| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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The source of the spell on the Beast is not revealed until the end of the book. The prince is the innocent victim of a wicked fairy. |
A prince denies an enchantress disguised as an old beggar shelter in the castle from the cold. For this she transforms him into a beast. She gives him a magic mirror and a rose. To break the spell he must love another and earn her love before the last petal falls on his 21st birthday or remain a beast forever. |
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The beast is shaped like a man but with the head of a wild boar. |
The beast has the head of a bison, the mane of a lion, the body of a bear and the tail of a wolf.
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The antagonists of the book are Beauty's older sisters. The resent her beauty and virtue. They scheme to delay her return to the Beast so that he will kill her. The Beast is never threatened in the book other than by the enchantress during his youth. |
Gaston is the bad guy. He conspires to imprison Belle's father if she refuses his proposal. He also tries to kill the Beast. Belle is never threatened in the movie. |
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Beauty’s father is a wealthy merchant with three sons and three daughters. Beauty’s sisters are proud and vain. They laugh at Beauty because she prefers to read books. They refuse offers of marriage to eminent merchants preferring to marry royalty. Belle was courted but respectfully said she was too young to marry and preferred to stay with her father for a while longer.
Gaston is not in the book |
Belle is an only child. She is non-conformist bookworm and ridiculed by everyone but her father. Belle’s father is an eccentric inventor.
Gaston mocks her bookish behavior, but still wishes to marry her. Gaston is a muscle bound jerk. She rejects his advances.
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The father suddenly loses his entire fortune and has to re-locate to a small country house. The two older daughters thought they could be taken in by their lovers and stay in town, but were forsaken due to their poverty. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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Various gentlemen offer to marry Beauty, but she again refuses as to be with her father. Laboring with her brothers and father made her grow stronger and healthier. The two older sisters did nothing to help in the new country home; instead they despise Beauty for being content with their poor situation. |
Gaston is Belle’s only suitor. The family lives in a modest house the entire time.
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After a year in the modest country home, the father receives a letter telling him a ship has arrived with some of his property. The two older sisters asked their father for fine clothes, Beauty asked for a single rose. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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The father went to check on his property that came in with the ship but found it was seized to pay his debts. |
The father travels to a fair to sell his new invention; a wood chopping machine.
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The father gets lost in the woods thirty miles from home and comes upon a palace. He enters the palace where he eats and drinks then sleeps for the night. |
On his way to the fair, he gets lost, loses his horse then finds/enters a palace. He is offered service by the enchanted inhabitants. |
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The father awakens the next morning to see new clothes laid out for him along with breakfast. He then picks a rose from the garden prior to leaving. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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The Beast confronts and threatens the father for stealing his roses. The father begs for mercy, mentioning his daughters. The Beast allows the father to return home provided he or one of his daughters return to be punished (by death). The father intends to return within three months to be punished. Beast sends the father away on his horse with a chest of gold. |
The Beasts discovers and imprisons Maurice. Phillipe the horse runs home. |
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The father returns home and tells his children of the “fatal adventure” and gives Beauty the branch of roses. The sisters blame Beauty for their father’s misfortune; because of the rose she asked for. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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Beauty says she will offer herself to be punished by the Beast. The brothers want to kill the beast or die trying, but their father says the beast is too powerful. The father refuses to allow Beauty to offer herself to the beast as he is old and not long to live. |
Beauty offers to stay at the palace over her father’s objections. |
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Beauty insists upon going back to the palace and her sisters are happy that she will suffer for it was her virtue that made them envious. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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The father keeps the chest of gold a secret from his children so that they will not go back to the city and instead remain in the countryside. He does trust Beauty with the secret of the gold; she in turn tells her father that two gentlemen courted her sisters in his absence; she begs her father to give his consent and fortunes so that they can marry. Beauty loves her sisters despite their wickedness. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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When Beauty departs to the palace, her brothers are truly concerned, but her sisters rubbed their eyes with onion so that they would shed fake tears when she left. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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Beauty and her father returned to the palace where they found a table of food waiting for them. When the Beast roared, the father bid his daughter farewell. Beast asked if Beauty came willingly; she says yes. Beast then thanks the father for his honesty and tells him to leave in the morning, warning him never to return. |
Belle offers to stay at the palace over her father’s objections.
She rides on Phillipe the horse back to the palace. Beast accepts her offer. |
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While Beauty and her father slept in the palace, she dreams of a fair lady who tells her actions shall not go unrewarded. She tells her father of the dream, he then leaves. |
Maurice returns home and is unable to convince the other townsfolk to help rescue Belle from the Beast.
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Beauty believes that the Beast will eat her that night. However she wanders throughout the palace and finds a door that says “Beauty’s Apartment”. The apartment is furnished with a library and harpsichord. |
Beast sulks in his room when Belle refuses to eat with him.
Belle is given a tour of the castle by Cogsworth and Lumiere and offered a meal. |
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Beauty opens a book and reads that she is queen and mistress here, “speak your wishes, speak your will”, swift obedience meets them still”. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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She wishes to see her father and as soon as she speaks she sees a great looking glass with which she is able to see her home, her father and her sisters. She sees that her sisters try to appear sad but are happy that Beauty is gone. |
Beast gives Belle a magic mirror so that she can see her father. |
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The Beast appears and tells Beauty that she is the mistress of the palace; he asks to dine with her. Beauty tells Beast that he is good natured, so that his deformity scarcely appears. Beauty ate her supper and nearly conquered her dread of the Beast, but nearly fainted when he asked her to marry him. She refuses; the Beast hisses frightfully then says farewell. |
Beast inadvertently chases Belle into the forest when he frightens her. She encounters a pack of wolves. Beast rescues her but is injured. He develops feelings for her as she tends to his injuries.
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Other the next three months Beauty was content; she dined with the Beast each evening. They talked rationally with common sense but without wit. Beauty eventually looked forward to Beast’s visits each evening. Each night before bed, Beast asks Beauty to marry him, she always refuses saying she wishes she could, but instead esteems him as a friend. |
Beast and Belle continue to bond while they are in the castle. Gaston pays Monsieur D’Arque to confine Maurice to the insane asylum if Belle refuses his next proposal. |
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Beast asks Beauty to promise to stay with him forever. Beauty greatly desires to see her father again and tells Beast that she will fret to death if he denies her. Beast says he would rather die than make her uneasy. He says he will send her home and die with grief. Beauty says she loves Beast and will return to him in a week. |
After a romantic dance together, Belle says she misses her father. He lets her use a magic mirror to see him. Belle sees her father dying in the woods trying to reach the castle.
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During Beauty’s stay at the palace, her sisters have married and her brothers are in the army leaving her father all alone. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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Beast tells her that she will be home in the morning. When she wants to come back to the palace, she only need to lay her ring on the table before she goes to bed. When Beauty woke up the next morning, she was in her father’s house. |
Beast gives Belle the mirror to remember him by; she leaves to find her father. When Gaston tries to have Maurice sent to the asylum, Belle proves her father is sane by showing everyone the Beast in the magic mirror.
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After greeting her father, the maid informs her that she found a large trunk of fine clothes and jewelry. Beauty selected a plain dress then decided to make a present of the others to her sisters. Upon saying these words the trunk disappeared. When father tells Beauty that the Beast insisted she keep them for herself, the trunk re-appears. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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Beauty’s sisters come to visit with the husbands that they’re unhappily married to; they are jealous of Beauty’s fine clothes and upset when seeing how happy she is. The sisters plan to delay her return to the Beast for greater than a week so he will be enraged and eat her. |
This does not happen in the movie.
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The sisters weep when the week is up and convince Beauty to stay another week. On the tenth day Beauty dreamed she was in the palace garden watching Beast as he lay dying on the grass. She decides that she would be happier married to Beast than her sisters are married to their husbands. |
When Gaston sees that Belle loves the Beast, he leads the villagers to the castle to kill him. The palace servants fight the villagers. Beast fights Gaston on the castle roof and defeats him, then orders him to leave. When Beast turns his back, Gaston stabs him but then falls to his death. |
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Beauty lays her ring on the table, went to sleep and woke up in the palace. She dressed in her finest gown and waited for Beast to arrive, but he did not appear. Beauty finds Beast on the ground and throws herself upon him. Beast had decided to starve himself to death after Beauty broke her promise. |
Belle rides to the castle on her father’s horse.
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Beauty begs Beast not to die and promises to be his wife. As soon as she speaks these words the palace sparkles with light and fireworks and music plays. Beast disappears and in his place is a lovely prince. |
As Beast lay dying Belle professes her love for him before the last petal falls from the rose. The spell is broken and the beast is restored to his true form as the prince. The castle servants also revert back to their true forms. |
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Beauty asks what happened to Beast. The prince (Beast) says a wicked fairy had condemned him to remain a beast until a beautiful virgin should consent to marry him. |
The prince was rude to an enchantress in his youth, he was not the victim.
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The Fairy tells Beauty she will be a great queen; she hopes the throne will not lessen her virtue. The fairy says to Beauty’s sisters that they will turn to stone and stand before the palace gates to behold her happiness until they own their faults. The fairy thinks they will always remain statues. |
This does not happen in the movie. |
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Beauty and the prince go to the great hall where they find her father and his whole family whom the fair lady in her dream had brought together.
The fairy waves her wand transporting everyone into the palace where the prince and Beauty are married and live happily for many years.
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Belle dances with the prince as everyone watches happily.
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