Who is Gaston from Disney. Gaston: interesting facts

We cannot reveal all its secrets before the release of the tape in Russian distribution, but we can tell a lot about the film, in which Emma Watson and computer-drawn characters sing, dance and act out the events of the fairy tale, which we in Russia know as "The Scarlet Flower".

Influenced by the success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast was also made into a Broadway-style cartoon musical. The songs were again pored over by poet Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken. Ashman already knew that he was dying of AIDS, but kept it from everyone except his closest friends and employees. Many Disney people did not suspect that the author of witty songs, in which there was not even a bit of depression, might not live to see the premiere.

Frame from the cartoon "Beauty and the Beast"

When drawing a cartoon, the Disney people were inspired both by real French landscapes and castles (artists were specially brought to France for sketches), and by their sometimes unbridled imagination. So, the design of the Beast was the creation of Chris Sanders, who combined the features of a bison, a bear, a lion, a gorilla, a deer, a wolf and a wild boar in the monster prince. However, in the end, the Beast turned out to be similar to the mask worn by Jean Mare in the film Cocteau.

Beauty and the Beast was the second Disney film after The Rescuers in Australia to be created using Pixar's CAPS computer animation system. Back then, it was just a matter of computer manipulation of hand-drawn images and the abandonment of the time-consuming work with transparent sheets of plastic that had been used for decades to produce animation. Nevertheless, there was a significant fragment in the picture, created with the help of three-dimensional animation calculated on computers - that is, computer graphics in the modern sense of the word. It was a ballroom scene, and the programmers were responsible for the movement of the walls in the frame, against which Beauty and the Beast were dancing. The episode turned out to be so successful and spectacular that the studio decided to continue investing in computer graphics. Over time, this led to the birth of the Pixar we know and love today.

The cartoon was released on November 22, 1991. It cost $ 25 million - one and a half times less than The Little Mermaid, the creation of which was largely an experiment. However, Beauty and the Beast's animation was more refined, its plot was more gripping, and its songs were more sweeping. And the audience understood this. The film earned $425 million worldwide, and few critics dared not call it an outstanding painting or a masterpiece. Only feminists found fault with the picture, who reproached the tape for glorifying the "Stockholm Syndrome". But their opinion did not carry much weight.

A few months later, Beauty and the Beast became the first cartoon ever to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Picture category. It is clear that the award did not go to the tape (“ Silence of the Lambs"was not to be bypassed), but it was still an amazing honor. Menken won an Oscar as a composer and shared with Ashman the Oscar for Best Song for Beauty and the Beast. Of the five songs nominated that year, three were taken from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. Unfortunately, Ashman had died by that time - he did not even have time to see the final version of the film, the songs of which the poet wrote literally on his deathbed.

The backstory of the new "Beauty and the Beast"

Admiring the Wise and Truesdale cartoon, American critics have repeatedly noted that they would love to watch a Broadway musical based on the songs of the picture. At first, then-head of the Walt Disney Studios, Michael Eisner, was against the idea, but he quickly became a fan of it when he realized that the company could make good money by reusing its intellectual property.

Linda Woolverton personally worked on a new version of the script, adapting the plot to the possibilities of musical theater. English poet Tim Rice, who also worked with Alan Menken on Disney's Aladdin, was brought in to compose new songs (Ashman began writing songs for this cartoon, but died before the project was completed).

The new production premiered in April 1994. The play ran first at one and then at another New York theater until July 2007, making Beauty and the Beast one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Clearly, it was a huge success. The show could have gone on, but in 2007 the Disney people presented the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid to the public and felt that the old performance would take viewers away from the new show from the Disney princesses cycle. Foreign productions of "Beauty and the Beast" in London, Paris, Madrid and other megacities were also successful.

Michael Eisner loved the show so much that he wanted to keep it for posterity. He thought about filming a television version of the play, but at some point he got the idea to make a full-fledged feature film with the actors taking to France and filming in historical baroque interiors and against the backdrop of real French landscapes. Eisner did not realize this idea until his departure from Walt Disney in 2006, but the studio did not forget about this plan, although Eisner was forcibly "survived" from the company after the studio's crisis in the first half of the 2000s.

In the second half of the decade, Eisner's vision grew into a massive plan to film live-action versions of famous Disney cartoons. Although the studio had plenty of original ideas, Walt Disney sought to ensure its financial stability by squeezing the best out of time-honored brands. It was important that the game remake does not replace and does not obscure the drawn fairy tale, as sometimes happens with successful remakes of game pictures (who now watches The Fly in 1958 instead of The Fly in the 1980s?). It becomes next to the cartoon on the shelves of video stores, and its release reminds the public of the classic canvas that little viewers might not have seen.

The first film in the new cycle was Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. Artistically, it was a rather weak movie (written by Linda Woolverton, by the way), but it grossed a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, and this gave the Disney people reason to plan future blockbusters based on a cartoon.

In 2014, Maleficent was released, the development of which began while working on Alice. In the same year, it became known that the Disney people were preparing a new Beauty and the Beast. Initially, the film was supposed to use only a couple of songs from the cartoon, but the success of Frozen in 2013 proved that the audience has not lost interest in full-fledged Disney musicals. So the project was reimagined as an almost exact copy of the original cartoon, albeit with a lot of new material (the new picture is 40 minutes longer than the original).

