50 Fun Facts About Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Emma Watson, Belle in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, found fame as which Harry Potter character?

Hermione Granger made Emma Watson a star across eight films for Warner Bros., a studio once run by Alan Horn. As Disney's chairman, Horn made her his only choice for Belle.

What did the Beast's actor walk on for much of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast shoot, even when waltzing?

Steel stilts raised the Beast's actor inside a forty-pound grey suit, so he and Emma Watson rehearsed for three months to keep her feet from being crushed.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, what killed Belle's mother, a secret Maurice kept for years?

The plague took Belle's mother, and a doctor's mask left in the family's old home is the clue that finally tells Belle the truth.

Which singer of the 1991 Beauty and the Beast pop duet returned to record an end-credits song for the 2017 film?

Celine Dion hesitated to say yes because her husband René Angélil, who had helped her land the 1991 duet, had recently died.

Which Beauty and the Beast (2017) character briefly waltzes with another man, a scene Malaysia's censors wanted cut?

LeFou's dance lasts about three seconds, yet Disney was ready to pull the film from Malaysia rather than trim it. An appeal board then passed it uncut.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, what does Maurice take from the castle garden that gets him imprisoned?

A rose for Belle is Maurice's crime, echoing the original French fairy tale, in which a father is caught plucking one for his daughter Beauty.

How does Gaston die at the end of Disney's 2017 Beauty and the Beast, moments after wounding the Beast?

A bridge collapses beneath Gaston after he fires on the Beast from it. An earlier version of the ending had the Enchantress curse him instead.

Which condition did Emma Watson argue Belle does not show in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Stockholm syndrome did not fit, Watson argued, because Belle keeps disagreeing with the Beast and holds on to her independence.

Which pair recorded the new pop duet of the title song for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast soundtrack?

Ariana Grande and John Legend kept close to the Grammy-winning 1991 duet, and their video premiered on the Freeform TV network.

The Beast's actor in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast became famous as Matthew Crawley in which period drama?

Downton Abbey made him a star from 2010, and when he chose to leave after three series, Matthew Crawley was killed off in a car crash.

Which English actor plays the Beast opposite Emma Watson in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Dan Stevens recorded the Beast's face in separate sessions, because the eyes were treated as the character's last human feature.

Which Welsh actor, Bard the Bowman in The Hobbit films, plays the vain hunter Gaston in Beauty and the Beast (2017)?

Luke Evans won the part over Idris Elba, who also auditioned, and his Gaston is a war veteran as well as a hunter.

Which actor, the voice of the snowman Olaf, plays Gaston's sidekick in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Josh Gad's sidekick often disagrees with Gaston in this version, and he was later lined up to co-write a Disney+ prequel series about the pair.

Which two-time Oscar winner plays the teapot Mrs Potts and sings the title song in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Emma Thompson holds one Oscar for acting in Howards End and another for writing the screenplay of Sense and Sensibility.

Which Scottish actor plays Lumière, the candelabra who leads Be Our Guest, in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Ewan McGregor had already sung on screen in Moulin Rouge!, and here his maître d' is in love with the castle maid Plumette.

Which Lord of the Rings star plays Cogsworth, the butler turned mantel clock, in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Ian McKellen's Cogsworth has a wife in the 2017 film: Clothilde, a fishmonger played by Haydn Gwynne.

Which Oscar winner for A Fish Called Wanda plays Belle's father Maurice in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Kevin Kline sings in the film too, performing the first version of a new ballad that Belle later reprises.

Which director of Dreamgirls and two Twilight films made the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast?

Bill Condon first backed out when Disney wanted only half the songs, and returned once the studio agreed to a full musical.

Which composer of the 1991 Beauty and the Beast songs returned to score the 2017 film and write new numbers?

Alan Menken slipped in a melody from the Broadway show too: an instrumental of the stage song Home plays as Belle first enters her castle room.

The castle maid loved by Lumière in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast has been turned into what object?

A feather duster is Plumette's cursed form, voiced by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who joins the castle staff in singing Be Our Guest.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, to which city does magic carry Belle and the Beast to see her childhood home?

Paris is where Belle was born, and the song she sings there is subtitled Montmartre on the soundtrack, after the district.

What gift from the Enchantress lets the Beast and Belle travel anywhere in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

A magic book carries its readers wherever they wish, and its first trip uncovers the truth about Belle's mother.

Belle's village in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast takes which name, honouring the fairy tale's original author?

Villeneuve honours Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, who published the tale in 1740, and the village set was modelled on a real town in southern France.

Stanley Tucci's Maestro Cadenza in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast has been turned into which musical instrument?

A harpsichord is Cadenza's cursed form, and the neurotic maestro is married to the castle's opera-singing wardrobe.

