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Disney's live-action Beauty And The Beast is a gorgeous reimagining of the beloved 1991
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animated classic and it's loaded with callbacks and easter eggs to the animated movie that
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many even casual viewers will notice.
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But the new movie also includes many delicious details that only super-fans might spot the
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first time around!
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and in this video, I'm going to reveal 17
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easter eggs and details that only real fans will notice in the new Beauty And The Beast.
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And by the way, I'll be including some fascinating facts from my interviews with Beauty And The
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Beast director Bill Condon and composer Alan Menken about how they used deleted scenes,
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characters, lyrics and dialogue from the original animation in the new movie.
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Just before I start, I'm giving away this amazing Disney hardback book from DK, which
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is loaded with behind-the-scenes artwork, photos, and information about Disney's live-action
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and animated movies over the years.
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For a chance to win, all you have to do is subscribe and leave a comment about the new
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Beauty And The Beast movie or your favourite easter egg from the film.
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And for bonus ways to enter, check out the Gleam link in the video description below.
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Ok, quick warning: there are spoilers ahead, so if you've not seen the movie yet, why not
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check out my spoiler-free review, then come back here after you've seen the film!
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When Beast suggests Belle use the enchanted map to 'travel to the one place [she's] always
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wanted to see', the destination she chooses is a lovely nod to a Beauty And The Beast
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cameo in another Disney animated movie!
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Can you guess where I'm going with this?
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Yes, Belle and Beast travel to Paris, where Beast suggests they visit Notre Dame, all
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of which is very exciting because Belle popped up in Disney's animated feature The Hunchback
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of Notre Dame, where, in typical Belle style, she walked along the street while reading
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a book.
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There's an interesting moment during the opening song "Belle" where Belle enquires if Monsieur
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Jean has lost something again, and he replies that he believes he has, but he can't remember
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what.
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Given that Emma Watson's best known role before Beauty And The Beast was as Hermione Grainger
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in the Harry Potter series, this feels like a homage to the scene in the first film, The
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Philosopher's Stone, where after Neville gets his Remembrall, he says to Hermione that he
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can't remember what he'd forgotten.
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Although Harry Potter fans may well love this line, Beauty And The Beast director Bill Condon
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has said that it's a happy coincidence because the reason Monsieur Jean can't remember what
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he's forgotten is because of the Enchantress's spell and how it's made the townspeople forget
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that the castle and the enchanted objects ever existed.
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So, what Jean can't remember here is that he's actually Mr Potts, and his conversation
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with Belle is some clever foreshadowing for the reveal later on that he's married to Mrs
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Potts.
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Perhaps a somewhat unfortunate consequence of the changed dialogue is that we never got
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that brilliant line from the original where the baker rudely interrupts Belle with the
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line, "Marie!
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The baguettes!" - because he's bored of listening to her talk about the book she's been reading.
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In the new movie, Belle's conversation with Monsieur Jean replaces that conversation with
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the baker, but there's a nod with a twist to that moment as Belle still gets
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brushed off, but this time it's by Monsieur Jean when he says the book she's returning
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to Pere Robert sounds boring.
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His line is also a joke at the expense of the story of Romeo and Juliet which is the
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book Belle's just been reading in this film and also the one she taught the Beast to read
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in the original animation.
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In the new movie, the Beast also pokes fun at Romeo and Juliet when he introduces Belle
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to his library saying there are so many things that are better to read than that Shakespearian
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tragedy about heartache and pining.
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Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la BĂȘte is one of director Bill Condon's favourite
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movies and he found it a source of inspiration for his own 21st-century remake of the Beauty
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And The Beast story.
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For instance, there's a different set-up to the 1991 movie for Belle's father.
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In this version, Maurice is taken prisoner by Beast for picking a white rose.
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Given Condon's love for the French film, his use of the white rose is a hat-tip to Cocteau's
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film where Belle's father is caught by the Beast when he takes a rose from Beast's garden,
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the idea for which itself came from the original mid-18th-century French story.
