"Beauty and the Beast" celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with the release of a new Blu-ray edition and a special screening in New York City. After hearing anecdotes from the cast and crew and scouring the Blu-ray extras, we've rounded up a list of fun facts even the biggest Disney fan might not have known about this classic film.
Scroll down for a look at 11 things you probably didn't know about "Beauty and the Beast."
Mrs. Potts was originally named Mrs. Chamomile.
During a special anniversary screening of "Beauty and the Beast" at New York City's Lincoln Center on September 18, producer Don Hahn revealed to the audience Mrs. Potts surprising original name: Mrs. Chamomile.
"For Mrs. Potts, we originally tried to find the most soothing possible association and we came up with Mrs. Chamomile," Hahn told Vanity Fair at the event. "Chamomile is a very, soothing herbal tea, but nobody could pronounce it. So Howard [Ashman] said, 'Let’s call her Mrs. Potts.'"
Paige O'Hara (Belle) ad-libbed a joke about the Beast growing a beard after his transformation that almost made it into the movie.
Paige O'Hara was the voice behind Belle, and during the course of creating the movie she became rather attached to the Beast as, well, a beast. When recording the scene after he transforms into a human again, she couldn't help adding in an extra line.
"I love Glen Keane's Beast, that's why I ad-libbed 'Do you think you can grow a beard?'" O'Hara tells INSIDER. "It almost made it in the movie. But Glen's very proud of his prince and I understand why. He really is the most beautiful, I think, of all the Disney princes in history."
That wasn't the only improvised line — Cogsworth's joke about gifts the Beast could give Belle was not in the original script.
When the Beast asks Cogsworth and Lumiere for ideas about a special thing he could do for Belle, Cogsworth replies: "Well there's the usual things — flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep."
The line was improv'd by actor David Ogden Stiers, and the directors liked it so much they actually kept it in.
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