Hello to everyone who has been following this blog for many years - I'm still blogging, I'm just moving over to https://www.claireheffer.com/blog - please continue to follow and let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been kind enough to visit over the years. May the lists continue...

Sunday 26 March 2017



FILM 1632: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 

TRIVIA: Ryan Gosling was offered the role of the Beast, but turned it down to appear in La La Land (2016) instead. Emma Watson was offered the lead role in that film, but turned down that film to star in this one.

Sir Ian McKellen originally turned down the voice of Cogsworth in the original Beauty and the Beast (1991).

According to Ewan McGregor, the hardest part about playing Lumiere was getting the character's French accent right, although his wife of twenty years is in fact French. He said his voice ended up sounding Mexican instead of French, so he had to redo his dialogue after filming had completed.

Alan Menken, who scored Beauty and the Beast (1991), returns to score this live-action adaptation, which includes new recordings of the original songs in addition to new songs written by Menken and Tim Rice.

Ewan McGregor performed Lumiere's dances in motion-capture. However, he was embarrassed at wearing the motion-capture suit, and couldn't dance properly, unless he was completely alone with the filming crew.

During the ballroom scene, Emma Watson had a hard time not looking at her feet, because Dan Stevens was wearing steel toed shoes, and she was afraid he would step on her.

According to Disney, the first teaser trailer was viewed 91.8 million times in its first 24 hours. This marks the first teaser trailer of "Beauty and the Beast" to be the most viewed teaser trailer in history. Beating the previous record by Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (88 million views), followed by Captain America: Civil War (61 million views), each of them Disney films as well.

Bill Condon had actors sing The Lion King (1994)'s "Hakuna Matata" at the auditions to measure their singing voices. This was how he chose the final cast for this film.

Luke Evans (Gaston) had to wear fake teeth during filming due to having canines that are longer than normal, which he said would have made Gaston look like a vampire. Interestingly, he did in fact play a vampire in 2014's Dracula Untold as the title character.

Hidden Mickey: The lock on the stagecoach that Maurice and Belle are imprisoned in

In the 1991 classic the Beast's castle is shown to be quite close to the village, close enough for an angry mob to reach it in a few hours at most, yet nobody in the village know about it or notices the absence of those who live there when they are cursed. The prologue of the 2017 version elaborates on the story of the curse, stating part of the curse involved the world forgetting about the castle and its inhabitants.

During Belle and Beast's waltz, the letters WD can be seen in the coat of arms design on the floor. This is a nod to Walt Disney.

Jean Dujardin was strongly considered, and was the filmmakers' choice, for the role of Lumiere.

Bill Condon was chosen to direct Beauty and the Beast (2017), based solely on his previous work on Dreamgirls (2006).

When Maurice first enters the castle, he takes a second glance at the sconce holding up a lantern, as it resembles a human arm. This is a nod to the Jean Cocteau 1946's French film version of La Belle et la Bête (1946), where the halls of the castle are lit by human arms covered in gold holding up candelabras.

In the first half of the film, the Beast wears raggedy clothes, symbolizing his initially savage persona. After the song "Days in the Sun", the Beast's outfits become more refined and princely. This mirrors him slowly regaining his humanity.

The fictional town of Villeneuve is so named for the original author of "La Belle et la Bête," and Production Designer Sarah Greenwood used the real French village of Conques in Southern France for the inspiration.



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