One of the reasons Beauty and the Beast is so charming is because of the colorful supporting characters who live in the Beast's castle. Like their master, the castle staff were transformed into unusual forms, only instead of becoming all furry and feral like him, they became walking and talking inanimate objects. The trailer for the upcoming live action remake only showed these particular characters in object form, we finally have our first look at them as normal, 18th century, extravagantly-dressed humans.
The fan site BeautyAndTheBeastMovieNews has posted photos of a theater standee which shows off all of Beauty and the Beast's main characters, and on the right side are all of the castle staff in their normal French forms. You can over to their main page to see other zoomed-in photos of the standee, but even in the above photo, the faces are all recognizable. At the top is Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, and working our way down, we have Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Stanley Tucci as Cadenza, Audra McDonald as Garderobe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette. Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and her son Chip (who is being played by Nathan Mack) are also seen in their enchanted forms on those steps. Feel free to compare how the Beast's staff look here compared to the 1997 Enchanted Christmas direct-to-video movie.
The live action characters' outfits certainly look more foppish than their animated counterparts do, though less colorful, as everyone on the right side of the standee (excluding Beast) is only garbed in yellow or white. Actually, we have to give Cogsworth credit, he is rocking a little red. Anyway, if the remake is following a similar course as the animated Beauty and the Beast, we won't see these characters looking (relatively) normal until the end of the movie, when the curse has been lifted thanks to Belle and Beast falling in love. Although, since this remake will be taking some creative liberties, perhaps there will be an added scene where we see their transformations occur at the beginning of the story.
The staff members are the main draw of this Beauty and the Beast standee, but they're not the only folks being presented. On the left side we have Kevin Kline as Maurice, Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as LeFou. And then, of course, there are the eponymous protagonists, Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, both posed and in the middle of their ballroom dance. Beauty and the Beast is already shaping up to be one of those most anticipated Disney movies of 2017, and its November trailer was the biggest trailer debut ever until The Fate of the Furious' own preview knocked it from the #1 spot earlier this week.
Beauty and the Beast will work its magic in theaters on March 17, 2017.
