“The Casanova of all candelabras. He is a suave, vivacious gentleman and as any gracious host would, treats Belle with warmth and to a spectacular show-stopping number, "Be Our Guest". He is instrumental in helping Belle and Beast fall in love.”
―Diamond Edition Website
Lumiere (which translates from French as "light") is a supporting character in Disney's 1991 animated feature film Beauty and the Beast. He is the castle's charismatic and rebellious maître'd, who was turned into a candelabra by the Enchantress' curse.
What role does Lumiere play in the castle in Beauty and the Beast?
Lumiere, transformed into a candelabra in Beauty and the Beast, is a servant in the Beast's castle. He assists Maurice when he arrives at the castle and guides Belle to her father. Lumiere also contributes to Belle and the Beast's romance, preparing the Beast's formal attire and observing their dance.
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How did Lumiere become a candelabra in Beauty and the Beast?
Lumiere, the charismatic maître'd in Beauty and the Beast, was turned into a candelabra by an enchantress. This transformation was a consequence of the prince's refusal to shelter a disguised beggar woman, leading to a curse that turned all castle inhabitants into household objects. The curse's reversal hinged on the Beast's capacity to love and be loved in return.
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Why does Lumiere speak with a French accent in Beauty and the Beast?
In Beauty and the Beast, Lumiere, the elegant footman, speaks with a French accent as the story originates from the French fairy tale 'La Belle et la Bête'. Ewan McGregor voiced and portrayed Lumiere in the 2017 live-action remake, enhancing the character's charm.
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What is the meaning of Lumiere's name in French?
Lumiere, a character from Beauty and the Beast, has a French name that translates to 'light'. This is apt, considering his role as a candlestick in the story, serving in a French castle and speaking with a French accent.
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How does Lumiere's character contribute to the plot of Beauty and the Beast?
Lumiere, the Beast's maître'd in Beauty and the Beast, is transformed into a candelabra when the Beast denies shelter to an enchantress. Despite his new form, Lumiere's kindness shines through when he welcomes Maurice, who finds the castle by chance. Known for his charismatic and rebellious nature, Lumiere often defies the Beast's antisocial rules, causing conflict. He plays a crucial role in helping Belle and the Beast fall in love, and his return to human form marks a significant turning point in the plot.
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Background[]
Lumiere is one of the servants in a French castle ruled by a formerly spoiled, selfish and unkind prince. He served as the castle's maître'd, and is interestingly one of the few inhabitants to actually speak with an (albeit, considerably exaggerated) French accent. He is also somewhat of a showman. Well-liked and respected amongst his peers, Lumiere is a prominent member of the prince's unofficial council of confidants. He also has a notable relationship with one of the castle's many maids, Fifi—a relationship that had been in bloom for a significant number of years, prior to the events of the film.
When the castle was overtaken by a curse placed by a powerful enchantress, Lumiere was turned into a candelabra, while the other servants suffered similar fates, also becoming household objects. The prince, meanwhile, would become a monstrous beast. For the following decade, Lumiere would remain hopeful that the curse would eventually break, restoring the humanity of himself and his allies. This hinged on whether or not the Beast could learn to love another and earn their love in return.
Personality[]
Lumiere is a kind-hearted, clever, and charismatic, yet rebellious maître'd of the Beast. Incredibly social and hospitable towards all of whom he meets, he has a habit of disobeying the firm rules of his antisocial master, frequently resulting in controversy. Nevertheless, after Belle, he is arguably the Beast's closest friend, as the Beast often turns to Lumiere for advice. His free-spirited and rebellious personality often put a severe strain on his friendship with Cogsworth, the majordomo-turned-pendulum clock who prefers to abide strictly by his master's rules to avoid any trouble. As shown many times in the film series, however, Lumiere values Cogsworth like a brother and vice versa.