Frou-Frou, the pet dog of the castle's opera singer in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, becomes what under the curse?

A footstool is the cursed form of Frou-Frou, a Yorkshire Terrier played on screen by a dog named Gizmo.

Which village outcast in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast rescues Maurice and is later revealed as the Enchantress?

Agathe lives beside the villagers as a hermit, and the film's opening narration is spoken by the same actress, Hattie Morahan.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, what does the Enchantress's curse take from the loved ones of the castle's servants?

Their memories of the castle and its people vanish, and the spell lifts only at the end, when the villagers remember again.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, what does a village headmaster disapprove of Belle teaching a young girl?

How to read is the lesson that upsets him, though the local chaplain, Père Robert, happily lends Belle volumes from his small chapel library.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, Gaston abandons Maurice in the forest to be killed by what?

Wolves never get the chance: the town hermit rescues Maurice, so Gaston has him sent to an asylum instead.

Which new song does the Beast sing alone in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast after he lets Belle leave the castle?

Evermore replaced If I Can't Love Her, the Beast's solo from the Broadway show, which its composer had first wanted to reuse.

In which country was the 2017 Beauty and the Beast filmed, mostly on sets at Shepperton Studios?

England hosted the whole shoot from May to August 2015, with location work in the villages of Cranleigh and Lacock.

In which city did the 2017 Beauty and the Beast hold its world premiere, at Spencer House?

London hosted the premiere as a royal charity event, a week before the American premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.

Which American singer recorded the closing-credits version of the Beast's new solo in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Josh Groban got the call after the team briefly considered the Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, and he said yes by text straight away.

Which lyricist of the 1994 stage show's extra songs also wrote the new songs for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Tim Rice stepped in for the original lyricist Howard Ashman, who died shortly before the 1991 animated film was released.

Which actress voiced Mrs Potts and sang the title song in 1991, before the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake?

Angela Lansbury set the bar: critic Richard Roeper measured the 2017 Mrs Potts against her performance when he praised the remake.

In the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, what does Belle's artist father Maurice make for a living?

Music boxes are Maurice's trade, and the short song he sings over one is labelled Music Box on the soundtrack album.

Which new song in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast was partly reshot so the young Prince sings its first verse?

Days in the Sun first opened with the Prince's mother singing, but test audiences confused her with the Enchantress, so the scene was refilmed.

Which Broadway star of Ragtime and Porgy and Bess plays the opera-singing wardrobe in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Audra McDonald sings the first new song heard in the film, a short Aria placed inside the opening prologue.

Which animated Disney hit showed the studio there was an audience for a full musical 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Frozen changed the plan: for up to two years the remake had been developed as a serious drama with no songs at all.

Which December release was the only film of its year to out-earn the 2017 Beauty and the Beast worldwide?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi overtook it at the end of the year, but the remake had been the year's first film to reach a billion dollars, on its 29th day.

Which film's nine-year record as top-grossing live-action musical did the 2017 Beauty and the Beast break?

It took only ten days to overtake Mamma Mia!, and within six days the remake had also passed the 1991 film's entire lifetime gross.

The 2017 Beauty and the Beast earned two Oscar nominations, one for its sets and the other for what?

Costumes by Jacqueline Durran earned the second nomination, though the film went home from the Oscars without a win.

Which British comedian filmed scenes as Monsieur Toilette that were cut from the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Stephen Merchant played a servant who had been turned into a toilet, but his scenes never reached the cinema release.

Which US show premiered the first teaser for the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, seen 91.8 million times in a day?

Good Morning America got the teaser in May 2016, and its one-day view count was the largest any trailer had reached at the time.

Which country gave the 2017 Beauty and the Beast a 16+ rating after a lawmaker pushed to have it banned?

Russia's restriction did little harm at the box office: the film still opened there with about six million dollars.

Which title was given to the shelved Disney+ prequel series about Gaston from the 2017 Beauty and the Beast?

Little Town was put on hold in 2022 over creative and scheduling issues, and in 2024 its lead actor said it was no longer on the table.

A cinema in which US state declined to show the 2017 Beauty and the Beast because of its gay subplot?

Alabama's holdout was a single theater in the town of Henagar, while GLAAD called the same scene a huge leap forward for the film industry.

Which screenwriter of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast had directed Emma Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower?

Stephen Chbosky was hired in 2014 to rewrite the first draft, months before Watson herself was announced as Belle.

Which screenwriter of the 1991 animated film said she was not thrilled with the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake?

Linda Woolverton objected that the Beast's castle was meant to be impenetrable, so letting him come and go by magic broke the story's rules for her.

Before the 2017 Beauty and the Beast, Emma Watson was attached to which director's unmade version of the fairy tale?

Guillermo del Toro's version was planned at a rival studio but never got made, leaving Watson free to accept Disney's offer.