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

Early illustration of Beauty and the Beast, by Glen Keane, under the Purdum’s direction (Image via Disney)

19. An early non-musical version was mildly terrifying

After the project started to take on momentum in the 1980s, a number of different animators were hired to work on the project. One of the earliest teams included English animation director Richard Purdum and his wife and collaborator, Jill Purdum. The couple was running a commercial animation studio in London at the time.

The “Purdum version” is very, very different from the one that took to the screens in 1991. For one, it’s not a musical at all. It may be hard to believe, especially since the final version was created to be almost a Broadway musical on film. It even went on to become a highly successful musical starting in 1994.

Instead, this music-less version was set in early 18th century France. The immaculately-designed sets and characters reflected the time, from elaborate carriages to ornate dresses to white wigs worn by some of the main players. Animator Tom Sito recalls that “everything looked kind of dull”, thanks in part to the gloomy setting and characterization.

After Richard Purdum showed the first twenty minutes of the storyboarded movie to Peter Schneider (then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation), the reaction was muted. Schneider, along with others involved in the project, came up with multiple suggestions. Nearly everything the team had worked on so far was thrown out. The Purdums left the project in 1989 and it was handed over to Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale.