

Cinderella, Aurora and Rapunzel are known for their golden blonde locks, Ariel and Merida are redheads, and Snow White – The OG of Disney Princesses – is famous for her black hair, as are Mulan, Jasmine and Tiana. To this day, Belle is the only Disney Princess to have brown hair. When Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway in 1994, the role of Belle was played by Susan Egan who later went on to portray Meg in Disney’s 1997 animated adventure, Hercules. Jodi Benson – best known for voicing Ariel in The Little Mermaid – stood in for O’Hara for Disney Channel series, House of Mouse.
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While Paige O’Hara landed the role for animation, other Disney legends have portrayed Belle in its various sequels, video games, audiobooks and TV series. Photo by Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast recently returned to London's West End Several Disney legends have voiced Belle The stage adaptation has earned more than $1.7 billion worldwide, with a recent stint at London’s Palladium Theatre starring The X-Factor winner Sam Bailey as Mrs Potts. The stage musical was a huge successĪs early as the first screening of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, critics were quick to note the animated movie’s clear potential for a Broadway musical adaptation.īeauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in New York back in 1994 and ran for 5,461 performances in the 13 years it was open. To soften the Beast’s features, he was given the ears of a cow. The Beast is a mix of several animals including a lion, a buffalo and a bear.ĭisney animator Glen Keane revealed that Beast was made up of the head of a buffalo, the mane of a lion, the tusks and nose of a wild boar, the brow of a gorilla and the bulky body of a bear. The Beast is a hybrid of different animalsĮver wondered what animal the handsome prince was turned into? Well it’s a bit of a mash-up.

It maintained that unique distinction until Up picked up a nomination in 2009.

It’s the first animation to land a Best Picture nominationīeauty and the Beast is the first feature animation to score a Best Picture nomination, ultimately losing out to The Silence of the Lambs. Inspiration for Gaston comes from Jean Cocteau’s 1946 masterpiece La Belle et la Bête, in which the antagonist, Avenant, is hellbent on marrying Belle and killing Beast. With the omission of Belle’s sinister relatives, Disney realised they needed to create a villain to ramp up the stakes. Other versions saw Beauty with several roguish brothers who were hellbent on fighting Beast. Beauty’s sisters were more superficial and demanded that their father return with gifts of jewellery and gowns, while Beauty asked for only a single rose. In the earliest incarnations of the classic tale, Beauty wasn’t an only child and her father was a merchant rather than an inventor. It was soon after adapted by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 and it is this version of the fairy tale that Disney took most inspiration from.

Here are 30 facts about Beauty and the Beast to celebrate – one for each year since its release: There are many versions of the classic taleīeauty and the Beast has its roots in 1740 a novel by French writer Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. While 1989’s The Little Mermaid is often cited as the beginning of Disney’s renaissance era, it was Beauty and the Beast that brought the animation studio out of the wilderness of the 1980s and firmly back into the record books.
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Since its release in UK cinemas back in October 1992, the beloved movie has been followed by sequels, stage adaptations and live-action reimaginings. Disney’s animated classic Beauty and the Beast is celebrating its 30th birthday.
