Trivia / Beauty and the Beast (2017)

• Actor-Shared Background: Belle is revealed to have been born in Paris, but lives in a different village. Emma Watson was born in Paris too, but raised in England.
• All-Star Cast: The film is headlined by Emma Watson, star of one of the most successful franchises in film history, and the supporting cast includes Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, Sir Ian McKellen, Audra McDonald, and Stanley Tucci.
• Ascended Fanon: Both Paige O'Hara in a Q&A and Dan Stevens finally confirmed the Beast's name to be Adam, a fanon that had been in effect for years since a CD-ROM of the original mentioned him as such.
• Bad Export for You: While the film isn't censored in Malaysia and was finally released March 30th 2017, the two-week delay meant that many Malaysians are already spoiled by discussions about the movie on the Internet. Also, events and competitions planned for the movie (whose original premiere coincided with the spring school break in the country) were outright cancelled. The late release also meant that the film will now have a shorter theatrical run in Malaysia. Also due to the delay, the film now had to compete with The Boss Baby where younger audiences are concerned and Ghost in the Shell (2017) where older audiences are concerned, for ticket sales, both whom also have the same March 30th release date in the country.
• Banned in China:
  • In Russia, it almost happened due to the film containing a homosexual character, but Beauty and the Beast was released there anyway, albeit with a 16+ rating. Despite the fact that any homosexuality consists almost entirely of subtext and gags and the only reason LeFou can be identified as gay is because Disney says so.
  • Banned for real in Kuwait. The cinemas originally claimed that it was withdrawn to make censorship edits to remove the LeFou gay scene, but ended up announcing that the film as a whole was now banned several days later.
• California Doubling: Although it’s set in France, it was filmed in Shepperton Studios in south-east England.
• The Cast Showoff: The film made sure to put Audra McDonald's tremendous singing voice to good use, giving her a brief solo during the prologue, a prominent role in "Days in the Sun", and even the honor of leading the final number (the film even ends on a shot of her as she finishes the song). Josh Gad and Luke Evans also got to show off their impressive vocal range during "Gaston".
• Cast the Runner-Up: For the Latin Spanish dub, Alejandro Orozco voiced the Beast in the trailers, as well as his actor Dan Stevens for the interviews, but the part was given to Jair Campos instead. Alejandro voiced the owner of the tavern instead.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Irasema Terrazas, Claudia Cota, Olivia Gorra and Silvia Navarro all voiced Mrs. Potts, Madame de Garderobe, Plumette and the Enchantress together in the Latin Spanish dub.
• Creator Backlash: Josh Gad expressed regret over how LeFou being gay was barely hinted at in the film despite all the publicity Disney raised over their "first openly gay character".
  Gad: We didn't go far enough to warrant accolades. We didn’t go far enough to say, "Look how brave we are." My regret in what happened is that it became 'Disney’s first explicitly gay moment' and it was never intended to be that. It was never intended to be a moment that we should laud ourselves for, because frankly, I don’t think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be. That was not LeFou. If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that. Everybody deserves an opportunity to see themselves on screen, and I don’t think we’ve done enough — and I certainly haven’t done enough to do that.
• Deleted Role: Monsieur Toilette, a living toilet played by Stephen Merchant, was originally included in the final battle as a gag character, but he was eventually scrapped, as his scenes proved to be too Squicky for the film.
• Development Gag: Belle's line at the end suggesting that the newly-transformed prince might consider growing a beard comes from a scrapped line from the original film.
• Disowned Adaptation: Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale weren't that happy with the film, mostly because they felt it was pointless and that audiences could just watch the original since the remake had changed so little, but they also disliked it due to the fact that they weren't compensated for it.
• Enforced Method Acting: Emma Watson was usually bored while filming "Be Our Guest" since all she had to do was sit on a chair. The cast and crew were telling her jokes to get genuine giggling out of her.
• Executive Meddling: Ewan McGregor complained that Disney executives told him to use a Hollywood French accent rather than a real French accent.
