Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is the first
direct-to-video installment of the film series and served as a holiday special. It was directed by Andrew Knight, and released on November 11, 1997.[3][4] The main plot film is set within the events of the first film, taking place after the fight with the wolves and before the ballroom dance, also including scenes at the beginning and the end with the characters after the events of the first film.[citation needed]
Belle's Magical World is the second
direct-to-video installment of the film series.[5] It was directed by Cullen Blaine, Daniel de la Vega, Barbara Dourmashkin, Dale Kase, Bob Kline, Burt Medall, and Mitch Rochon.[citation needed] It was released on February 17, 1998, and is also set during the original film, taking place after Christmas, but before the fight against Gaston.[5][6][citation needed]
Sing Me a Story with Belle was a live-action spin-off series created by Patrick Davidson and Melissa Gould. It featured Belle, who now owns and manages the bookshop in the village. The show ran for 65 episodes on
The Disney Channel from September 8, 1995 to December 11, 1999. Two episodes from the first season were released with an episode of an abandoned Beauty and the Beast cartoon series and were released
direct-to-video as Belle's Tales of Friendship.
A limited
streaming television series centered on Gaston and LeFou is currently in development for
Disney+.[9] The series, which will be a prequel to the 2017 film, will be created and written by
Josh Gad,
Eddy Kitsis and
Adam Horowitz, with Gad, Kitsis and Horowitz executive-producing the series alongside
Luke Evans.[9] Evans and Gad will reprise their roles from the 2017 film as Gaston and LeFou, respectively.[9] In June 2021, Brianna Middleton joined the cast as female lead.[10] In January 2022,
Jelani Alladin and
Fra Fee joined the cast,[11] followed by
Rita Ora in February.[12] In the same month Disney+ temporary passed the project.[13]
A musical, based on the original film, debuted April 18, 1994, on Broadway at the
Palace Theatre and later transferred to the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1999. The musical was directed by Robert Jess Roth, produced by
Disney Theatrical, and written by Linda Woolverton. Beauty and the Beast ran on Broadway for 5,461 performances between 1994 and 2007, becoming Broadway's eighth longest-running production in history. The musical has grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide and played in thirteen countries and 115 cities. The stage version included many songs not included in the musical, such as the deleted songs "Human Again" (whose demo was 9 minutes long) and "Gaston (Reprise)", a Beast number - "If I Can't Love Her", and a Maurice number - "No Matter What". The song "
A Change in Me" was kept in the production after being written for
Toni Braxton during her stint as Belle.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is an action platformer for the
SNES. It was developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Hudson Soft in North America and Europe on July 1, 1994 and February 23, 1995, respectively. The game was published by
Virgin Interactive in Japan on July 8, 1994.[20] The entire game is played through the perspective of
the Beast. As the Beast, the player must get
Belle to fall in love so that the curse cast upon him and his castle will be broken, she will marry him and become a princess. The final boss of the game is Gaston, a hunter who will try to steal Belle from the Beast. There is even a
snowball fight scene in the middle of the game and
cutscenes between stages that tells the story of Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty & The Beast: Belle's Quest is an action, platformer for the
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Developed by
Software Creations, the game was released in North America in 1993.[21] It is one of two video games based on the film that
Sunsoft published for the Genesis,[19] the other being Beauty & The Beast: Roar of the Beast. Characters from the film like Gaston can help the player past tricky situations. As Belle, the player must reach the Beast's castle and break the spell to live
happily ever after. To succeed, she must explore the village, forest, castle, and snowy forest to solve puzzles and mini-games while ducking or jumping over enemies. Belle's health is represented by a stack of blue books, which diminishes when she touches bats, rats, and other hazards in the game. Extra lives, keys and other items are hidden throughout the levels. While there is no continue or game saving ability, players can use a code to start the game at any of the seven levels.[22]
Beauty & The Beast: Roar of the Beast is the title of a
side-scrolling video game for the
Sega Genesis/
Mega Drive. The game was one of two games based on the film released for the Sega Genesis, the other game being Beauty & The Beast: Belle's Quest, both of which were produced by
Sunsoft and released in 1993. As the Beast, the player must successfully complete several levels, based on scenes from the film, in order to protect the castle from invading villagers and forest animals and rescue
Belle from the evil
Gaston.[23] Intermission screenshots between each level help to move the story along, as do mini-games. The Beast can crouch, jump, swing his fists, and use a special roar attack that will freeze the on-screen enemies for a brief period. He can sometimes locate items within a level to restore some of his health, and the game provides unlimited continues. It was often described as having a high difficulty level.[24]
During a limited time Event focused on Beauty and the Beast, the
world builder video game Disney Magic Kingdoms included Belle, Beast, Lumière, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip and Gaston as playable characters, along with attractions, costumes, and other material based on the film.[26] LeFou and Maurice were also included as playable characters in later updates of the game.[27][28] In the game the characters are involved in new storylines that serve as a continuation of Beauty and the Beast (also ignoring other material from the franchise).
