1. Bambi's mother (RIP) can be seen roaming the forest near the Beast's castle at the beginning of the movie.
(Seriously, I zoomed in 40x and it's her! Or it sure does look like her!)
2. The Latin phrase "Vincit qui se vincit," which appears on the stained glass at the beginning of the movie, is basically the moral of the story: It means "He conquers who conquers himself."
3. The faded sign Maurice encounters while lost in the woods points to cities in Southern California: Anaheim, home to Disneyland, and Valencia, home to the California Institute of the Arts, where many animators study.
Cool, but not really helpful to poor ol' Maurice.
4. The illustration in the book Belle reads at the fountain looks a LOT like Beauty and the Beast itself. And the caption? It translates to "Prince Charming."
NOT SO SUBTLE, DISNEY.
5. The scene in which Belle sings on the hilltop above her village is a direct nod to the opening scene of The Sound of Music.
🎵 The hills are alive... 🎵
6. When the townspeople sing, "She's nothing like the rest of us," they're not wrong: Belle is the only villager wearing blue, further emphasizing her ~difference~.
7. Speaking of Belle's blue outfit, animators drew her to look like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. #Twinning
If you're noticing a theme, Allure's Calin Van Paris notes that blue dresses "[seem] to be a favorite of ingenues soon to embark on an adventure outside of their realm of experience." Def.
8. But that's not the only Oz connection: In the makeover scene, the Beast bears an uncanny resemblance to the Cowardly Lion.
Someone please write their thesis on the crossover between these movies.
9. In the final scene, the guests were left unanimated in order to save money. [Insert Frozen joke here.]
Mark Henn, the lead Disney animator for Belle, told BuzzFeed, "Those kind of shots are notorious for being expensive." And given that the couple's dancing is the main focus, he said, "we don’t really worry about [the others].”
10. Animators also reused 30-year-old animation from Sleeping Beauty, and we've got the receipts to prove it:
11. Among the many taxidermy animal heads on "macho" man Gaston's walls is...a frog. 🐸👀
WhatCulture points out that it might be a dig at his fragile masculinity.
12. The Beast had quite the art collection in his castle: That's Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring behind Cogsworth!
How did he acquire the art? How did he become wealthy enough to do so? So. Many. Questions.
13. Also in the Beast's castle: other beasts! The terrifying statues and gargoyles are scrapped early versions of the title character.
14. If you look closely, the winding crank on the back of Cogsworth's head is a near-perfect Mickey.
Would it even be a real Disney movie without a hidden Mickey or two?
15. The mouse ears appear again at the top of the bell jar and in the molding at the top of the library.
Interestingly, the mouse ears disappear in later shots of the jar.
16. Disney used real smoke in the Beast's transformation scene — except it was reused footage from the production of The Black Cauldron.
Saving coins left and right!
17. Finally, while we never see Gaston go splat after falling, the skulls in his pupils are meant to confirm his death. 💀💀
