It was the first animated feature nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, the first to earn more than $100 million during its initial run, and the first Disney cartoon to spawn a Broadway musical. And in March, it'll be the first film from Disney's 1990s animation renaissance to join the studio's growing list of live-action movie versions of its vintage cartoons, with Emma Watson playing Belle in "Beauty and the Beast."
Naturally, a film so celebrated is rich in behind-the-scenes lore. So rich that, five years after our last unearthing of "Beauty and the Beast" trivia, we've discovered 15 more things you didn't know about the beloved toon.
2. Another first: "Beauty" was the first Disney cartoon feature scripted by a woman, Linda Woolverton.
3. Coming on the heels of Disney smash "The Little Mermaid," the production almost hired that film's Ariel, Jodi Benson, for princess duty again to play Belle. Instead, they went with Broadway vet Paige O'Hara.
5. For Beast, the filmmakers initially considered several performers who could do gruff and angry voices, including Tim Curry, Laurence Fishburne, Val Kilmer, Mandy Patinkin, and even Regis Philbin.
6. But Robby Benson, known for his sensitive-guy parts, won the role by summoning up a deep, growling bellow that suggested inner torment without all the roaring bluster.
10. "M*A*S*H" alum David Ogden Stiers was neither the first nor the second choice to play talking clock Cogsworth. The producers offered John Cleese the role, but he turned them down. (Like Everett and Andrews, he'd end up in "Shrek 2.")
11. Patrick Stewart was to take on the role, but he couldn't resolve a scheduling conflict with "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
13. The Oscar-winning title song was originally composed as a light rock number. Lansbury didn't feel comfortable with that arrangement, so she offered to sing it as a more traditional ballad. On the way to the recording session in New York, her plane was delayed by a bomb threat. Though she arrived hours late, she wasn't rattled and insisted on going straight to the studio. She nailed the song in one take. A quarter-century later, O'Hara recalled that there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
14. The smoke that appears when Beast turns back into a man wasn't animated. It was footage of real smoke, recycled from Disney's "The Black Cauldron."
16. Disney was inspired to release the 2002 extended cut -- featuring "Human Again," a number cut from the original release but used in the stage musical -- by the example of all the "Star Wars" special editions released to home video.