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And Beauty And The Beast's filmmakers included a nice easter egg and homage to the author
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of that very first Beauty And The Beast story, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, when
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they named Belle's hometown Villeneuve.
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Shortly after Maurice enters the Beast's castle, seeking shelter, Cadenza the harpsichord starts
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playing 'Be Our Guest', but suddenly stops when Maurice goes into the room.
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This is a delightful easter egg to the fact that, in the animated movie, 'Be Our Guest'
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was initially actually going to be performed by the enchanted objects for Maurice, rather
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than for Belle.
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Maestro Cadenza, who's married to the Italian opera singer Madame de Garderobe and becomes
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a harpsichord under the curse, is a new character created for the live-action adaptation.
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But Cadenza's inclusion in this film is still a hat-tip to Villeneuve's original story as
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well as to LePrince de Beaumont's adaptation a few years later, which feature Beauty playing
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the harpsichord in her own home, and also reveal that Beast has a harpsichord in his
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castle.
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On top of that, Maestro Cadenza is also a little musical homage to the 1997 direct-to-video
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midquel, Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, in which the main villain was the
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music conductor and composer Maestro Forte, who became a pipe organ during the curse.
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The live-action film makes this connection when, just before 'Be Our Guest', Cogsworth
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asks Cadenza to 'play quietly', and Candeza replies, 'Sotto voce, of course.'
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Sotto voce and Forte are musical terms which are basically opposites of each other, which
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is fitting because Cadenza is a good character and Forte was villain.
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The songs in the new Beauty And The Beast also include homages to a variety of classic
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musicals.
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For "Be Our Guest", director Bill Condon has confirmed the new musical number includes
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over a dozen references including West Side Story, Singin' In The Rain, Cabaret, and Chicago,
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which Condon wrote the screenplay for, as well as nods to Esther Williams and Busby
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Berkeley, both of which also influenced the 1991 version.
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Plus, there's also a little reference to Moulin Rouge, which starred Ewan McGregor, who plays
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Lumiere in Beauty And The Beast.
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When Disney were going through the music archives of the animated film, they came across some
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original lyrics by the late Howard Ashman which didn't make it into the final film back
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in 1991.
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So, director Bill Condon decided to put them to good use in his live-action version.
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And when I interviewed Bill Condon recently, I asked him what those new lyrics were, and
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he told me that they're the last lines that Emma Thompson sings as Mrs Potts when she
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reprises the Beauty And The Beast song at the end of the movie, which are: "Winter turns
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to spring, famine turns to feast, nature points the way, nothing left to say, Beauty and the
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Beast."
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But that's not all, folks!
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When I interviewed Alan Menken, he told me that some of Howard Ashman's unused lyrics
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from the 1991 movie also made it into the live-action version of the song Gaston!
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The lyrics in question begin with Gaston singing: 'When I hunt, I sneak up with my quiver, and
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beasts of the field say a prayer; first, I carefully aim for the liver, then I shoot
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from behind.'
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By the way, Menken told me that those lyrics didn't make it into the original film as 'sneaking
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up and shooting an animal in the liver was probably a bit much for a younger audience'.
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Music boxes play an important part in the new film as Belle's father, Maurice, is an
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artist who makes them.
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But they're also a call-back to the animated feature.
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In early drafts of the 1991 script, Mrs Potts' son Chip only had one sentence of dialogue,
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and the other scenes where he appears in the film as we know it today were going to feature
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in his place a Music Box character which spoke only by making little chiming noises.
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But when the producers realised the movie would benefit from a child's perspective,
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they increased Chip's role and got rid of the music box character.
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After Chip says his famous line from the original animation, 'Momma, there's a girl in the castle',
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he follows it up by asking Mrs Potts what kind of tea the girl likes and then lists
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a few different types including chamomile, which is a delicious easter egg to the original
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name the filmmakers were going to give the talking teapot in their animated movie.
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Yes, back in 1991, Mrs Potts was very nearly named Mrs Chamomile, after the soothing herbal
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tea, but the filmmakers decided to go with the name we know and love today as they thought
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'chamomile' might be difficult for young children to say.
