Beauty and the Beast Discussion

[Disney Duster]

The picture with the script didn't show up for me.

[JeanGreyForever]

I transcribed the text for you

In the next script, Gen LeRoy added a lot of new characters and situations. Grefoyle, "a wise and powerful wizard," changes Anton, one of three royal brothers, into a beast for poisoning his older brother, Albert, to gain the throne. Christian, the good-hearted youngest prince, succeeds and is betrothed to Belle. The inept wizard, Lurk is assigned to watch over them when Grefoyle dies.

This Belle is a tomboy and a practical joker. Christian wins her heart but their idyll is interrupted when Anton takes possession of both halves of a mysterious heart-shaped stone. With its power, he turns Christian into the Beast and assumes his younger brother's appearance. He turns Lurk into a mouse and the household staff into animals, insects, and objects. He recruits henchmen by changing vultures and sharks into humans.

After Belle rescues Beast from Anton's dungeon, they fight the usurper together. When he falls of a cliff, the spell on everyone but Christian is broken, he is doomed to remain a Beast forever. He frees Belle from their betrothal, but she stays with him. Although his appearance is described as "vile," she tells him, "I've become very fond of your furry face....You're like a big, cuddly cat." Her love enables him to return to his proper form; they wed and live happily ever after.

[Disney Duster]

Oh, thanks for taking the time to do that! I liked the beginning until Anton got the stone. That was one wacky, stupid script!

[JeanGreyForever]

You're welcome!

It really was lol. Something tells me this BATB wouldn't have become the first animated feature to be nominated at the Oscars for Best Picture if we're really being honest with ourselves here. Thank goodness, Jeffrey Katzenberg had the sense to shoot this script down.

At the very least, we've got an alternative name for the Beast for those who don't believe Adam is his real name.

[Disney Duster]

There is no way that version of BatB would be nominated for Best Picture. I don't think Alan Menken or Howard Ashman would want to be a part of it either. I had no idea we owe it to Katzenburg for saving us from such a thing.

[Farerb]

In my opinion Katzenberg knew how to look at films as a whole and to tell when something fit and when it didn't. He's a jerk but at least he knew what he was doing.

[Disney's Divinity]

In my opinion Katzenberg knew how to look at films as a whole and to tell when something fit and when it didn't. He's a jerk but at least he knew what he was doing.

I’ve never disliked Katzenberg as much as other members have in the past. I dislike Eisner and Lasseter, and to a lesser extent Iger, much more.

I remember reading an article about another man involved at Disney who died a little bit before Katzenberg left Disney, who had always played a somewhat peacekeeper role between Eisner and Katzenberg. I can’t remember what his name was. You can only wonder how different things would’ve been if both he and Ashman had lived longer.

[Farerb]

In my opinion Katzenberg knew how to look at films as a whole and to tell when something fit and when it didn't. He's a jerk but at least he knew what he was doing.

I’ve never disliked Katzenberg as much as other members have in the past. I dislike Eisner and Lasseter, and to a lesser extent Iger, much more.

I remember reading an article about another man involved at Disney who died a little bit before Katzenberg left Disney, who had always played a somewhat peacekeeper role between Eisner and Katzenberg. I can’t remember what his name was. You can only wonder how different things would’ve been if both he and Ashman had lived longer.

You're talking about Frank Wells, he was the President of the Disney Company and he died in a helicopter crash in 1994. His death was what eventually led to Katzenberg quiting/being fired because he wanted Wells' job but Eisner and Roy Disney didn't want to give it to him. Frank Wells has a dedication at the end of the end credits of The Lion King.

Frank Wells and Howard Ashman did play a huge part in the success of the Renaissance and had they lived maybe Disney might have not gone through their post Renaissance era with lesser films and they might have continued being the top studio for animation. Who knows? Maybe even prevent the death of hand drawn animation.

[JeanGreyForever]

Another interesting early draft reveals that Belle and her family would have been situated in Germany which is an interesting change of setting from France. BTW, this blog by Disney production designer Hans Bacher has some great stuff for anyone who hasn't checked it out before, including early artwork for BATB and the more European tone they were initially going for.

https://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/20 ... auty-nr-1/

I remember the story was a lot different then. DON HAHN, the producer, described to me how he saw beauty’s father riding from the black forest ( in southern germany ), where they lived, to a small harbour town in the normandy ( northern france ), where he was supposed to pick up some goods they were arriving with a ship. well, I tried to explain some minor geographical distance problems. in his typical ‘don-hahn-humor’ he calmed me down, that these little details didn’t really matter, I was just too german accurate. I understood what he meant when I finally saw the film. anyway, during my stay we exchanged a lot of story ideas, like the opening of the film and the ‘magic rose’.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, farerb, I agree.

I actually had discovered that guy's blog a while back JeanGrey! He is indeed a great source to know more about how Beauty and the Beast came to be.

[Farerb]

I just learned that Belle, The Beast and Chip were presenters at the 64th Academy Awards ceremony.

https://youtu.be/Cktl6oVT9Sw

[Disney Duster]

That's super cool. Only Snow White and Beauty and the Beast have had such special animated in-person presenting at the Academy Awards. Snow White actually appeared in-person twice...

[nomad2010]

I just learned that Belle, The Beast and Chip were presenters at the 64th Academy Awards ceremony.

https://youtu.be/Cktl6oVT9Sw

I love how you can clearly tell yet again this is how Belle and Beast should look color wise. Dark brown hair on Belle, lots of contrast on the Beasts fur variations. The dress not being bright Big Bird yellow. Cracks me up we’re still stuck with this awful restoration.

Either way, very cool to see this, and the animation is lovely.

[Disney's Divinity]

I've never been fond of the restoration either... I've always wondered if both this and Cinderella (which, admittedly, is much worse) were brightened for the sake of appealing to the little girls who love DPs? But if that was the reason, why wouldn't they do the same to all the princess films? I've always been worried something like that might happen to TLM--and the Platinum did make her tail almost neon green, but thankfully the Diamond/Signature weren't like that at all.

[JeanGreyForever]

I love how you can clearly tell yet again this is how Belle and Beast should look color wise. Dark brown hair on Belle, lots of contrast on the Beasts fur variations. The dress not being bright Big Bird yellow. Cracks me up we’re still stuck with this awful restoration.

Either way, very cool to see this, and the animation is lovely.

Completely agree. It's a shame we've been stuck with revisionist colors for nearly three decades now.

That's super cool. Only Snow White and Beauty and the Beast have had such special animated in-person presenting at the Academy Awards. Snow White actually appeared in-person twice...

Didn't Woody and Buzz appear as well?

[Disney Duster]

Oh, I don't know about Woody and Buzz. Can anyone enlighten me?

[JeanGreyForever]

They've appeared at least twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuLabmyUxQQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LsGJvg3hfU

There's also when Jessie won the Patsy Montana Award.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hz_nwC11mo

[Farerb]

There is also one with Chicken Little and that Ugly Duckling...

[D82]

There's a thread dedicated to appearances by Disney characters at the Academy Awards. In this post by Sotiris you can find a lot of these appearances. I had never seen some of them, like the first of Mickey and Donald or the one of the A Bug's Life characters, and I had forgotten about others.

[Disney Duster]

Wow I was way wrong about who got to present at the oscars.