Working on the new "Beauty and the Beast"

Apparently, Spiliotopoulos was trying to make Beauty and the Beast a more "masculine" story, with references to Gaston's participation in the war and other plot aspects that would be more interesting for boys (Disneys do not really like to release romance films that are mainly aimed at girls and girls ). But the billion-dollar fees of Frozen persuaded the studio to abandon this concept, and to return the script to a “feminine” channel, writer, screenwriter and director Stephen Chbosky was invited, the author of the film “ It's good to be quiet" - a school psychological melodrama, which became one of the first acting work of Emma Watson after the completion of the cycle of Harry Potter. Nevertheless, the mention that Gaston was at war remained in the film.

Emma Watson and Bill Condon on the set of Beauty and the Beast

Bill Condon, an Oscar winner for the script for the drama Gods and Monsters, which Condon himself directed, was invited to stage the new Beauty and the Beast. He also worked as a screenwriter on the musical "Chicago", and as a director - on the biopic "Kinsey", the musical drama "Dream Girls" and the dilogy "Twilight. Saga. Dawn ". This is one of those directors whose name immediately comes to mind when producers think about who can make a musical melodrama with an abundance of special effects.

Condon spent six months at Framestore, a London-based special effects studio, before beginning the detailed art work on the film. Together with production designer Sarah Greenwood ("", "", "") and the staff of Framestore, the director experimented with various visual approaches to the film (primarily fantasy characters) and searched for ideas that seemed to him the most successful. Eventually Condon decided to dance from real Baroque interiors. In particular, Cogsworth's butler clock and Lumiere's maitre d' candelabra were inspired by authentic French baroque utensils, with their extremely ornate design and abundance of gilding.

As for the plot of the new tape, its main difference from the original was the greater attention paid to the past of Belle and the Beast. The creators of the tape decided to show that the hero and heroine lost their mothers early and that the realization of this becomes a romantic moment that brings the characters closer. In one of the scenes associated with this part of the story, the authors of the film used a magical artifact that was in the original fairy tale, but was not useful to the cartoon. This is a magical book that takes the owner to wherever he pleases. As you can see, the scriptwriters bothered to return to the original source and draw an idea or two from it. Although they were mostly based on the script of the cartoon.

Condon hoped to be able to include songs written specifically for the stage musical in the film, but regretfully found that they did not fit into his vision for the picture. So Menken and Rice were hired to write three new songs for the main narration and the song How Does A Moment Last Forever, which plays over the end credits. This song was performed by Celine Dion - the one who at one time buzzed everyone's ears with her song for Titanic. By the way, Dion sang Beauty and the Beast in a duet with Peabo Bryson for the end credits of the 1991 cartoon. Their recording won a Grammy. Ariana Grande and John Legend sang the title duo Beauty and the Beast for the new film.

After the director understood what kind of picture he wanted to make and what kind of picture he could create with a budget of one and a half hundred million dollars, he was able to start casting. The creators of the 1991 cartoon could afford to hire Broadway performers and focus on vocal abilities, rather than world-famous actors. Condon had to look for his performers among famous stars - those whose names and faces made sense to put on the poster. We have already written that the Disney concept of game remakes requires the involvement of celebrities, since this is the key feature of these films: “Want to see how Angelina Jolie played the evil sorceress Maleficent? Of course you do!” Vocals also mattered to Condon, but he was in second place. The director asked candidates to sing "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King to gauge what he and the sound engineers would have to work with.

On the set of "Beauty and the Beast"

In January 2015, Emma Watson announced on Twitter that she had been cast as Belle. It was a natural decision, since Watson made a name for herself playing the charming "bookworm" Hermione in "Potteriana" and since the actress had dreamed of playing Belle in some version of "Beauty and the Beast" since childhood. By the way, although Watson was born into an English family and educated in Britain, she was born in Paris, where her parents lived and worked at that time. So "Beauty and the Beast" for her is somewhat of a "native" fairy tale. Other contenders for the role were Emma Roberts from Scream Queens and Lily Collins from Snow White: Revenge of the Dwarves.

The Englishman Dan Stevens, the former hero of the Downton Abbey series and the current hero of the eccentric superhero show Legion, became the prince and the voice of the Beast. Condon brought Stevens with him from the biopic thriller The Fifth Estate, where the actor played a supporting role. You may also have seen him in the blockbuster Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb, where Stevens portrayed Lancelot. The actor looks "sweet" and romantic enough to portray the prince, but he can also play ambiguous and strange characters, which he demonstrates with brilliance in "Legion". Therefore, "Beauty and the Beast" he quite approached. Before Stevens was invited, the studio hoped to get Ryan Gosling, but he chose to star in La La Land. In contrast, Watson turned down a role in this musical to play Belle.

Inventor Maurice, Belle's elderly father, was played by film and musical theater actor Kevin Kline, Oscar winner for the comedy A Fish Called Wanda. He was one of the voice actors for the Disney cartoon The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The role of Gaston, a hunter, former mercenary and self-appointed contender for Belle's hand, was given to Welsh actor Luke Evans, Bard from The Hobbit, Dracula from Dracula in 2014 and the main villain of Fast and Furious 6. His stellar career began with the image of the divine handsome Apollo in the Clash of the Titans. In real life, Evans would never lay claim to Watson's heart because he prefers men.

