20 Things You Didn’t Know About Beauty and the Beast

The Beast’s final transformation in Beauty and the Beast (Image via Disney)

3. The Beast’s name is Adam (kind of)

The truth is, the creators of the 1991 film never actually gave the Beast a name. He was simply “the Beast”. In DVD commentary, producer Don Hahn said that “As filmmakers, we never named him because there was never going to be a sequel where he turns back into the Beast. A lot of the fans came up with Adam, but we didn’t name him. To us, he’s not Adam. Had we named him, we would have named him a French name because the fairy tale takes place in France. So he would have been Francois or something. But if he’s Adam to you, he can stay Adam!”

In a licensed CD-ROM trivia game (my god, remember CD-ROMs?) the character was revealed in a riveting piece of writing that said: “The Prince’s name is Adam.” It seems like at least there should be some fireworks involved or something.

Speaking of the Beast’s transformation back into a human, some people involved were less than thrilled. Animator Glen Keane said “I had them record Belle saying, ‘Do you think you could grow a beard?’ It was a good idea. It’s not in the movie. We should have put it in there.” Paige O’Hara, who voiced Belle, was also a fan of the line.