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After ten years, I've finally found my old Belle and the Beast: The New Adventures comic book!



It contains five stories that serve as a "prequel" to Beauty and the Beast and I always loved reading it before I'd read the actual BATB comic book. I'm not sure how much the original filmmakers/story team had in the development of the stories (several are credited in the "Special Thanks"), but the five stories are really good! Of course, it probably has more to do with my nostalgia and sentimentality for the stories rather than their actual quality. But re-reading them again after all these years, it felt like it was the actual backstory to Beauty and the Beast. And, just like the movie, they never mention Beast's name of Adam. It would have been cool if it was mentioned in these stories, as it would have some canonical value.

There are five stories, each one 8 pages long except the last, which is 16 pages. I'll try to upload all of them this weekend, but for now, enjoy the first story in the next post!

"Bewitched" - after one of the Beast's rages, Chip asks the others why Beast is so pissy. Lumiere and Cogsworth talk about when Beast and company first arrived in the town and their coach almost hits an old woman, as well as a hunting event from his youth where a crow swerves down at him, causing him to miss shooting a mother deer with her fawn. In addition to seeing just how rotten Beast was in his pre-enchantment, we also see that he was a serious student and very kind to Chip.

"Bothered" - Maurice is tinkering with a truffle-finding machine that includes the family pig, Pierre. Belle is upset that all the boys in their town are...boys. None of them have the intellect she wants to have a conversation with, they just want to roughhouse and play. Three boys "kidnap" Belle whilst she's walking through town and lock her in a dungeon (they're playing pirates). However, before she can be set free, a bear scares them away. She's later found by Maurice and Pierre, who were searching for truffles.

"Bewildered" - Beast is listening to Music Box when Lumiere and Cogsworth decide to try to teach Beast about dancing and reading poetry again. Beast struggles with both and proclaims, "Love is for...HUMANS!". He goes into a rage, and accidentally smashes Music Box, who cannot be repaired. Saddened that his favorite toy (pre-Enchantment) is destroyed, the Beast runs off in a sad and angry rage. This actually creates a continuity issue with Beauty and the Beast as there's a shot of Music Box in the fight scene during "The Mob Song" between the Enchanted Objects and the Townspeople.

"Elsewhere" - Belle and her father are returning after a botched washing-machine demonstration when Belle decides to go exploring in the forest, not fearing superstitious Maurice's concerns and his "No one ever goes through those woods!". An owl attacks Belle before she strays too far and she returns to Maurice. A wolf later comes by intent on attacking them as well, causing them to leave quickly.

"Elsewhen" - Beast has been sitting at his chair looking out for hours, and the staff decide to make him a great dinner to cheer him up. He never shows up, and so they go to bed. Chip then hears something and goes to the West Wing to find Beast gone. He and Footstool leave the castle and find that Beast has fallen down a cliff. Footstool returns to the castle and gets help, and they bring Beast back. Beast is upset because he can't even be a proper animal, and in his rage, accidentally sends Chip flying through the air. He catches him just in time, and the two sleep peacefully.

Throughout some of the stories, the Enchantress appears in various forms, though only the reader knows it's her as the forms she takes (old woman, crow, owl, bear, wolf, etc.) always have a certain glimmer in one eye, noting that it's the same character. So the way it reads, the Enchantress has always been watching over both, knowing that they'd be fated to meet one day. It kind of gives the whole "Beauty and the Beast" story a different spin as it implies it was always Belle and Beast's destiny to meet and fall in love.

albert

Wow! That's really cool, Scaps! I thoroughly enjoyed that! Although, Adam sure is one big 11 year-old in those two panels......

thats cool. Thanks for sharing.

LOL I love the Belle cameo. "Why are all young men like that? Why, it's positively BEASTLY! *turns to the audience and winks*"

Thanks for sharing Scaps. I love it. Hope you will upload all of it.

This brings back a lot of memories from when I was 5. I had a trade paperback comic collection that had several Little Mermaid stories on one side and several Beauty and the Beast ones on the other. I don't remember most of them, but the "Bothered" synopsis really rang a bell(e), so I'm sure that was part of the collection. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest!

The Belle cameo in the first story made me think of something I never had given much thought into. In her namesake's song, Belle sings, "Every morning just the same since the morning that we came to this poor provincial town." When exactly was that? I always just assumed that she and Maurice moved there not long before the main events of the film, but if the film team was involved in these comics in any way, she's been living there for at least 10 years. To me, it makes more sense that they're newbies, otherwise why is Belle so hung up on the lack of interesting people to interact with? She surely would've gotten used to it after a decade. But if they moved there just a few months (heck, maybe even a few weeks) before we're introduced to her, it also explains why the town's so obsessed with her. Hmmm...

