After seeing the new version of Beauty and the Beast for the second time, I am convinced that this is the best movie of all time, and it has quickly become my favorite movie. The original version is great, but the new, live-action version is amazing. One of the things that makes this movie so amazing is that Disney used this movie as a way to correct a lot of mistakes that were made in the first movie. There were mistakes, plot holes and things that just didn't make sense in the original. Here are 12 mistakes in the original Beauty and the Beast that were corrected in the new version.
***Special shout out to Flicks and the City on Youtube for creating the video that inspired me to write this article. Watch this channel's Youtube video about mistakes in the original that were corrected in the new movie here.***
1. At the beginning of the movie, the narrator says Beast has until his 21st birthday to find love, yet during "Be Our Guest," Lumiere says that they have been under this spell for ten years.
If Beast has until his 21st birthday, then Beast must still be 20 when this story is taking place. If they have been "rusting" for 10 years, technically, Beast should have been around 10 or 11 when he fell under the spell. If the enchantress cursed an unkind 11-year-old for not letting a stranger stay in his castle, that would be pretty unfair. However, in the beginning scenes, Beast scratches a picture of himself when he was human, but he was a full-grown man, not a little boy. In the new version, the line "10 years we've been rusting" is changed to "Too long we've been rusting," thus correcting this oversight.
2. Bell visits a book shop, yet borrows a book as though it is a library.
Belle likes to go to town and borrow books from the local book shop. But wait, she borrows books from a bookstore? Disney overlooked this in the first movie, but fixed it in the live action version when Belle claimed she would be borrowing a book and referred to the place as a library.
3. The book shop/library is very big considering only one person in town reads often.
In the original, the book shop was very large considering Belle was one of the only book worms in town. Disney fixed this in the new version by makng the amount of books much smaller. One man even refers to her as the only book worm in town.
4. When Belle kicks Gaston out of her house, he immediately falls into a pile of mud that is not there in any other scene.
Gaston falls into a mud pit right after being shoved out of Belle's house. However, there is no mud pit in any of the other scenes. There's even a slightly winding staircase that would make this fall seem very far-fetched. The new movie fixed this by making Gaston walk out of the house normally, but still honored the original by having Gaston step in a pile of mud farther down the path.
5. Philippe is able to take Belle to the castle where Maurice is residing, yet Philippe never went to the castle or knew Maurice went there since he ran away before reaching the castle.
Philippe managed to take Belle to the castle, even though he never went and had no way of knowing that Maurice found his way into the castle. That's a pretty smart horse. In the new version Philippe and Maurice fight off the wolves together and instead of getting separated, Philippe and Maurice go to the castle together. Philippe runs off when Beast startles him, which explains how Philippe was able to take Belle straight to the castle. Although, the fact that Philippe was able to find his home and then take Belle to the castle is still pretty impressive.
6. During "Be Our Guest," a picture of the Eiffel Tower is depicted, yet the movie takes place before the Eiffel Tower was constructed.
Judging by the clothes, weapons, and steam-powered machinery, this movie probably takes place in the late 1790s or early 1800s. However, during "Be Our Guest," the Eiffel tower is depicted, yet construction did not start until 1887. In the live action version, the Eiffel tower is not depicted during this famous song.
7. When Beast saves Belle from the wolves, Beast becomes unconscious. This means that Belle must have somehow lifted Beast onto her horse by herself.
Belle must have some serious princess super strength to lift that large, unconscious Beast up on to her horse by herself. The new version takes a more realistic approach when Belle says, "You have to help me. You have to stand," implying that Beast had a hand in getting on the horse.
8. Chip's voice and human depiction seems younger than a 10-year-old.
Judging by the first movie error which says that the characters have been under the spell for the last ten years, Chip shouldn't be alive. Since he seems younger than 10, Chip must have either been born a tea cup or Beast is the only one who can age in the castle. In the new version, Chip is seen in the first scene, which means that Mrs. Potts did not give birth to Chip as a tea cup. They also avoid this issue altogether when they remove the line "10 years we've been rusting."
9. Mrs. Potts is Chip's mom, yet the woman we see at the end of the movie seems too old to be a mother of such a young boy.
Mrs. Potts sounded like she might be around 60 years old in the original movie. Then, when she went back to human form, she had grey hair and looked more like a grandmother than the mother of a very young boy. In the new version, Chip's mother looked much younger when in human form. She even sounded younger in her version of "Tale As Old As Time," while still maintaining the old version's iconic sound. Disney even makes fun of the old version when they have Le Fou mistake Mrs. Potts for Chip's grandmother.
10. Mrs. Potts complains about having a spot on her, yet she does not have a spot in any of the scenes leading up to that scene.
Mrs. Potts does not have a spot on her until the scene where she sees it in her reflection. Disney fixed this in the new version by putting the obvious spot on chip.
11. Chip, a tea cup with no arms, is able to get the chopping machine that Maurice invented working. He even managed to steer it right into where Maurice and Belle were trapped.
How did Chip get that machine running anyway? In the new version, Chip does not escape with Belle at all. He stays at the castle during the scene where the furniture attacks the villagers. Belle and Maurice get locked in a cart and pick the lock to escape.
12. How did the townspeople of a nearby village not know there was a huge castle right down the road? And why didn't they wonder where the prince of the castle has been all these years?
The townspeople were completely unaware that there was a castle right down the road. They also did not wonder where the royalty and live-in staff have been all this time. The new version goes more into detail and explains that the reason why the townspeople are clueless is because the enchantress made the townspeople forget everyone that lived in the castle and the existence of the castle altogether.
13. Maurice chooses to go down the dark, scary path even though his horse obviously does not want to go.
Instead of taking the path to the fair that he usually usIes, Maurice decides to take the scary path which he calls "the short cut," despite the fact that Philippe does not want to go down that path at all. In the new version, lightning strikes a tree, blocking the path he usually takes. For this reason, Maurice decides to take the other path. Maurice seems much more intelligent and less oblivious in the new version, which makes more sense considering how intelligent his daughter turned out to be.