  • He struggled with getting that Hollywood French accent right, too- he has said in interviews that his first attempt came out sounding Mexican, resulting in him having to re-record all of his dialogue.
• Fake Brit: Kevin Kline is American but puts on an English accent to play Maurice. Luke Evans likewise disguises his Welsh accent under an English one as Gaston.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Scottish actor Ewan McGregor puts on a French accent for Lumiere. Although the entire cast (save for Madame de Garderobe and Cadenza, who are Italian) is technically French, Lumiere is one of the only major characters to have a definite French accent. Interestingly, the only other major character to have a French accent, Plumette, is also played by a Brit-English actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
  • Ironically Emma Watson was born in France, though she is of English nationality.
• In Memoriam: A dedication to Dave Stapleton, one of the film's scenic painters, appears in the ending credits.
• Irony As He Is Cast: Straight actor Josh Gad plays LeFou, who is gay and pining after the very heterosexual Gaston, played by openly gay actor Luke Evans.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci reunite in a movie together following the release of Robots.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: French actors Alexis Loizon (Stanley) and Rafaëlle Cohen (one of the village lasses) also do the dub for the French version.
• Orphaned Reference: As noted under Adaptational Villainy, the villagers are much more hostile to Belle than in the original animated version. Despite this, the song "Belle" still contains lyrics ("that girl is strange but special") that were not changed to reflect this.
• Playing with Character Type: Luke Evans had previously been best known for his heroic leading man status in fantasy films like Immortals, The Hobbit trilogy, Dracula Untold etc. Here Gaston appears to be that in-universe, but is a deceitful charmer who quickly becomes the antagonist.
• Production Posse:
  • Dan Stevens (Beast) and Stanley Tucci (Cadenza) had already co-starred in director Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, while Ian McKellen (Cogsworth) was the lead in two of Condon's previous films, Gods and Monsters and Mr. Holmes.
  • Emma Watson and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky had previously collaborated on the film adaptation of his book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (though he doesn't direct her this time around).
  • Emma Thompson (Mrs Potts) and Gerard Horan (Mr Potts) were frequent theatre collaborators, as well as appearing in Much Ado About Nothing (1993) together.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Emma Watson had been a fan of the original since childhood, and described taking the role as "6-year-old self is on the ceiling - heart bursting" on Twitter. She had also been due to star in another Beauty & the Beast film by Guillermo del Toro, but it fell through.
  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw was such a huge fan of the original as a child that she had the entire soundtrack memorized- and "literally squealed down the phone line" when her agent called to tell her that Disney wanted her to play Plumette in the live-action version.
• Role Reprise: Yoni Amar who played the Beast in the French theatrical adaptation, provides the voice for the Beast in the French dub.
• Saved from Development Hell: According to the 2002 Beauty and the Beast Platinum Edition DVD, the thought of a live-action version first came up during Michael Eisner's tenure as CEO of Disney; he admits during the end credits of the documentary Tale as Old as Time: The Making of Beauty and the Beast that he would like the studio to produce one.
• Throw It In!:
  • Gaston pulling on Belle's skirt was improvised by Luke Evans.
  • LeFou's failed attempt to spell 'Gaston'. Josh Gad improvised and it was kept in because it made many members of the chorus laugh afterwards, which also works for the cheerful scene. A similar gag is also present in the extended version of the original song.
  • While not spontaneous, it actually comes from the Stage Musical when Gaston sings "Who can make up these endless refrains like Gaston?!"
• What Could Have Been:
  • Amanda Seyfried, Kristen Stewart, Lily Collins and Emmy Rossum were considered for the role of Belle before Emma Watson was cast.
  • Ryan Gosling was originally approached for the part of the Beast before the casting of Dan Stevens, but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts with La La Land.
    • Robert Pattinson, Taron Egerton and Josh Brolin were also considered for the Beast before the casting of Stevens. Brolin was turned down on the fact that he was considered "too old" for the role.
  • Idris Elba auditioned for the part of Gaston before Luke Evans was cast.
