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

The Beast, Beauty and the Beast (Image via Disney)

2. The Beast was originally way more terrifying

Another dropped sequence would have shown the Beast in a more frightening light. He would have been glimpsed dragging an animal back to consume it in his castle. By the way, there was another sequence where Gaston would have visited the insane asylum where he intended to imprison Belle’s father, Maurice. Both sequences were considered too gruesome or terrifying to include in the final cut and were dropped before much progress was made.

Keep an eye out, though, and you might see evidence of the Beast’s more horrifying nature in the small details. In a corner of the forbidden west wing of the Beast’s castle, you might spot an animal skeleton, though it’s heavily camouflaged in shadow.

In general, Beauty and the Beast may still be a little darker than you remember. There’s the whole plot about a young boy being turned into a monster because he’s… being a brat? Scared of a strange woman appearing at his front door? There is also, of course, the standard terror inherent in the story if you think about it for too long. Belle sure does love her captor, who is literally a scary monster with anger management issues.

However, it’s not like the society outside the castle is great, either. Gaston, beloved by everyone else in the town, straight up say “It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting ideas. And thinking.” Yeah, we’re appropriately horrified by it, but almost everyone else in the village is head over heels for the guy.