He is also depicted as a chivalrous ladies' man, as Beast often goes to him for love advice dealing with his feelings for Belle. In addition to this, he can be rather flirtatious and often speaks in a suave, smooth tone. This is most frequently seen during his interaction with Fifi. He is also somewhat of a womanizer, as implied in the Marvel Comics with him fondling two feather duster maids, as well as in The Enchanted Christmas, where he refers to Angelique as an "old flame". Lumiere's admiration and knowledge of romance were also put into good use during the development of the Beast and Belle's relationship throughout the course of the original film; most notably when he gave Beast the idea of bestowing the castle's massive library onto Belle, because of her love of books. Even so, there were instances in which he didn't seem to understand the circumstances of the curse, questioning how much he truly understands love. For example, the evening in which Belle became a prisoner within the castle, Lumiere believed Belle and the Beast could fall in love by midnight of that night, thus breaking the spell. It was Mrs. Potts that had to explain the delicacy of two individuals falling in love, reminding Lumiere that it will take time. After the Beast eventually does fall in love with Belle and releases her because of this, Lumiere again assumed that the spell would be broken, prompting Mrs. Potts to chime in once more, explaining that the romantic affection must be mutual in order for the curse to be lifted.
He is also shown to be very intelligent. Not only he is an expert of romance and love, but he figures out how to break the spell by setting up a romantic relationship for Belle and the Beast to fall in love, as well as coming up with a plan to save the castle by leading the enchanted objects to battle and chase away the villagers, led by Gaston.
In the Special Edition song "Human Again", Lumiere's character is slightly expanded, revealing that he as a human had "a mademoiselle on each arm" and that he was a courtier. In addition, a line from Mrs. Potts in the same song about his actions "certainly causing husbands alarm" implies that he also was not above at the very least courting married women.
Physical appearance[]
Under the curse, Lumiere was a three-armed golden candelabra with leaf-shaped accents, features sculpted in the middle and tallest candle that includes brown eyes and a long crawny nose, and a drop of wax resembling a lock of hair.
As a human, he’s described as a tall man with fair skin, a prominent chin, and bright copper hair tied back into a ponytail with a yellow ribbon, while also retaining the same eyes and nose. He wears a yellow cravat, brown vest with lighter trim, cream shirt with long puffy sleeves and yellow and ochre leaf-patterned cuffs, yellow and ochre culottes (knee-length breeches) with an ochre sash, cream stockings, and brown shoes with gold buckles.
After the fateful day when his master refuses to let a beggar woman into the castle (who was really an enchantress in disguise), Lumiere and the other servants in the castle are turned into household objects, with Lumiere having been turned into a candelabra. He is the first to show any kindness to Maurice, who comes upon the castle after losing his horse and getting lost in the woods. Despite Cogsworth's objections, Lumiere and the other servants comfort Maurice until the Beast arrives. Lumiere shows fear and has no power to save Maurice from being trapped in the dungeon. When Maurice's daughter Belle searches for him, she stumbles upon the castle. Lumiere is the first to spot and shows her the way to her father. Belle trades places to save her sick father and Lumiere gives advice to his master about giving Belle a proper room. The Beast initially doesn't look like he likes this suggestion before taking Lumiere's advice and letting Belle have her own room. Lumiere silently gives the Beast more advice as he escorts Belle to her room. Lumiere and Mrs. Potts, the castle's head of the maids, speak with the Beast about the spell being broken and tries their best to calm his temper. When Belle refuses to attend to dinner, it causes Beast's temper to go out of control. Before heading downstairs with Mrs. Potts to clean up, Lumiere was ordered by Cogsworth to keep watch of Belle's room and inform him if there is a slightest change at once, which he does. Sooner or later, while he was busy flirting with Fifi, Lumiere sees Belle leaving her room and follows her downstairs to the kitchen and gives Belle a warm welcome by singing "Be Our Guest". Belle then decides she wants to go for a tour with him and Cogsworth and they soon pass a stairway that leads to the West Wing which the Beast expressly warned against Belle entering. Sensing Belle's curiosity and knowing their master's reaction if he sees her enter, Lumiere and Cogsworth try to persuade her to visit the library; instead, but Belle sneaks away from them and enters anyway. The Beast turns out to be indeed very angry and confronts Belle, and after frightening her, she leaves. Lumiere and the others tend to an injured Beast after he saves Belle from a pack of wolves to redeem himself for driving her out.