Luke Evans and Josh Gad on the set of Beauty and the Beast

Film, TV and Broadway comedian Josh Gad, who voiced the snowman Olaf in Frozen, played Lefa, Gaston's hanger-on, in Beauty and the Beast. In the cartoon, this is a purely comic character who only does what he sings of his friend, while in the movie this role is expanded, and Lefou not only follows Gaston's lead, but also expresses doubt in his most vile deeds. In addition, in the interpretation of Condon (like Evans, the director is openly gay), Lefou is in love with Gaston, although he does not really realize this.

The film's other key stars mostly worked in the recording studio, creating the voices of the live castle utensils. Former Star Wars hero Ewan McGregor has rocked out as candelabra head waiter Lumiere, who loves to throw dinner parties. He was invited when French Oscar winner Jean Dujardin could not be hired. The former Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, Ian McKellen, voiced the cowardly and pompous butler Cogsworth, who was turned into a mechanical clock. At first, the actor did not want to act, but in the end he agreed.

Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson played and sang the role of Mrs. Potts, the head cook who looks like a teapot. The black British actress with South African roots Gugu Mbatha-Row from Jupiter Ascending portrayed Plumette the whisker maid. American black actress and singer Audra MacDonald, winner of six Broadway Tony awards, sang the part of the castle singer Madame de Wardrobe, which the curse turned into a wardrobe. Finally, Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci played Maestro Cadenza, a castle composer turned into a harpsichord.

Promo frame for the film "Beauty and the Beast"

Contrary to Michael Eisner's long-standing plans, Condon did not travel with the band to shoot in France. Beauty and the Beast was filmed in England, predominantly at Shepperton Studios. Large-scale scenery was built there, which became even grander thanks to computer additions. Scenes where nature was to be shown in bloom (the action of the picture takes place simultaneously in summer and winter, since the enchanted castle has its own, cold weather) were filmed in the picturesque surroundings of the Berkhamsted Golf Club. For Watson, these were familiar places - she starred there for the "Potteriana".

Filming took place from mid-May to the end of August 2105. At the same time, the premiere of the film was scheduled for 2017 from the very beginning. The producers gave the film such a long post-production period that Condon had time to finish numerous CGI scenes.

Of all the "impossible" characters, the Beast was the most difficult to implement. During filming, it was assumed that Stevens' head would be on the screen, covered with the most complex plastic make-up, the actor's real torso and "non-human" body parts like hooves drawn on a computer. So the actor was present on the set and acted in all his scenes. He had to do this on stilts, since the Beast is taller than the Prince before the transformation.

Later, however, it was decided that the Beast's makeup was not good enough and that the actor's head would be replaced with a computer-generated muzzle drawn from Stevens' facial expressions. So the actor played his entire role again, in a chair for capturing facial expressions, counting on computer processing.

For Watson, the main test was singing. The actress specifically took music lessons to cope with her role. Since the star's vocal range is off-Broadway, Belle's part was simplified so that Watson could sing it without embarrassment.

Beauty and the Beast characters

belle- the main character of the picture. This is a smart, kind and well-read girl from a small French town. Belle feels like an outsider among the book-hungry townspeople, and she hopes to travel the world someday. Belle becomes the Beast's prisoner when she agrees to replace her father in the castle dungeon. Belle was played by Emma Watson.

Monster- the main character of the picture. The Beast was once a heartless prince who lived in a luxurious castle. A powerful sorceress punished the Prince for his insensitivity by turning the young man into a terrible monster, and his servants into utensils. If the Beast does not start an affair with a girl before the last petal falls with the rose sorceress left behind, then the former prince will forever remain a monster. The monster does not even hope that the curse will be lifted until Belle enters his castle. The monster was played by Dan Stevens.

Gaston- the main villain of the picture. This is a selfish and narcissistic former mercenary turned hunter. Gaston is very fond of the city girls, but he wants to marry Belle, although she does not reciprocate. For him, it is not a question of love. Gaston is simply sure that he deserves marriage to the city's first beauty, which, despite her "weirdness", is considered Belle. Gaston was played by Luke Evans.

Maurice Belle's father. This is an inventor who received a Parisian education, but lives in the outback. Maurice is supportive of Belle in her love of reading, and he does not consider Gaston a worthy match for his daughter. Maurice incurs the Beast's wrath when he plucks a rose for his daughter in the garden of an enchanted castle. The law requires Maurice to spend his entire life in prison, but Belle convinces the Beast that she should replace her father. Maurice was played by Kevin Kline.

Lefou- hanger-on and constant companion of Gaston. He often praises a friend, even if there is no reason for it. Nevertheless, he is not devoid of conscience, and he does not like Gaston's crimes. Lefou was played by Josh Gad.

Lumiere- the head waiter of the Beast's castle that looks like a chandelier. Lumiere loves to arrange lavish receptions, and he gladly receives Belle in the castle as a dear guest. He does not hesitate to disobey the orders of the Beast in order to please the heroine. Lumiere was played by Ewan McGregor.

