It's been a full 25 years since we were gifted with the Disney magic that is Beauty and the Beast.
Here's what we learned:
1. Some actors didn’t get the role of the beast because they sounded “too handsome.”
2. During the auditions, those deciding on casting would sometimes “shield their eyes” to block out the voice actors so they could try and imagine them speaking as their characters.
3. To get into character, Robby Benson — the voice of Beast — would request that all of the lights in the recording studio be turned off. The only light you could see was the one illuminating the script in front of him.
4. The ballroom scene where Belle and Beast are dancing together took months to complete.
5. And the guests in the wedding dance scene are frozen in time partly due to budgeting issues.
6. Apparently Lumière is one of the only characters with a French accent because, well, Jerry Orbach just wanted to have one.
7. Paige suggested Belle have a French accent, but they wanted her just as she was.
8. Mark’s favorite Belle outfit is the winter one because of the beautiful hood.
9. And one of his favorite scenes to illustrate was the sequence where Belle is nursing Beast’s wounds after the wolf attack.
10. Mark made sure to include lots of unspoken moments between Belle and the Beast, some of which were not included in the script.
11. The first version of “Be Our Guest” was sung to Belle’s father, not Belle.
12. Angela Lansbury did not have to audition for her role.
13. And she apparently based Mrs. Potts off of a childhood memory she had of a maid/cook who worked for her family while she was growing up.
14. One of the biggest challenges of illustrating Mrs. Potts was making sure she looked believable as a solid object made out of porcelain.
15. Some of Belle's graceful movements were inspired by ballet dancers.
16. Jerry Orbach would go out and film Law and Order in the morning before coming in to work on Beauty and the Beast.
17. They auditioned around 500 Belles.
18. Paige went through a total of five auditions before being offered the role.
19. But she ended up finding out she got the part by accident when David Friedman, the conductor, called and left a voicemail telling her that they needed to set keys for her songs.
20. There were specific decisions made about literally everything that Belle wore, such as the length of her gloves and how many pearls she wore.
21. There were some people working on the film who wanted the dress to be pink because “that’s what little girls like.”
22. Paige's favorite scene is where she sings “There’s Something There.”
23. And her favorite line is “Gaston, you are positively primeval.”
24. And finally, they realized they had a classic movie on their hands after the film’s positive reception at the New York City Film Festival.
“The film was shown to all of the New York critics partly still storyboarded and [not] fully animated, and we were all very trepidatious as to how they were going to respond by not seeing the finished product," said O'Hara. "They started applauding after every song and then stood up for 10 minutes at the end. That’s when we all knew it was a classic. ...That was a very special night.”