Beast (Disney)

The Beast is the male protagonist of Disney's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast and its midquels. As the film is based on the traditional fairy tale of the same name, the Beast is based on the corresponding character from that fairy tale.

The Beast is voiced by Robby Benson in all of his appearances.

Official Description

 * Cursed by an enchantress because he has no love within his heart, a prince is transformed into a terrible beast. The fearful spell can only be broken when he truly learns to love - and can earn the love of another. But who can love a beast? All seems hopeless until fate brings Belle into his world. Angry and despairing due to his long enchantment, the Beast tries to capture Belle's love with fear, not kindness. Then slowly, through her courage and compassion, he begins to discover the secrets of his own heart and learns that even a beast can be loved.

Personality
From his first introduction, the Beast originally appeared to be irritable, temperamental and stubborn, and came off as very mean and serious. He had a very bitter and negative, extremely cynical outlook, and was quick to become frustrated and give up when things did not work his way, showing a spoiled side to his personality. According to commentary, as a side effect to the curse, he was somewhat primal and had a habit of animalistic behavior, from serious social regressions like growling and roaring when angry to arbitrary, slightly humorous traits like forgetting his table manners. The commentary also implied during the wolf attack scene that he was suicidal, or at least did not value his life too strongly, due to the hopelessness of ever breaking the curse. This was further supported in the Marvel Comics where Beast, after saving Belle and Chip after they were trapped in a very serious snowstorm, thanked Belle for saving his life, as her presence caused him to realize his own life was not "meaningless" after all.

Though he is stubborn and lacks manners, he is not without a kind side, and is described by animator Glen Keane as "a twenty-one-year-old guy who's insecure, wants to be loved, wants to love, but has this ugly exterior and has to overcome this". Once he begins to care for Belle after rescuing her from a pack of wolves, he becomes more agreeable and gentle. He even attempts to become civilized again for Belle's sake, relearning table manners and feeding birds. Learning to care for Belle also reveals a fiercely loyal side to him, as he was willing to give anything and everything to protect Belle and keep her happy, even if it meant sacrificing his own happiness by letting her leave him. He also appeared to feel bad for Belle when he sent her father away without letting her say good-bye.

According to the commentary from producer Don Hahn, his spell is not just physical but psychological as well. The longer the Beast is under the spell, the more feral he becomes (meaning if he stays a beast longer, he becomes more like an animal). If Belle had never arrived at the castle, he would've eventually stopped speaking, walking upright, wearing clothes altogether, and would've gone to live in the woods to fend for himself.

Design
Chris Sanders is responsible for helping come up with the design of the Beast. He went from insect forms, avian forms and fish forms until he finally got the right design. The Beast is not of any one species of animal, but a chimera, a mixture of several animals. He has the head structure and horns of a buffalo, the arms and body of a bear, the eyebrows of a gorilla, the jaws, teeth, and mane of a lion, the tusks of a wild boar and the legs and tail of a wolf. He also bears resemblance to mythical monsters like the Minotaur or a werewolf. In the original versions, he was described more like a cross between a lion and a mythical animal. As opposed to his monstrous form, the Beast's human form is that of a handsome young man of a tall height (though not as tall as he was as the Beast) with a muscular build and long auburn air. He also has blue eyes, the one physical feature that does not change whether he is a beast or a human.

Originally, the Beast is seen shirtless, with ragged, dark gray breeches, and a ragged reddish-colored cape with a golden colored circular-shaped clasp. Despite the actual color of his cape being a dark wine red color, The Beast's cape is more often referenced to be purple. The reason for this change in color is unknown, although the most likely reason is because the color purple is often associated with royalty.

After the Beast saves Belle from a pack of wolves, his dress style changes, reflecting a more refined personality. His dress style becomes more disciplined, and the most referenced form of dress is his ballroom outfit, which consisted of a golden vest over a white dress shirt with a white kerchief, black dress pants trimmed with gold, and a navy blue ballroom tail coat trimmed with gold, worn during the film's ballroom dance sequence.