The winter hits and Lumiere notices the Beast has feelings for Belle, he persuades his master to give Belle the library as a gift which he does and soon a strong relationship begins to form between them. A romantic evening is prepared, and their love grows during this time. In an ultimate act of selflessness, Beast allows Belle to return home to tend to her sick father. This crushes Lumiere, along with the rest of the servants, believing the last chance to break the spell has been lost. The castle is soon under attack by a mob led by a rival suitor for Belle, Gaston. Under Cogsworth's orders, Lumiere and the other servants try to barricade the door but fail. Instead, Lumiere came up with a plan to save the castle by leading the servants into a ferocious battle with the mob. At one point, he is almost killed by Gaston's right-hand man, LeFou, but is rescued by Cogsworth, who slides down the banister and pokes Lefou’s rear end. After being rescued by Cogsworth, Lumiere is horrified to see that his girlfriend, Fifi, is grabbed by Tom, one of Gaston’s stooges, who starts plucking some of her white feathers off while laughing maniacally. But unfortunately for Tom, Lumiere comes to Fifi’s rescue by burning Tom’s rear end, causing him to yell in extreme pain, allowing Lumiere to gracefully scoop up his girlfriend in his arms, much to their delight. After that, Lumiere, along with Cogsworth and the other servants, eventually succeeded in saving their home by driving out the whole mob, including LeFou.
Afterward, having presumably been tipped off by Maurice, he rushes to the West Wing with Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts to aid Beast against Gaston, but arrives too late, just after Gaston fatally stabs Beast and falls to his death. Once Beast dies in Belle’s arms and Belle cries over the loss of her love, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts watch as the last petal fall from the enchanted rose and cry as they have supposedly reached the deadline to break the spell. Due to Belle confessing her love for Beast mere seconds before the last petal fell however, magic beams appear and raise Beast off the ground, to heal his injuries and turn him human again while Belle, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts watch in amazement. Shortly after, Belle and Adam share their first kiss which results in the rest of the spell breaking, returning the castle to its former beauty, and Lumiere and the rest of the servants to their human forms. At the film's finale during the royal ball, Lumiere and Cogsworth agree to "let bygones be bygones", but then break into an argument over who told who that Belle would break the curse, an argument that quickly turns into a brawl, though they quickly break it off to watch Belle dance with the Prince. After the argument, Lumiere is seen holding hands with Fifi watching Belle and Adam dance. He is also seen in the ending stained glass window.
Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
Taking place after the events of the first film, a Christmas party is being held at the castle. In during which, Lumiere and the servants reminisce the December in which Belle restored Christmas to the castle, which had previously been prohibited by orders of the Beast. Lumiere claims he was the one who saved Christmas, though Cogsworth prefers to take the credit, himself. Mrs. Potts, the neutral party, gathers the ball's attendants and explains that Christmas was the exact day the enchantress cursed Lumiere, the master, and the other servants, transforming the Prince into a beast and all the entire servants into various objects. The events occurred after Belle's encounter with the wolves, but before the night of ballroom dance in which she and the Beast fell in love.
As the flashback goes, Lumiere was rebellious against an anti-Christmas and wished to celebrate with or without the Beast. Under Belle's leadership, Lumiere and the other servants established an underground Christmas celebration, convincing Cogsworth by enticing him with all the food that'd be present at the Christmas feast. For their attempts, however, Belle was punished and locked in the dungeon. On the day of Christmas, Lumiere and the others visited her and proclaimed that they can celebrate Christmas without the extra accessories (such as mistletoe and a tree), which led to "A Cut Above the Rest", a bantering show tune between himself and Cogsworth.
When Forte, the castle's head maestro, becomes evil by believing the Beast will lose attention after becoming human by Belle, he begins to tear them apart with no true avail, until the climax, where Forte uses all his power to destroy the castle and everyone in it. Lumiere helps battle Forte, protect the rose with Cogsworth, and eventually, Forte is defeated.
Lumiere celebrates alongside the rest of the castle when the Beast puts an end to his hatred for Christmas. Back the present day, he and Cogsworth eventually come to the consensus that it was Belle who ultimately saved Christmas at the castle.
Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World.
He is the protagonist in the short Fifi's Folly. On the fifth anniversary of Lumiere's first date with Fifi, Lumiere grows so nervous to the point that he cleans himself excessively and turns to Belle for advice, by walking with her in the garden and reciting what he plans to say to Fifi to her. Fifi overhears this and believes that Lumière and Belle are having an affair behind her back. In reality, Lumiere has planned a surprise snow ride around the castle gardens with Fifi.
To get back at Lumiere, Fifi attempts to seduce Cogsworth, who is apparently not interested. In the end, things are cleared up and Lumiere and Fifi go for the ride, but the punch bowl they are sitting in slips off the edge of the balcony and hangs over the moat (the same chasm that Gaston will eventually meet his doom). Lumiere holds onto Fifi for while hanging for dear life and tells her he loves her. Before they can fall, Belle, Cogsworth, and a few more servants arrive and get them back to safety.