Cogsworth- The butler of the Beast's castle, who looks like a mechanical watch. Cogsworth is executive and cowardly. Subjugation to the Beast is the most important thing for him, even more important than breaking the spell. Therefore, Cogsworth does not like the way Lumiere for the sake of Belle violates direct orders. Cogsworth was played by Ian McKellen.

Mrs. Potts- The Beast's castle cook who looks like a teapot. Like Lumiere, Mrs. Potts is very kind and friendly, and she takes care of Belle like her own daughter. Missy Potts was played by Emma Thompson.

Plumette- The maid of the Beast's castle, who looks like a duster. Plumette loves Lumiere, and she is with him in everything. Plumette played Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Madame de Wardrobe- The Beast's castle singer who looks like a wardrobe. She loves to dress everyone who asks for it and who doesn't. Madame de Wardrobe was played by Audra MacDonald.

Maestro Cadenza is the composer and pianist of the Beast's castle, which looks like a harpsichord. The maestro writes music for Madame de Wardrobe and accompanies her with pleasure. Cadenza was played by Stanley Tucci.

expectations

Judging by the collections of past Disney remakes and Hollywood analysts, the new Beauty and the Beast is going to be a big success. The picture will easily pay back the $160 million that was spent on it. The only question is whether not too favorable reviews and reviews will affect the fees, which reproach the picture for offering little new in comparison with the 1991 cartoon and spoiling a lot of the old. Let's see if Emma Watson as Belle can beat the bad press the film has already received and will continue to receive.

In Russia, the film may be additionally hindered or helped by the scandal that erupted due to Condon's statements that Lefou is gay. The film was suspected of gay propaganda, and although it was not found (you need to carefully watch the picture to catch a couple of directorial hints at comical homosexuality, so this is not propaganda at all), the tape was assigned a rating of "16+", which means that children should not watch movies without parents. However, Disney films are already a family spectacle, and therefore only teenagers who go to the movies themselves can interfere with the age rating. How will this affect fees? We'll all know soon.

This sweet lady is the housewife of the castle. The good-natured woman was turned into a teapot by a spell. And her large number of children - in tea cups. Such a kind of family tea service. Madame Pott, like the rest of the Beast's servants, is trying to help Belle adapt to the new environment, because she can help them all remove the spell.

Lefou (Le Fou)

A friend of Gaston, or rather his "six". A frail, undersized boy. Not smart, stupid. Often commits rash acts, for which Gaston swears at him, giving him “pretzels”. Translated from French (and our heroes live in a French town) "le fou" means "fool".

Maurice (Maurice)

This good-natured old man is actually the father of our heroine - Belle. Behind the small growth of Maurice lies a huge talent, he is an inventor. Like a good parent, the old man loves his daughter very much. Maurice tries to support all her hobbies and interests. For some non-standard and extraordinary inventions, the inhabitants of this small French town consider the old man strange, and some even crazy. He has a dream to create a good invention and become rich. He really hopes that the new invention will be able to turn his life with Belle for the better.

In some interpretations, you can hear that this heroine is called Babette. She serves the Beast like a maid. A spell cast on all the inhabitants of the castle turned her into a duster. Fifi is the lover of Lumiere, the castle's French maitre d'. This beautiful couple, like no other, pleases the eye. Despite the fact that Fifi appears to the viewer in the form of a panicle, she has a white cap and a flirty mole above her lips.

Miss Potts' son, was turned into a cup when the spell took effect. In every possible way he tries to help Belle brighten up loneliness and supports her as best he can. Kind and mischievous, as a boy of his age should be, he became very friendly with the heroine of the cartoon.

Cogsworth

Butler of the Beast's castle. He loves order very much and always tries to keep it: everything should be in its place. Constantly trying to please his master. By nationality, Cogsworth is German, in addition to being an actor, this is also manifested in pedantry. After casting a spell, it was turned into a mantel clock.

Lumiere

Works for the Beast as the head waiter of the castle. When the spell began to take effect, it turned into a chandelier. Lumiere is very hospitable. He is recognizable in the cartoon by his thick French accent. Likes to arrange beautiful shows. Can turn an ordinary meal into a whole Broadway production on the table.

A country

USA

Time

84 minutes (original version)
90 minutes (special edition)

Premiere Budget

$20 million

BCdb IMDb

"The beauty and the Beast"(English) Beauty and the Beast) is the thirtieth animated film by the Walt Disney Company. It premiered on November 22, 1991 in US theaters. The film is an adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont about a beautiful girl imprisoned in a castle by a terrible monster. The film is the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The film was shot in the traditional Disney style.

Review

Linda Woolverton's film is based on a screenplay by Roger Allers, which is an adaptation of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (uncredited). Film directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Weiss. Music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

Cash receipts amounted to 146 million dollars. The film became the third most successful film of 1991 after Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It is also the most successful animated Disney film of its time.

The animated film was awarded an Oscar in the nominations "Best selection of music for a film", "Best Song" (Alan Menken and Howard Ashman "Beauty and the Beast", sounding at the end of the film performed by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson). Two other songs by Menken and Ashman from the film were also nominated for Best Music and Best Song ("Be Our Guest" and "Belle"). Beauty and the Beast was also nominated for Best Sound and Best Film.

Plot

One cold winter night, an ugly old woman came across the prince's castle. She asks the prince to let her warm up, even though she only had one rose to give him as a thank you. Being selfish and heartless, the prince drives her away, simply because she is unpleasant to him. The old woman warns him that true beauty is hidden in the depths of the heart and is not visible. The prince refuses her again, and the woman takes on her real appearance as a beautiful and powerful sorceress, and as punishment for the cruel and selfish prince, she turns him into a monster. The servants in the castle are also bewitched; they become teacups, candles, pieces of furniture, and other household utensils. The castle becomes scary; cherubs become gargoyles. This spell will last until he is 21 years old, until the monster learns to love and someone loves him. However, this must happen before the last petal of the magical rose withers and falls, otherwise he will remain a monster forever. He is almost 21 years old, the monster is in despair and every time he instantly becomes furious, wondering who will be able to love the disgusting monster.

"Beauty" is the name of a girl named Belle who lives with her father Maurice in a small French town. Maurice is known for his extravagant inventions; the townspeople notice Belle's beauty, but consider her strange because of her passion for books (as it was believed at the time, most women must be a little stupid, as Gaston, one of the inhabitants of the town, said in his phrase, "Reading is not good for a woman. She's starting to think about it." Her beauty caught the attention of local hunter and strongman Gaston, but Beauty finds him "rude and arrogant" and ignores him.

Fragment from the cartoon "Beauty and the Beast".

One day, Maurice decides to showcase his latest invention at a fair in the village. On the way, he got lost in the forest. The wolves are chasing him, his horse, Philip, does not obey and, frightened, flees. Maurice runs blindly through the forest and eventually finds the monster's castle. The servants of the castle, still in the form of various household utensils, take care of him. And so on until the monster returns. The Beast holds Maurice as its prisoner, believing him to be a "trespasser".

Meanwhile, Belle politely but firmly resists Gaston's proposal to marry her. Gaston explains to Beauty that she will be his "little wife", have 6 or 7 beautiful boys (by nature - "real men", like himself), and makes many other compliments that are humiliating from her point of view. She is very surprised when she sees that her father's horse has returned without a master. With the help of her father's horse, she finds her way to the castle. There, she offers the Beast to take her as a prisoner instead of her father; The monster agrees and sends Maurice back to the village. Back in town, Maurice tries to tell the people what happened to Beauty, but the villagers, including Gaston, think he's crazy and refuse to help him, so Maurice decides to get his daughter back on his own.

The Beast, realizing that his captive could break the spell, allocates Belle her own room and allows her to walk around the castle wherever she wants, except for the West Wing - the Beast's old room, where everything hints at his past as a person. Of course, he has not learned anything good since his transformation: for example, he orders that none of the servants feed the Beauty if she does not dine with him. Beauty yearns, thinking that she will never see her father again, she has not the slightest desire to do anything for the Beast.

Left to right: Mrs. Potts, Chip, Cogsworth.

The castle is full of miscellaneous utensils and utensils, including a Lumiere candlestick and a Cogsworth mantel clock, entertaining the guest with an exquisite French meal and providing the most comfort a team of servants can provide (despite the fact that the Beast forbids them from doing so due to its unfortunate trying to get Beauty to come to dinner). Of course, everyone wants Beauty and the Beast to love each other so that they can all regain their human form. Unfortunately, Beauty and the Beast do not get along due to the arrogance with which he treats her and the constant bickering with each other.

During a tour of the castle, a curious Beauty enters a corridor she has never been before, the forbidden West Wing. Everything in the room - broken mirrors and especially a torn picture of his human form - reflects the sadness of the Beast. Fascinated by the beautiful rose, Beauty comes to take it, but the suddenly returned Beast becomes enraged and drives her away. She quickly leaves the castle, and is immediately confronted by a pack of wolves in the forest; The monster turns out to be her only protector. Over time, Beauty and the Beast fall in love with each other, and over the course of several days, the Beast becomes more human, showing more kindness. Thus, Beauty "sees him in a way she's never seen him before." One day, he gives her a magic mirror that can show anything she wants to see. She asks to see her father and sees that he is sick and dying as he foolishly tried to find a castle to bring her back. The monster, sincerely loving, makes the only right decision, frees her, and she and her father return to their house in the village. However, Gaston arrives with an angry mob and threatens to take Maurice to an insane asylum if Belle does not agree to marry him. She desperately tries to prove that her father is normal, and shows the audience the image of the Beast with the help of a magic mirror.

Enraged, feeling betrayed, Gaston convinces the crowd that the Beast is a terrible menace to society and provokes the crowd into sacking the castle, urging them to "kill the Beast". The enchanted inhabitants of the castle fight against a large crowd and drive it away. Gaston finds the Beast and attacks him. The Beast, who is in anguish, certain that Beauty will never return again, does not resist until Belle appears in the castle again. However, at the very moment when the Beast is about to kill Gaston, it realizes that it can no longer do this to anyone and lets the latter go. As soon as the Beast and Beauty are reunited again, Gaston treacherously inflicts a mortal wound on the Beast with a dagger, but breaks off the roof and falls down, breaking to death. At the last moment, Belle tells the dying Beast that she loves him and the sorcery is broken. The monster turns back into a prince, the scary castle becomes beautiful again, the enchanted utensils of the castle are returned to human form. A beautiful and touching tale ends with the wedding of the prince and Belle.