Abilities
Beast Form: Owing to his savage, bestial nature, the Beast has animalistic fighting abilities in his beast form:
 * Enhanced Strength: The Beast possesses tremendous strength, as he is able to pick up and carry full grown men like Maurice and Gaston and not only lift but also throw large oak wood furniture when enraged, such as banquet tables and Forte's keyboard and allowing him to leap several feet in a single bound in terms of height and distance. He also was able to destroy furniture in a single chop, especially when he was enraged.
 * Enhanced Speed and Agility: The Beast is able to move faster than ordinary humans. He has been seen running into the woods on two different occasions and arriving just in time to save Belle and is able to climb and evade punches and blows from weapons dealt from Gaston.
 * Enhanced Durability: He is slightly more durable than normal humans, as seen when he has taken attacks from a pack of wolves, being shot by Gaston's arrow, and been blasted by Forte's magical energy, although feeling great pain and being knocked down from these attacks.
 * Enhanced Healing: The Beast is able to heal faster from minor to moderate injuries than ordinary humans, such as bites and claw scratches from a pack of wolves within three or four days and being able to survive being in icy cold water and walking back to his castle in cold winter weather within a few hours.
 * Enhanced Senses: All five of his senses are animal keen, and enabling him to track down Belle in the woods when she was in danger by scent and listening in on conversations from several feet away from other people. However, even his enhanced senses, or at least sight, smell, and hearing, can be drowned out by a particularly deadly blizzard, as evidenced by his being unable to find Belle in a particularly severe blizzard in one of the Marvel Comics until a bushel of hollies hit him in the head and allowed him to trace her location in time.
 * Razor-Sharp Claws and Fangs: The Beast possesses razor-sharp claws and fangs that enable him to rip through thick rugs and curtains as well as smash objects such as oak furniture when enraged with ease, climb up and down the stone walls of his castle and bite down and hold objects. These, however, also proved to be a weakness, as his razor-sharp claws also resulted in the books being shredded whenever he attempted to read them, as evidenced in New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast when he attempted to read some poems, only for the pages to be shredded quickly.
 * Stealth: The Beast was shown to be adept at stealth, keeping himself hidden without anyone being able to detect him in time. This was especially apparent when he managed to ambush Belle just after she discovered Maurice in the dungeon and confronting her again when she was about to touch the Enchanted rose, as well as easily surprising the pack of wolves pursuing Belle.
 * Skilled Hunter: In his human form, the Beast also was skilled with firearms and was presumably a hunter, at least according to New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, although his actions during hunting were closer to poaching than true hunting due to specifically targeting a fawn (baby deer) until a crow (implied to be the Enchantress in disguise) interfered with the shot.
 * Learned Reader/Scholar: When he was a human, at least according to New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, he was shown to be extremely studious and a gifted reader, with his even once admitting that at one point books meant more to him than anything else in the world. However, when he became a Beast, due to the psychological nature of the curse, he largely forgot how to do so, and was left unable to physically handle books due to his claws shredding the books.
 * Horseback Riding: Adam, at least as a kid, was also shown to be skilled at horseback riding, frequently using Thunder to ride around. However, he was unkind and cold to his steed, eventually resulting in Thunder escaping.
 * Indomitable Will: At least in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, the Beast was also shown to possess an exceptionally strong willpower, as he managed to not only completely survive the destruction of his homeworld to the Heartless intact, but even travel over to the Hollow Bastion without any apparent use of either transportation abilities or any Gummi Ships.

Beauty and the Beast
The unnamed prince was a handsome young man (albeit selfish, unkind and spoiled) who lived in a luxurious castle in France and had everything he wanted. One night, on Christmas Eve, his kindness was put to the test when a beggar woman came to the castle and pleaded for shelter from the freezing cold and rain, with a single rose as payment. Repulsed by her appearance, he sneered at the simple but beautiful gift. The woman begs again, and he still refuses. When he shuns the beggar woman for her repulsive appearance again, her ugliness melts away and then reveals her true form as a beautiful and powerful Enchantress.

Seeing her beauty and realizing her power, the Prince tries to apologize. But it is too late, for she has seen in her disguise that there was no love in his heart. As punishment for his cold heart, she turns him into a terrifying beast. She also casts a ghastly curse on the entire castle, transforming it into a dark, foreboding place, its lush green grounds into dark, misty, wolf-infested woods, and the good-natured servants into anthropomorphic household objects to reflect their different personalities. Ashamed of his new appearance, the Beast conceals himself inside his castle with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world.

The rose the Enchantress had given him was enchanted and it would bloom until his twenty-first year. She had told him that if he could learn to love another and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken, but if he failed, he would remain a beast forever. In his first animated appearance (set some time before his 21st year, as evidenced by the rose not having bloomed fully yet), he also scratches a portrait of his human self in anger and shame.

Years later, the Beast discovers Maurice inside the castle and accuses him of trespassing (not knowing or caring that Maurice was actually allowed inside by the servants for shelter, despite the servants trying to vouch for him). Maurice's staring at the Beast only provokes the Beast's fury, and he proceeds to "give [Maurice] a place to stay" by locking Maurice in the tower as a prisoner. At least a day later, Maurice's daughter, Belle, confronts the Beast and pleads with him to let her father go, offering herself as a prisoner instead. The Beast, astonished by Belle's offer, ultimately accepts, under the further condition that she remains in the castle forever, as well as heeding her request to step into the light to reveal himself to her, horrifying Belle once she sees his monstrous form. He then brashly throws Maurice into an enchanted coach to take him back to the village he came from without letting Belle say goodbye to her father first.

The Beast eventually decided to give her an actual room other than the dungeon cell (both at Lumiere's suggestion and due to feeling some guilt at Belle's sadness from his prior actions). He further warns Belle not to go into his chamber, the West Wing, although he gave her expressed permission to visit the other areas of the castle. He then "invites" her to dinner, although it was closer to a command than an actual request. He later waited for Belle to join him for dinner, although because of her residual anger towards the Beast for his earlier actions and grief towards her father being released before she said goodbye, Belle did not join him, citing as an excuse that she wasn't hungry, incensing him and later causing him to despair upon overhearing Belle's negative comments about him with the Wardrobe and her implication that she would never fall in love or have anything to do with him.