  • Back in 2012, Emma Watson was originally signed up to star in a Beauty and the Beast adaptation for Warner Bros., directed by Guillermo del Toro and with a screenplay by Andrew Davies of Pride and Prejudice (1995) fame. It was first planned as an adaptation of Robin McKinley's Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and then as an original adaptation of the fairy tale. But ultimately the film was cancelled and Watson transferred to Disney's remake.
  • Special effects master Phil Tippett was briefly aboard the project and sought to do Beast as a prosthetic makeup character, but the executives were insistent on sticking with motion capture.
  • There was a scene shot for the film, but not included in the final cut, where LeFou approaches the Enchantress and points out just how many people (not to mention at least one dog) were hurt or messed up by her curse.
    LeFou: Was it really worth it? Was he really that bad?
  • Josh Gad wanted to include a scene where LeFou gets buried in snow, briefly turning him into a snowman. Not only would this have been a nod to the original film, it would've been a hilarious Actor Allusion to Gad, considering what his last major Disney role was. While the bit was apparently shot, it never made it into the film.
  • Three brief sequences were shot but deleted from the final film during the castle battle - one in which the Village Lasses are attacked by the stove, another in which Cogsworth rescues Lumière from Clothilde (and realizes in horror that she's actually his wife), and a third in which LeFou comes under attack by a servant... that was transformed into a toilet (played by Stephen Merchant!).
  • The flashback opening of the song "Days in the Sun" originally consisted of the Prince's mother singing to him when he was a little boy, followed by the silent scene of his father pulling him away from her deathbed. But because the Queen's actress Harriet Jones looked too much like Hattie Morahan (the Enchantress), test audiences were confused, so the Queen's role was reduced and the singing part was given to her son at her deathbed instead. This explains why Jones, a musical theatre actress, was cast in what in the finished film is a silent role.
  • As noted before, the film was nearly banned in Malaysia and Russia. Luckily, the film was released with just a 16+ rating in Russia. Malaysia had it a little worse, with things pushed towards Bad Export for You since the film is released two weeks later from other countries, which means a lot of Malaysians have already been spoiled by discussions of the film on the internet, plus because Disney had scrapped their original plans to release the film during the spring school break, gone were any planned events and competitions it had for kids and fans during the one-week-long break.
  • Mrs. Potts' design here features her face painted onto the side of the teapot, rather than the face being on the front. This was attempted, but they found that the spout-nose didn't work in a live-action lens (citing a resemblance to a pig), so they switched the orientation of her features to the side.
  • Had The Mob Song ran to the second verse, Lefou would have been shown running to get his own sword and rifle from his house, apparently being used to stoke the fire and as a scarecrow respectively, to contrast how Gaston was seeking glory days. Without the extra verse, there wasn't time to do this.
• Word of Saint Paul: According to Rafaëlle Cohen (one of the Village Lasses) on her Instagram page, the three sisters' names are Elise, Eloïse, and Eliana.
• As a footnote, Emma Watson (Belle), Luke Evans (Gaston), Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts) and Nathan Mack (Chip) all have the same birthday - April 15th.
• During the auditions, Bill Condon had each of the actors sing "Hakuna Matata" as an evaluation of their singing voices. This was how he selected the final cast.
• You Look Familiar: The Mexican Spanish dub surprisingly reunites some of the past cast members who were involved in the 1991 film. While the cast members from this remake also participate, having previously appeared in a theatrical adaptation.
  • Moisés Palacios, who voiced Cogsworth, now voices Maurice, Belle's father.
  • Francisco Colmenero, who voiced the Narrator, Chef Bouche, the Baker and the bookseller, now voices Cogsworth.
  • Arturo Mercado, who voiced the Beast and Lumiere (albeit only in the "Human Again" sequence), did some of the additional voices.
  • Sergio Zaldívar, who portrayed Gaston in the play, returns to voice Lumiere.
  • Jair Campos and Claudia Cota, who were backing vocalists in the play, now voice the Beast and Madame de Garderobe respectively.

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