Beauty & The Beast Secretly Featured Another Disney Princess Introduced 32 Years Earlier

Beauty and the Beast has a couple of fun Easter eggs, but a very subtle one features another Disney Princess who made her debut 32 years earlier. After a couple of critical and commercial failures, Disney rose to power again in what’s now known as the “Disney Renaissance”. This period between 1989 and 1999 saw Disney produce critically and commercially successful animated movies again, starting in 1989 with The Little Mermaid. Among the Disney Renaissance movies is Beauty and the Beast, released in 1991 and directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise.

Based on the 1756 fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast tells the story of Belle, who is imprisoned in the Beast’s castle in exchange for her father’s freedom. The Beast is a prince living under a curse, and to break it, he must learn to love and be loved in return before the last petal of an enchanted rose falls. Beauty and the Beast made sure the audience got to know Belle before her journey with the Beast began, and at one point, she talked about her favorite book, which told the story of another Disney Princess.

Belle’s Favorite Book In Beauty & The Beast Was Sleeping Beauty

Belle Told A Familiar Story During The Opening Musical Number

Belle was a stranger in her own town for being a book-lover, the daughter of an eccentric inventor, and for dreaming of adventure and wanting more than “this provincial life”. During the first musical number in Beauty and the Beast, “Belle”, the title character talks about her love for books, and at one moment, she sits on the side of a fountain to read her favorite book, and two sheep get close to her to take a look at the book. Belle sings about “far-off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise”, which many interpret as Belle’s book telling the story of Aladdin.

However, while Aladdin is set in a far-off place and features swordfights and magic spells, the title thief isn’t a prince in disguise, but a young man disguised as a prince. Because of this, a Reddit user realized that Belle’s favorite book is actually Sleeping Beauty, as it’s set in a different kingdom (but still in France), Prince Phillip fights dragon Maleficent with a sword, there’s a lot of magic, and Prince Phillip is “a prince in disguise” when he meets Aurora at the forest, as she doesn’t know he’s a prince.

Further supporting this is the part of the song when Belle says “here’s where she meets Prince Charming but she won’t discover that it’s him ‘til chapter three”, and the illustration in the book is reminiscent of the first encounter between Prince Phillip and Aurora in the forest. While some Reddit users continued to support the Aladdin theory by arguing that Aladdin was a Prince as that’s what he wished for, the rest of Belle’s description, along with the illustration, is more fitting with Sleeping Beauty.

Belle’s Favorite Book Also Foreshadowed Her Own Story In Beauty & The Beast

Belle Ended Up Repeating The Story She Loved

Belle’s favorite book may or may not be Sleeping Beauty, but what’s true is that it ended up foreshadowing her own story with the Beast, with some details a bit different. Though not exactly a “far-off place”, the Beast’s castle was far from the rest of the town and no one dared go inside; the fight between Gaston and the Beast wasn’t a swordfight, but it was definitely an intense scene; a magic spell is what turned the Prince into a Beast and his servants into household objects, and the Beast was a prince in disguise.

Although Belle knew the Beast was once a human Prince when she explored the castle and found his portrait, it wasn’t until the third act (or “chapter three”) that she saw him in his real form. It’s not uncommon for Disney movies to include Easter eggs and references to past movies, and Beauty and the Beast might have one of the most subtle and interesting references to another Disney classic.

Source: Reddit.