Although he had specifically forbidden her from visiting the West Wing, she does later on out of curiosity, much to the Beast's fury, especially when his enchanted rose was nearly destroyed by Belle in her curiosity. His rage caused him to destroy much of his chambers while screaming at Belle to get out, although after he calmed down, he realized that he had inadvertently ruined his chances by scaring Belle into fleeing the castle and pursued her, saving her from a pack of wolves and getting injured in the process.

The Beast later comes to appreciate Belle when she tends to his wounds after he saves her from the wolves, and strikes up a friendship with her. She then teaches him to become more civilized. Eventually, he falls in love with her, and placing her happiness before his own, he releases her to tend to her sick father (and to make up for his earlier harsh treatment of him).

A lynch mob comes to kill the Beast, led by a rival suitor named Gaston (with Belle, albeit unintentionally, instigating the mob by exposing his existence to save Maurice from the paddy wagon). Gaston eventually finds Beast, and initially, Beast has no will to fight, still in a state of depression from Belle leaving. Just as Gaston is about to lay the finishing blow, Belle returns, calling for Gaston to stop. Upon hearing Belle's voice, he suddenly stands and fights back with a renewed vigor in knowledge that Belle truly does love him. As the fight continued, Gaston continued to blather about his superficial beliefs that he is Belle's true love, and the Beast is nothing more than a monster whom Belle would never love. Having had it with Gaston's mocking and arrogance, the Beast overpowers him and holds him by the throat over the edge of the castle. Gaston finally drops his pride and begs for mercy, to which the Beast initially ignores, but upon realizing that he was turning into everything that represents Gaston himself, instead allows him to walk away, warning him to leave the castle and never return. Reuniting with Belle, he happily embraces her, but is literally stabbed in the back by Gaston, who then loses his balance and falls off the castle to his death.

Belle comes to tend to the Beast's wounds and tries to reassure him that everything's going to be fine, but he knows all too well that his time is coming, telling her that he was happy to have a chance at seeing her one last time before succumbing to his wounds. Upon losing him, Belle begs him not to go and cries, admitting that she loves him. Just after the last petal falls from the enchanted rose, shining beams of light falls onto the Beast. The Beast's body floats in the air and becomes enshrouded by fog as he begins to transform: his fore-paws, hind-paws, and furry head respectively turn back into hands, feet, and a head of the Prince, in other words, he is returned to normal. He then gets up, looks at himself, and turns to Belle, who initially looks at him skeptically before recognizing him by his blue eyes. The Prince and Belle share their first kiss, a kiss of true love, that further breaks additional spell placed on the castle and its inhabitants: the castle is restored to its original, shining state, and all the Prince's servants, including Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts, are transformed back into human. The next day, a ball is held to celebrate their victory.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
In the midquel, which takes place not long after the Beast rescued Belle from the wolves, much to the Beast's frustration, Belle wants to celebrate Christmas and throw a real Christmas party. The Beast hates the idea of Christmas, for it was the very day when the Enchantress cast the spell on him and the entire castle ten years ago - he also was ungrateful for his gift that day, a storybook. While the Beast sits most of the preparations out, a treacherous servant plots to have Belle thrown out of the castle: Forte the Pipe Organ, since he is far more appreciated by the Beast while under the spell.

Unknown to the Beast, Belle writes him a special book which he doesn't see until later on. She also meets Forte later on in a chance meeting. Forte tells her that the Beast's favorite Christmas tradition when he was a child was the Christmas tree. Belle becomes frustrated, for no tree she has seen on the grounds has been tall enough to hang ornaments. Forte lies to Belle, saying that a perfect tree can be found in the woods beyond the castle. Reluctant to go against the Beast's orders that she never leave the castle, Belle leaves nonetheless in order to find the perfect tree. When Belle does not arrive to see the Beast's Christmas present to her, he begins to suspect that she isn't there at all. When Mrs. Potts explains that the household cannot find her, the Beast becomes enraged. He goes to Forte to ask for advice, and Forte lies to him that Belle has abandoned him. The Beast confronts Belle in the woods and saves her in time from drowning, since she fell through thin ice.

Still believing that Belle disobeyed him by leaving the grounds, the Beast ruthlessly throws her into the dungeon. But when Forte goads him into destroying the rose to end his suffering, the Beast finds Belle's book in the West Wing and reads it, coming to his senses and realizing that all Belle wants is for him to be happy. Releasing Belle from the dungeon, Beast prepares to join in the Christmas festivities. But Forte doesn't give up and even goes as far as to attempt to destroy the entire castle with Beethoven's 5th. Fortunately, the Beast finds him in time and destroys his keyboard with Franz Schubert's Symphony No 8. Losing his balance (and his pipes), Forte falls from the wall he is leaned up against and is silenced forever. Despite his intentions, the Beast mourns Forte's death with Belle comforting him. When he and the other servants are returned to normal, the Prince and Belle give Chip, Mrs. Potts' son, a book to read, which he loves. As the Prince and Belle come out to the balcony, he gives her something too: a rose.