Can you believe it’s been 30 years since the animated version of Beauty and the Beast was released in cinemas?
I remember watching it when I was a little girl and was just smitten with all the characters inside the mansion.
I loved that the main character was a bookworm and they focused on personality instead of looks.
And let’s not forget Lumiere.
The mansion was full of all sorts of unlikely characters.
It was so much fun watching all these objects be humanized and caring for Belle.
The animation was so creative and imaginative that many of us thought it would be so fun to see these animated objects in real life.
And that’s just what happened recently.
The Wonderful World of Disney decided to make this come true.
In 1992, Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards®.
It has been 30 years now.
Disney wanted to celebrate this distinction by presenting an animated, live-action, blended special of the same movie.
Starring H.E.R. as Belle and Josh Groban as the Beast, Martin Short fills in the role of Lumiere, the maître’d who was transformed into a candlestick.
The original actor who played Lumiere in the 1991 animated film, Jerry Orbach, passed away in 2004.
Angela Lansbury couldn’t reprise her role.
The late, great actress who played Mrs. Potts sadly passed away in October 2022, two months before the special aired on ABC.
Shania Twain played Mrs. Potts.
The production team did not skimp on the production design for this special.
They even hired Emmy® Award-nominated production designer Julio Himede to create the wonderful setting for this special.
They wanted to stay true to the original film and still get the audience’s imagination going.
They gave a stand-up performance.
“Our overall goal was to take the wonderful art created for the original film and explore a different creative approach that celebrates it,” Julio Himede explained. “We didn’t want to take away from or disrespect the art they created, but to complement it and allow viewers to see themes from the film in a different way… The set design relates to the language of the costumes, and they relate to the visual language of the movement. It was a lovely collaboration.”
When you watch the special, it really did stay true to the film and still gives it its own unique identity.
The dancing dishes and dancing chairs are all there.
Cogsworth is also present.
And when they presented Mrs. Potts, the entire set transformed into a bright dining hall.
Belle was getting all giddy about the entire scene.
And so were we.
It really did look like the original 1991 animated film brought to life.
It must have been so magical to witness it on set. Can you imagine bringing this to Broadway?
That would be any child’s (or child who has already grown up) dream to watch this musical come to life.
See the star-studded celebration of the 30th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast in the video below!
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