Characters

belle

belle(voiced by Paige O'Hara) - A girl just out of her teens, she's in her early twenties. Belle is the prettiest girl in town. She has brown hair, large brown eyes, a thin, straight nose, and delicate scarlet lips. She is very fond of reading books (a quality that Gaston dislikes). Belle is smart, brave and independent, desperate to escape the dull atmosphere of the poor town she lives in. Apart from her father Maurice, she has no relatives. She stands out from the rest very much, which is noticeable by her favorite activities (reading) and clothes (blue, while everyone else is dressed in red and brown). The French word "belle" means "beauty". According to the film's artists, when creating the image of Belle, they wanted to get away from the classic Hollywood super-blonde beauty stereotype so that Belle would not be associated with Princess Aurora from the Sleeping Beauty cartoon. Therefore, the face of Vivien Leigh was chosen as Scarlett O'Hara. The cartoon has a direct reference to the image of Scarlett: in the scene where Belle examines the torn portrait of the prince, she raises one eyebrow - like Scarlett in the initial scenes of the film "Gone with the Wind".

Monster

Monster(voiced by Robbie Benson) - seemingly a kind of anthropomorphic hybrid with the features of a wolf and a bull. In fact, this is a prince who was turned into a monster by a sorceress due to his lack of compassion and the ability to love (and, according to some viewers and fans, for displaying discrimination against women based on gender). Loving someone and being loved in return is the only way to break the spell, so the Beast desperately wants to fall in love with the first girl he comes across and have her love him too; thus, according to the condition of the spell, he would be restored to human form. When he finally finds a suitable person, it turns out that haste and excessive perseverance only hinder his goal. In the cartoon, the Beast's real name is not mentioned.

Gaston

Gaston(voiced by Richard White) - The villain of the film. He is tall, strong and has a manly good looks. Gaston considers himself irresistible and desirable, and has an inflated self-esteem, boosted further by the opinion of many young girls in town, including three blonde dolls, of him. Though he's scheming, amoral, and brash (and a misogynist and chauvinist as well), he doesn't look like the typical Disney villain. He is much more attractive than most other Disney villains, and besides, unlike the typical villains in Disney fantasy, he does not have supernatural powers. According to Roger Ebert, Gaston "goes from chauvinistic pig to sadistic monster over the course of the film."

Other

Cogsworth(voiced by David Ogden Steers) - The castle's butler, always trying to keep things in order, and very eager to please his master, the Beast. Was turned into a mantel clock when the spell was cast.

Lefou(voiced by Jess Corti) - Gaston's puny, undersized sidekick, more specifically his "errand boy". Stupid, for his stupid antics he regularly receives "pretzels" from Gaston; "le fou" is French for "fool".

Songs

• Belle(French for "Belle") is the film's opening song, which Belle sings on her way to the local bookstore, and the whole village picks up the song, describing Belle's strangeness.
• Belle Reprise(English "Belle. Reprise") - Belle sings after Gaston proposes to her, Beauty repeats her deepest desire "I want something more than this provincial life" many times.
• "Be Our Guest"(eng. "Be our guest") - a table cabaret of the castle's servants, such as crockery, cutlery, etc., who entertain Belle.
• "Gaston LeFou"(French "Our Gaston") - Gaston's friend and local drunkards sing Gaston's praises in a village tavern.
• "Gaston Reprise"(eng. "Our Gaston. Reprise") - after Maurice has escaped from the Beast's castle, he enters the tavern and begs for help, but only receives taunts from the townspeople. It is here that Gaston gets the idea to blackmail Beauty by threatening to send her father to an insane asylum if she does not marry him.
• "Something There"(eng. "Something Ahead") – sung by Beauty and the Beast when they realize that mutual feelings have developed between them.
• "Beauty And The Beast (Tale As Old As Time)"(Eng. "The Girl and the Prince") - Mrs. Potts sings while Beauty and the Beast dance in the castle hall.
• "The Mob Song"(eng. "Song of the Crowd") - sung by the villagers as they walk towards the castle to kill the Beast.