Items of furniture and clothing directly referencing Beauty and the Beast are available in Disney Dreamlight Valley with characters from the movie expected to be released at some future date. Belle is also featured prominently on the box art and promotional images for the game.
Other media
Disney's Beauty and the Beast: A Concert on Ice was an ice show adaptation broadcast on
CBS December 8, 1996,[32] produced by Micawber Productions and Rodan Productions. The ice show starred
Ekaterina Gordeeva as Belle and
Victor Petrenko as The Beast with
Scott Hamilton as Lumiere while Steve Binder directed and as hosts James Barbour and Susan Egan.[33]
Beauty and the Beast story or characters are included in several
Disney on Ice shows including 100 Years of Magic,[34]Follow Your Heart,[35]Magical Ice Festival[36] and Dream Big.[37]
Beyond the Castle: Stories Inspired by Beauty and the Beast is set of three short films that premiered on Disney's social media via a partnership with Tongal creative crowd sourcing platform and Young Storytellers. Children from the Storytellers, who advance screened the live action movie, wrote scripts base on the characters. The shorts were released around the release of the live action film in 2017.[38]
Beauty and the Curse is a live action feature film explaining how the beast's curse comes about. Tamara Sims wrote the short and Maya Rudolph was the director.
Pug in a Cup was puppet-based story written by Hana Morshedi and directed by Tucker Barrie about the adventures at a local market of Chip and Gumbo the Pug away from the caste.
LeFouston was claymation short about LeFou and Gaston's first meeting with director Kevin Ulrich and writer Robert Nelson.
A Broadway-caliber short-form stage musical named Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage is performed live in Sunset Boulevard, at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World. It was also performed at Tomorrowland, Disneyland Park (Anaheim) and Discoveryland, Disneyland Park (Paris). Originally, the show was more like a revue, and not a condensed version of either the film or Broadway show. However it changed considerably from the original version to the currently running version, causing it to more closely resemble the 1991 film. Because the show is condensed to approximately 25 minutes, many cuts and edits are made. The show features the
award-winning music from the first film.
Be Our Guest Restaurant is a quick service and table service restaurant in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort. The restaurant has the theme and appearance of the Beast's Castle from Disney's 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast. The name of the restaurant is a reference to "Be Our Guest", the classic song from that film.
Beast and Belle, played by
Dan Payne and
Keegan Connor Tracy, appear in the live-action film Descendants, where they are the rulers of Auradon and have a son named Ben. They three return in the sequels Descendants 2 and Descendants 3, where also appears Gaston's son, Gil.
Gaston appears as the main antagonist in
Lego's animated special LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest, which was released on
Disney+ on August 18, 2023.[40]
The Beauty and the Beast universe encompasses two main locations: a French village and a castle, which are linked by woods. As the three spin-off films all take place within the time period of the original film, the plot of the Beauty and the Beast franchise is encompassed in the original 1991 film, which the other films serving to give added insight to certain parts of the story that were skimmed over (such as when Belle is living in the castle with Beast).
A 1995 article by the LA Times regarding the then-new Broadway musical adaption of the 1991 movie (the first Disney film to be adapted for the stage), asked if the property was "Disney's Newest Franchise".[41]
Reception
The original Beauty and the Beast film, as well as the stage musical and live-action remake, have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The various other aspects of the franchise, such as the direct-to-video sequels, have received mixed to negative reviews.