• 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.

• Unadjusted for inflation, this is the most expensive musical ever made (production budget: $160 million).

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

• Belle, in this film, is the inventor, instead of Maurice. The reason behind this, is because Emma Watson wanted Belle to get her own back story, about why she is treated differently by the other villagers. Emma Watson, and the production team, even joked Belle invented the washing machine, so Belle can do her other hobby, reading books, while the clothes are being washed.

• Emma Watson came up with the idea to have her character wear boots in this film, instead of the black flats that Belle wore in the 1991 film. Watson claimed that because her character was going to be an inventor, the first thing that was to go was the flats. And unlike the film, Belle’s hair is worn either in a messy bun, or straight down, instead of a ponytail, as well as wearing a few cloths on her blouse, instead of an apron.

• Belle’s ballroom gown required 3,000 feet of thread and over 12,000 designer hours to complete. It was accentuated with 2,160 Swarovski crystals.

• There are a few differences between the look of the Beast here and the 1991 original. His horns curve back and point slightly outward. In the original, the Beast’s horns curved forward and pointed straight up. The original Beast’s tail was like that of a wolf. In this remake, his tale resembles that of a lion. The new Beast’s face is more human-like while the original’s was more animalistic and could have his jaw come out to form a wolf-like snout.

• The Beast was originally going to be created by having Dan Stevens in prosthetic make-up. During post-production, a change was made to recreate the Beast face with CGI, altering the look of the Beast. The final Beast that is seen in the film, is Dan Stevens in the full body suit created by the Elseys, but with a digital face, despite Bill Condon’s wish to have the Beast be a completely practical make-up creation.

• In this version, the Beast turns out to be quite educated (makes sense for a prince) and absolutely does read, unlike the animated version.

• As in the original fairy tale, Belle’s father in this film is caught by the Beast when he attempts to take a rose for his daughter, instead of Beast accusing him of trespassing, as was the case in the 1991 film. This in turn leads to Belle’s (now more logical than purely sentimental) offer to trade places with her father, as it was she who asked him to bring her a rose.

Published in Dawn, Young World March 25th, 2017