This article is about the live action character from Beauty and the Beast. For other articles with the same name, see Beast (disambiguation).
Beast is the titular male protagonist of the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
He is loosely based on both the character from the original fairy tale and the 1991 animated film.
Background[]
In this version, Beast is wittier and has a very dry, English sense of humor. While he retains some of his animated counterpart's initial traits like selfishness, being unkind, and having a spoiled nature, the prince was turned into a beast by the Enchantress for his arrogance, as well as making an explicit reference to his old fixation on beauty above all else. Additionally, unlike the original 1991 animated version where his cruel nature is not explained, a backstory in the live-action version reveals the Prince/Beast's terrible past; the Prince/Beast was raised as a good person by his kind-hearted mother who died when he was a child, leaving his crueler father to raise him alone, which resulted in his cruel behavior. However, he still hints at a strong interest in literature when he shows Belle his library, as well as his claim that he had "an expensive education", and is later found reading the book King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This contrasted with the "Human Again" sequence from the Special Edition of the animated film, in which the Beast reluctantly revealed he had not fully learned how to read and needed Belle to teach him. The live-action film also features an original song for the Beast, "Evermore", sung after Belle departs to save her father, where he mourns his belief that he will never find love while aware that Belle's memory will be with him forever.
Physical appearance[]
In the 2017 remake, the Beast is an anthropomorphic lion-like monster with a pair of large, ram-like horns. He initially wears a ragged blue cloak, but dresses more refined after befriending Belle. For the ballroom dance scene, he wears a dark blue dress jacket, vest, and pants trimmed with gold and a white dress shirt underneath. For the "Evermore" sequence, he wears a white long sleeve shirt, dark pants, and a blue cloak trimmed with silver. In human form, he has blonde hair and blue eyes (same as the Beast). At the beginning of the film, he wears a grey dress shirt with a dark green dress jacket and white wig; at the end of the film, he wears a white dress shirt, a light blue dress jacket, and his hair tied back.
Role in the film[]
Introduced as a Prince who was selfish and unkind, the Prince rejected an appeal for shelter from an elderly woman, which led to her transforming into a beautiful Enchantress. The Prince tried to apologize but it was too late and as punishment for his cruelty and selfishness, the Prince is transformed into a hideous Beast as the spell is cast all around the castle. In order to break the curse, the Prince must come to love another and earn her love in return before the last petal falls from the Enchanted Rose, or he will remain a hideous Beast forever and his staff will become simple objects.
Years later, when Maurice explores the castle grounds around him, the Beast approaches him as he takes a rose that he was intending to give to his daughter Belle. Dismissing Maurice as a common thief, the Beast locks him in his dungeon. When Belle later arrives at the castle to rescue her father, she chooses to take her father's place. The Beast then releases Maurice and sends him back to their village.
The Beast later approaches the dining room where he notices Lumière has prepared dinner for both him and Belle, much to the Beast's temper. He is further angered when he learns Lumiere and Cogsworth gave Belle her own bedroom in the East Wing, but still requests Belle to join him for dinner at his servants' insistence. The Enchanted objects tell him to be gentle, but when Belle refuses his request due to her status as his prisoner, the Beast angrily storms off. The Beast goes to the West Wing where the Enchanted Rose is at, grabbing the Enchanted Mirror to show him Belle. As the mirror shows him the girl in her room, another petal falls from the rose.
Later, Belle enters the West Wing and almost touches the Enchanted Rose, but the Beast angrily scares her away, causing Belle to leave the castle in terror. Belle then rides on Philippe to escape while being chased by a pack of wolves, just as the Beast comes to the rescue, but is injured in process. Later, the Beast is taken to the castle where he is told to control his temper just as Belle puts him to sleep.
Later after singing the musical number "Days in the Sun", Lumiere explains to Belle that if the last petal falls, the Prince will remain a Beast forever and all the castle residents become inanimate objects, but Mrs. Potts stops Cogsworth from revealing how the curse might be broken. The Beast is fully healed the next day. With the Beast healed, he takes Belle to the library as she looks at the library around her in excitement. Later, Belle and the Beast walk outside together just as the couple looks at the frozen lake around them. Belle then teaches the Beast how to be gentle to Philippe and later sings the musical number "Something There" just as she and the Beast start a relationship. Later, Belle thanks the Beast for saving her from the wolves; he thanks her in turn for not leaving him behind to die. After Belle mentions how the villagers think she is funny, the Beast suggests that they "run away" together. Taking her back to the library, the Beast shows Belle a book from the Enchantress related to the curse she casted on her. Belle uses the book to transport herself and the Beast into her old home in Paris where she sings to him about her lost childhood. When Belle reveals she never asked Maurice what happened to her mother, the Beast finds a doctor's mask in the house and they both realize Belle's mother died from plague, prompting the Beast to apologize to Belle for calling her father a thief.
Back at the Beast's Castle, the Beast wears a formal suit while Belle wears a ball gown just as she and the Beast dance together during the musical number "Beauty and the Beast" as Mrs. Potts sings in front of the dancing couple.
As the couple arrives at the balcony, Belle tells the Beast that her father taught her how to dance. Showing empathy to Belle, the Beast gives her the Enchanted Mirror to help her see her father. Upon seeing Maurice being attacked by an angry mob, Belle is tasked to go find her father and rescue her. As Belle leaves the castle to find her father, the Beast sadly informs Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Plumette that he released her. They recognize that the Beast letting Belle go like this proves that he loves her, but the curse has not been broken as she apparently doesn't love him in turn. The servants sadly leave as the Beast sings the musical number "Evermore" about how Belle's influence will remain with him forever.
Later, Belle reveals the Beast's existence to Gaston and the villagers when she shows them his image on the Enchanted Mirror to prove her father's sanity. However, upon seeing this, Gaston tells the villagers that the Beast is a menace to their safety, locking Belle in a carriage so that she cannot warn the Beast as Gaston leads a mob to kill him. While the servants fight off the mob, the Beast is injured by Gaston who fires a pistol on him. Belle arrives soon after, having freed herself from the carriage, and her appearance affirms to the Beast that she didn't betray him to Gaston on purpose. The Beast then finds the strength to fight back and grabs Gaston by the neck. Though tempted to drop Gaston to his death, the Beast's sense of humanity surfaces and he spares Gaston while ordering him to leave. However, as the Beast reunites with Belle, Gaston attacks again, injuring the Beast severely just as Gaston falls to his death. Belle then cries over the Beast's motionless body just as the last petal falls.
As the last petal falls, the Enchantress arrives to the spot where Belle cries over the Beast's dead body. Hearing Belle affirm that she loves the Beast, the Enchantress uses her magic to restore the Enchanted Rose as the Beast is transformed back into his normal form, the Prince. With the spell broken and the castle fixed, the Prince and Belle re-new their relationship and dance in the ballroom with the other residents of the castle.