• Robbie Benson, who voices the Beast in the English dub, is the older brother of actress Jodi Benson, who voices the little mermaid Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
• Since the famous musical Notre Dame de Paris appeared later than the cartoon "Beauty and the Beast", when the English version of the single was released Belle had to lengthen the title to Belle (is the only word) so that the listener does not get confused in songs about "beauties".
• Chip, the calyx, originally had only one line, but the producers liked his voice so much that they added a few extra lines for him.
• Tiny Toon Adventure screenwriter Sheri Stoner was used as a model for Belle, from her Belle inherited the habit of fixing her hair, and Ariel (The Little Mermaid) - the habit of biting her lower lip.
• The signs Maurice comes across in the woods show the names of California cities Anaheim and Valencia ( English); the first is the location of Disneyland, while the second sign, pointing down an ominous dark path, bears the name of the city where Disneyland's rival Six Flags Magic Mountain Park is located. The third sign says "Glendale" - also the city in California where Walt Disney Imagineering is located.
• Gaston was supposed to be short and old, but the authors decided to remake him and made him absolutely look like the actor who voiced him - Richard White.
• Belle is translated from French as a beauty, Gaston is a handsome man, Lefou is a fool, Lumiere is a light, Cogsword is a sentry.
• Belle and Prince's last dance is a step-by-step replica of the same dance in Cinderella because the Cinderella sequence was used in Beauty and the Beast.
• The Beast can't read, originally there was a scene in the film in which Belle teaches him to read, but it was cut out and only the frame where Belle and the Beast look at the book together remained from it. Also, a character was cut from the cartoon - a music box, which was supposed to calm the Beast when he was angry, but when the animators decided to increase the role of Chip, he replaced the Box in many scenes and can only be seen episodically.
• The illustration in Belle's book, which she leafs through while sitting on the fountain, is from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book, and is an illustration for the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.
• Gaston shoots at the bird and kills it. Lefou picks it up in a hunting bag and runs up to Gaston. When Lefou picks up the bigger trophy, the bag with the bird disappears and doesn't reappear.
• Cogsworth falls onto the stairs trying to stop Maurice from invading the castle and scatters all his nuts and gears. A moment later, there is nothing on the stairs.
• A cart passes through Cogsworth with Mrs. Potts, Chip, and two other crockery. But only Mrs. Potts and Chip drive up to Maurice, the dishes have evaporated. But after a moment, a spoon appears on the cart.
• Lefou conducts the musicians playing Wagner's "Wedding March" (in the West it is called "Here comes the bride"). By the way, this march was invented in the middle of the 19th century, while the action of the cartoon takes place a century earlier. By the way, until the beginning of the 20th century, this march was performed only in Germany.
• In rare cartoons, there are no blunders with doors. Here and at Belle it opens in different directions. For example, when she sees Gaston out, the door opens outward, and when she puts his shoes out of the house, it opens inward.
• Gaston, after flying out of Belle's house, lands in a muddy puddle. It is not known where he found it, if there is nothing like it in front of the house. The door of the house generally opens onto the porch.
• When Belle rides to the enchanted castle for the first time to save her father, she is not wearing a hood. In a moment, the hood is already on her.
• When Belle runs to her father in the castle dungeon, Maurice first extends his hand to her from the second left gap between the bars in the door. After a moment, it turns out that the hand protrudes from the leftmost hole.
• In the tavern where Gaston and his comrades are walking, the number of visitors varies greatly from frame to frame. For example, now we see people at the bar and at the back wall. When Lefoux sings a song of praise to Gaston, the people in the background disappear into the air and reappear in the midst of the song.
• Gaston says he ate dozens of eggs as a child, which is why he's so strong. As proof, he grabs eggs from the counter and swallows them. Lefu, imitating him, destroys the last eggs on himself. But as soon as Gaston begins to turn the gun in his hands, the eggs reappear on the counter.

Links

• The Big Cartoon DataBase entry for Beauty and the Beast

The beauty and the Beast
cartoons	The beauty and the Beast Wonderful Christmas Belle's Magical World Belle's Tales
Games	Be Our Guest (1992) Belle's Quest (1993) Roar Of The Beast (1993) Beauty & The Beast (1994) A Board Game Adventure (1999) Beauty and the Beast (2006)
Music	A Change In Me Beauty & The Beast Be Our Guest
Characters	Belle Beast Gaston
Side effects	Musical Show at Disneyland TV Series Restaurant Comics
see also	Scarlet Flower Beauty and the Beast Terribly beautiful

1. In the scenario of "Beauty and the Beast" in 1988, Gaston as such was not there: there were three admirers of Belle, who fought for her hand and heart. All three had Gaston's qualities and flaws. At the end of the cartoon, they were turned into animals (along with Belle's evil sisters) by the Enchantress for misdeeds and for trying to kill the Beast.

2. In the 1989 script, Belle's three fiancés were combined into one character - the Marquis Gaston. In this version, the nobleman Gaston shared the role of villain with Marguerite, Belle's aunt, who chose him as her niece's fiancé in revenge on her brother Maurice, a merchant who lost his wealth at sea. At the end of the cartoon, Gaston and his henchmen stole Belle's self-propelled carriage (in the final version of Beauty and the Beast, this carriage delivered Maurice from the castle home) and rode it to the Beast's castle to kill him. The role of the carriage was cut by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who also initiated the reworking of the entire script and the change of director.

3. In the approved 1990 screenplay written by Linda Woolverton, Gaston becomes a hunter and local hero with whom all the village girls except Belle are in love. Gaston's character and appearance were significantly influenced by Brom Bones from the short film "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (the second part of the cartoon "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad"), Sir Kay from "The Sword in the Stone", stereotypes about tough football players from American high school and former Linda's own boyfriends ("boobs").


4. In the final cut of Beauty and the Beast, Gaston wears red (a villainous Disney) outfit. However, on the concepts of one of the early versions, the Marquis Gaston wears a blue jacket.


5. There is still controversy about Gaston's last name: in the 1989 script, Aunt Marguerite introduces him as Gaston LeGume. In the final version, the girls in love with Gaston call him "Monsieur Gaston", and Belle ironically calls herself "Madame Gaston". Opinions are divided: someone still considers him LeGum, someone - a man named Gaston with an unknown name.


6. In one of the scenarios, Gaston had to fight the Beast in the forest on the edge of a cliff. He wounded him with a sword, knocked him to the ground and pulled a blunderbuss from his belt to finish him off when Belle hit him on the head with a stone. From the blow, Gaston fell off a cliff, broke his leg and noticed that the wolves that had previously attacked Maurice and Belle were approaching him. They decided to abandon this idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe finale due to excessive cruelty. As a result, a similar ending was implemented in The Lion King.
7. Also in one version of the cartoon, Gaston committed suicide after inflicting a fatal wound in the back of the Beast. It was assumed that after hitting the Beast in the back, Gaston would jump off the tower, laughing insanely. Like, he realized that he could not win Belle's heart, which means that the Beast should not be with her; and having killed him, there is no need to live on.


8. For the animation of some scenes with Gaston, Andreas Deja relied on the performance of a live actor, and somewhere he relied solely on his own imagination. Robert Wright, who voiced the character, also helped a lot. Interestingly, this role was originally supposed to go to Rupert Everett, but he was eventually turned down because of the lack of brutality of his voice. Moral compensation for this failure for Everett was the role of Prince Charming in the second and third "Shrek".
9. The most difficult detail of Gaston's appearance was his hairy chest. Andreas Deja's assistants and other animators who worked on the character came up with about twenty different variations of Gaston's chest. These are three of them.


10. Both the Beast and Gaston have blue eyes. There is no such coincidence in any Disney cartoon.


11. In the trailer of the cartoon, there is a hint that Gaston is the only villager who is aware of the Beast's curse. Literally it says this: "This is the only person who wants the spell to live." This explains Gaston's rather calm reaction to the news of the enchanted castle and the Beast, while the rest of the villagers were beside themselves with fear and anger.

The tale, known in France as "Beauty and the Beast" (and in Russia as "The Scarlet Flower"), certainly contains considerable erotic potential, fully exploited by the great French director Valerian Borovchik in the 1976 quasi-pornographic version of "The Beast". And the completely innocent versions of Jean Cocteau (1946) and Christophe Hans (2014) cannot be called purely children's films - these are serious love stories, sometimes accompanied by traumatic experiences.

Ironically, the 16+ rating in Russia went to the new project of the company Walt Disney Pictures- the easiest and most harmless film adaptation, almost a musical, based on the 1991 cartoon. This is because director Bill Condon (the author of Gods and Monsters, the final part of Twilight Breaking Dawn and the provocative biopic Dr. Kinsey) in one of his interviews recklessly called Gaston's henchman the main villain - the eccentric LeFou (that is, in translation from French - fool) - gay.

He was heard by the most concerned deputies of the State Duma, raised a fuss, as a result of which the Ministry of Culture gave the children's film an adult distribution. If it weren’t for the director’s explanations, it’s unlikely that anyone would seriously think about LeFou’s orientation - there is no more gayness in this character than in some Yagupop from the “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors” you will see it). Finding adult scenes in the new Beauty and the Beast proved to be a daunting task. But we tried to highlight what the deputies and officials of the Ministry of Culture may consider “propaganda of sin” unacceptable for children.

1. In the hands of the peasants singing (some with envy, some with admiration) about the unusual girl Belle, a real Buch-de-Chevre flickers - goat cheese in a moldy crust. An imminent lifting of sanctions is not expected, so there is no need to poison the soul of the younger generation with pictures of delicacies banned in Russia.

2. The gloomy director of the village school forbids Belle to teach girls to read and write, it’s enough, they say, and you alone, too smart, but the people don’t need innovations, he accepts them with hostility. Why do children look at this and think about different reforms?

3. “I so want to know who I myself can become, it’s too early for me to play a wedding.” It is possible that feminists dreamed of feminists on this freedom-loving Belle song. Such desires are not far from protests.

4. The enchanted castle of the Beast is inhabited by living things. During the dance, the gallant chandelier Lumiere (played by Ewan McGregor, by the way) merges into an embrace with Plumette, a snow-white dust brush that looks more like a turtledove. Yes, and sings "Your very presence inflames me"! Isn't it too sensual for our country?

5. The villain Gaston comes out of a state of anger, only remembering the fields of bloody battles. A parody of military prowess and honor, nothing else.

6. “There are no more beautiful people in the world than Gaston! No one will bite you like Gaston!” the fool LeFou sings, willingly showing the overlord’s teeth marks on his thick belly. The episode can be mistaken for an absurd joke. But State Duma deputies know better what circumstances leave such traces on the body.

7. Under the influence of the clever manipulator Gaston, a crowd of superstitious peasants set out to storm the castle. Are there unnecessary associations here with the revolutionary movement of the masses? And it does not matter that the authors of the film are on the side of the Beast and his aristocratic servants - it is better not to touch on the explosive topic in any way. Especially in the year of the centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

8. Gaston gets rid of Belle's father by sending the old man to a mental hospital. Direct association with the punitive psychiatry that flourished in the USSR.

9. To the song "Sunshine, you are no longer in my life," Belle finds herself at her mother's deathbed - and this is the only, without jokes, non-childish episode of the film.

10. In "Beauty" there is a dubious zong "Let everything that we are waiting for come by night" - how to explain this to teenagers who are only waiting for one night?