His most notable role in the show is in "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner" in which he arrives as a restaurant critic, but none of the employees know this until halfway, due to the sneaky Mortimer Mouse tricking them into believing he's the critic. Once exposed, Lumiere burns his behind having him rush out the club. At the end of that same episode, the advertisement Lumiere's Dining By Candlelight was seen on screen.
In Once Upon a Studio, Lumiere is seen prominently outside during Goofy's failed first attempt at the group photo. He and Fifi are later seen listening to Winnie the Pooh as he sings a solo line of "When You Wish Upon a Star" and they see him being bounced by Tigger and they join in singing the last line as the group photo is successfully taken for Disney's 100th anniversary.
He plays a minor role in both of the games, but his role in Kingdom Hearts II is considerably more prominent, taking place after his world was restored from the darkness. The Beast locks his servants in the Dungeon after Xaldin came and tried to turn him into a Heartless. After being freed by Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts explain Beast's past and the importance of the Beast's rose. It is assumed that after Sora defeated Xemnas at The World That Never Was, Lumiere reclaimed his human form (considering that the Beast recovered his human form).
Lumiere serves as Belle's leading assistant in this game, where the Beast's castle is overrun by strange creatures, calling for a heroine (given magic by the Fairy Godmother) to journey into the home and rescue the inhabitants. Unlike Enchanted Journey, Lumiere isn't reduced to a minor character, and he is accompanied by Cogsworth in the game.
Like other iconic Disney characters, Lumiere is kidnapped and taken to the Wasteland as part of an evil witch's plot to dominate the "Toon World". He can be found in the Never Land jungles after Beast (who's also been kidnapped) asks Mickey to find him.
Lumiere is currently featured as a staple character at the Disney theme parks, around the world; specifically at the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris. He has recently starred in a new promotional ad for the Disney theme parks, performing "Be Our Guest".
In Mickey's PhilharMagic, Lumiere is the first Disney character Donald encounters on his journey. During their meeting, Lumiere sings "Be Our Guest" while Donald tries to retrieve Mickey's sorcerer hat.
In Storytime With Belle and Fantasy Faire, Lumiere is the host along with Belle during the play based on the movie guests are to perform. For this role, a new Lumiere audio-animatronic was created to have a functioning LED eyes and working lip-movement. A similar audio-animatronic is used in the Royal Theatre at Fantasy Faire in Disneyland when Mr. Smythe and Mr. Jones join Belle to re-enact Beauty and the Beast.
In the spectacular Disney Dreams!, Lumiere performs "Be Our Guest" as part of Peter Pan's magic.
A puppet version of Lumiere also appears in Mickey and the Magician, where he, again, performs "Be Our Guest" and introduces Belle and Beast's segment of the show, shortly thereafter.
In Shanghai, Lumiere appears as part of Belle and Beast's display in Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, as well as Belle's wall carving inside of Enchanted Storybook Castle. In Lumiere's Kitchen at the Shanghai Disney Hotel, a portrait of Lumiere and Cogsworth is featured, which transitions to portray the duo in both their human and cursed forms.
Onboard the Disney Dream cruise ship, in the show Believe, Lumiere is the last "magic maker" to help Dr. Greenway's imagination develop. He is accompanied by Mrs. Potts and Belle.
An inanimate candelabra resembling Lumiere can be seen on a table alongside a clock resembling Cogsworth, in the ABC series Once Upon a Time episode "Skin Deep".
In the film Enchanted, a woman dressed up like a candelabra resembling Lumiere appears in one of the live-action scenes of the film.
The concept artwork depicted his human form differently from the finished version, where he’s shown to have wore a rococo suit that also contains a gold jacket, vest, and thin knee pants. The same concept art also depicted his hair curled and powdered that symbolizes his form as a candelabra, rather than the final version of his human form.
Before Jerry Orbach was cast, David Ogden Stiers, who ended up being cast as Cogsworth, originally tried to audition for Lumiere.
According to Amphibia creator Matt Braly, he was inspired to pursue a career in animation when a Pixar animator talked about working in animation while drawing Lumiere during a "career day" at high school.[1]
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Lumiere on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Wiki
Lumière on the Heroes Wiki
Lumiere on Kingdom Hearts Wiki