Thanks Escapay.

I don't think the comic should be so obvious about the Enchantress, showing her transform in a whole panel to herself and being so wink winky, but ah well.

Speaking of wink winky, SpringHeel is that Angela Lansbury as Lady Tremaine in your avatar?!

Disneykid, I'd say they probably lived there for a very long time. Belle has become hung up because it has happened over, and over, and over again. She's been looking for someone interesting to talk to...and she still hasn't found them? Time for a song. Belle still isn't married or dating Gaston? That's something to sing about. Gaston was waiting for the right moment to approach her about marriage, but they seemed to know each other quite before. The song is about how many times it has happened, how long she's been looking. There must be more than this provincial life. If she has known more than this life, she would have had that "more" before she moved to the provincial town, right? Hm, maybe that's a continuity problem. But, she's been bored, and looking for something interesting, and reading all her life, now it's time for something more. She was super tired of it that day. She felt something was going to happen or just had to happen. And later she sings the reprise because Gaston proposed to her and that was the last straw of this town.

And remember, she'd read every book in the library and everyone seems to know her.

Otherwise, the filmakers and songwriters may not have thought of all that just like another song saying Beast and company have been under the spell for ten years...and the Prince looked the same in his Prince portrait as he did as a Prince in the end of the film. So he was not eleven when he was enchanted, and it couldn't have been his 21st year as a Beast if he was only one for ten years.

Disney Duster wrote: Otherwise, the filmakers and songwriters may not have thought of all that just like another song saying Beast and company have been under the spell for ten years...and the Prince looked the same in his Prince portrait as he did as a Prince in the end of the film. So he was not eleven when he was enchanted, and it couldn't have been his 21st year as a Beast if he was only one for ten years.

You are right... he does look basically the same. But I personally still theorize that he was meant to be young. There is something slightly more boyish about the portrait, IMO. And, as much as I don't like using cheapquels as reference, he looked kind of on the younger side when they showed his transformation in "The Enchanted Christmas." So I've always assumed that he is aging as normal while in his beastly form, the only resident of the castle to do so (because obviously, Chip hasn't changed a bit), most likely because he's the only one "alive."

Disney Duster wrote:Speaking of wink winky, SpringHeel is that Angela Lansbury as Lady Tremaine in your avatar?!

Nay, it's Angela as Madame Armfeldt from the Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music".

Aaaaah!!! This just made my geek heart super happy! Thank you so much, Albert, I love it!

I think I liked that one even better than the other ones! Now see, that's why Belle's my favorite, she's so much like me, honestly!

Did everyone else notice that, when she was imprisoned, she was surrounded by a broken candlestick, clock, and tea set?

Glad that even at a young age, those triplets were boy-crazy. And those girls must've dyed their hair blonde, too.

Margos wrote:Did everyone else notice that, when she was imprisoned, she was surrounded by a broken candlestick, clock, and tea set?

I sure did!

LOL.

I remember when Disney Adventure used to have really, really, really bad Disney comics. I think I remember a Peter Pan one where it was all a dream of Tinkerbell's, and Wendy was one of the mermaids. Or something like that...

Theses are great. I like back stories like these. Disney should of done these as "sequels" or whatever in comics to existing movies.

Like they should been a comic on some of the daily lives Aurora and the 3 annoying fairies.
or
early life of Mulan or whatever.

I can't thank you enough Albert ! Considering the fact that BATB is my fav Disney movie, I really loved it.

Yeah, this one's even better than the first one. I wonder what was the point of making the bear the enchantress, though? Was she teaching Belle a lesson on snobbery? Because, let's face it, Belle acted like she had a stick up her you-know-what throughout this comic.

Keep 'em coming, Scaps!

So...Belle didn't want to play pretend pirates, and she thought boys did stupid, base, animalistic things, when they were using their imagination just like she desired?

Yea, I know they weren't treating her like she wanted, but you'd think she wouldn't say their whole game was stupid. She wanted to live an adventure, pirates are adventurous...

Also, yea, the Enchantress as a bear scaring Belle was really what the...?

I liked the Beast liking books and music before he met Belle, it seems more like he is meant for her, then. But it's not known if that's how he was always intended in the film. I also liked how he loved his soothing music box toy, and then how he accidentally broke his music box, and jumped out the window! I felt sad for both of him and the box, and it was dramatic.

However, the music box looked way too much like a human turned enchanted object.