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Beauty and the Beast Facts

Disney's animation department won a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for the design and development of the Computer Animated Production System that they used to make the film.

The title song was sung by Angela Lansbur, with Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson singing another version which was played during the film's closing credits.

For the first time, each animator was credited on screen specifically for the character they brought to life.

1,295 painted backgrounds and 120,000 drawings were used in the movie.

The Beast was created by supervising animator, Glen Keane. He made his own hybrid beast by combining the mane of a lion, the beard and head structure of a buffalo, the tusks and nose bridge of a wild boar, the heavily muscled brow of a gorilla, the legs and tail of a wolf, and the big and bulky body of a bear.

According to the "Official Encyclopedia of Disney" by Dave Smith, the Beast's name is "Adam," although he is always refered to as the Beast in the film.

Computer-generated imagery was used in several parts of the film, most notably in the three-dimensional ballroom background, allowing dramatic camera movements on the animated characters as they danced.

It was the first of Disney's animated feature films to be scripted by a woman, Linda Woolverton.

Art directors travelled to the Loire Valley in France to get inspiration for the film. They also studied the French painters Fragonard and Boucher, which inspired the style of illustration.

Twenty-five minutes of the film is taken up with songs, and only five minutes were completely without any musical score.

In the scene were the Beast is transformed into the Prince, the smoke seen is real, not animated, and was originally used in The Black Cauldron.

Beauty and the Beast was the first full length animated feature film to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, although it lost out to Silence of the Lambs.

It was the first of Disney's animated fetaures to have a pop version of the main song play during the end credits.

The scene at the end of the film, with Belle and the Prince dancing is reused animation from Sleeping Beauty, of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip dancing.

Belle is the only person in the town who wears blue, this was to symbolize how she was different from everyone else. She later goes on to meet the Beast, who also wears blue.

The narration at the beginning of the movie is:
"Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle. Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind. But then, one winter's night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. And as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there. Ashamed of his monstrous form, the beast concealed himself inside his castle, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his 21st year. If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time. As the years passed, he fell into despair and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?"

 


 
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