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Toward to the start of the movie, we see Belle teaching a young girl to read and pointing
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to a page with a Blue Bird on it.
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The page says "The Blue Bird that flies over the dark wood", which is a nod to the blue-birds
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that fly over the wood at the start of the animated movie, and also to the blue-coloured
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bird that appears during the song "Something There".
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When we hear that song in the original film, Belle is trying to bring out the Beast's gentler
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side by encouraging him to feed the birds in his garden.
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At first, they're all scared away with the exception of a little blue bird who jumps
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into his hand.
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By the way, look closely at what Belle's wearing as she teaches the young girl and you'll see
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that her cardigan has blue birds embroidered into the pattern.
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After Gaston and LeFou finish their big song-and-dance number at the tavern, Gaston compliments his
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loyal side-kick on how great he is and asks, 'How is it that no girl has snatched you up
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yet?', and LeFou replies with a nice easter egg to Frozen, saying that, 'I've been told
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I'm clingy, but I really don't get it.'
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Josh Gad, of course, plays both LeFou and Frozen's Olaf, an adorable snowman who just
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loves introducing himself to the movie's human characters with the line, 'Hi, I'm Olaf, and
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I like warm hugs', and who's also happy to melt for the right person.
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As well as being a Frozen easter egg, LeFou's reply also foreshadows what the movie's director
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has called the character's "gay moment" at the end of the movie.
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Just outside the tavern's doors, there are two wooden carvings of wild boar heads, and
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one is used by the angry mob to try to ram down the door to the Beast's castle.
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Although this is a change from the animated film, where the villagers chop down a tree
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to batter the Beast's door, it's actually a really nice hint to the design of the Beast.
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Wild boars were one of the animals that Disney artist Glen Keane took inspiration from when
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he was creating the animated Beast's look â in fact, if you look at the Beast in the
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1991 movie, you'll see he has the tusks of a wild boar.
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But long before Disney's much-loved classic, the Beast was already associated with boars.
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Back in the late nineteenth century, for example, the English artist Walter Crane portrayed
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the Beast as a wild boar in his illustrations for children's picture books.
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Speaking of boars, the coat of arms in the Beast's castle consists of a lion, a boar,
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and letters WD.
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Just as boars influenced the Beast's design in the animated movie, so too did lions â with
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the Beast having a lion's mane.
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As for the WD monogram, that's a nod to Walt Disney!
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When Belle is surprised that Beast is able to complete a quote she reads from Shakespeare's
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A Midsummer Night's Dream, he explains that he had 'an expensive education.'
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This is a change from the animation where the Beast has trouble reading, but it's also
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a reference to the role that made actor Dan Stevens, who plays the Beast, famous.
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In the popular period drama Downton Abbey, Stevens's character Matthew Crawley also enjoyed
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an expensive education, which included a private boys-only boarding-school followed by Oxford
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University.
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And interestingly enough, that's mirrored in Stevens' own life as he too attended a
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private boarding school before going on to study at Cambridge University.
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At the end of this movie, Belle looks at the Prince and asks, 'How would you feel about
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growing a beard?', which director Bill Condon told me is an unused line of dialogue that
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lyricist Howard Ashman came up with for the animated classic.
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Interestingly enough, Glen Keane, who designed the animated Beast for that film, didn't want
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the Beast to turn back into the Prince at the end of the movie so had Paige O'Hara who
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played Belle record that line about the beard, though, of course, they didn't end up using
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it back then.
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Now, I'd love to hear if you spotted any other easter eggs or interesting references in the
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new Beauty And The Beast movie.
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And how do you think it compared to the original animated classic?
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Don't forget to comment and subscribe for your chance to win this awesome hardback Disney
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book!
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Coming very shortly, I've got more detailed breakdowns of Beauty And The Beast, so be
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sure to turn on your notifications for Flicks And The City and you'll get those as soon
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as I post them.
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And in the meantime, tap or click anywhere here for some more videos you might like!
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers.