important to the servants' happy ending as well (a wide number of whom we never meet) by transforming the prince into a benevolent ruler, so in a way Belle is key to nearly everyone's happy ending in B&tB.

B&tB is probably the only film other than Sleeping Beauty that seems to put a huge stress on outside onlookers in the story.

[Edthehyena]

Well, if i may say... talking about this...
What is sure : those villagers are, most of the time, visually boring and terribly animated. Love B&B, and i know that movie is the most rewarded and acclaimed of all, but the quality of drawing and animation is far from flawless, and in most of the plans, all the people of the village suck. They have always embarassed me, ruining my 100% adhesion to the whole feature. I said it. End of a taboo

[DisneyFan09]

I've been obsessed about those villagers being mean to Belle and Maurice cause of Gaston. The people called Belle odd and thinks Maurice is crazy. They're always on Gaston's side.

With or without Gaston, they seemed to think that Belle was crazy. Which they were implying in the opening song before Gaston entering the picture.

[Disney Duster]

They want to see Gaston married Belle by blackmailing her to send Maurice into the asylum unless Belle agrees to marry him.

Woah there, they didn't know Gaston was blackmailing Belle into marrying him, and they didn't want him to do that!

[monorail91]

And in New Fantasyland at WDW, Maurice lives back in his cottage in the village and uses a magic mirror the Beast gave him to go visit Belle in the castle. This means Maurice moved back to the village at least, and I'm sure if asked he explained to the villagers what happened to Belle.