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Beauty and the Beast Image: Transformation Scene

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The beast is dying while Belle lays with him in his last moments. As he takes his last breath, Belle finally professes his love for him. The beast floats into the air, and it is revealed that he has been a prince long. all of the appliances are transformed back into their human forms and Belle and the "Beast" live in the castle together, in love.

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Beauty and the Beast Image: Transformation Scene

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Image of Transformation Scene for fans of Beauty and the Beast.

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Beauty and the Beast "Battle on the Tower" (1991)

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Belle, her father, and chip are all still at the asylum. Meanwhile, at the castle, the beast is in his room in disarray after Belle has left. The Appliances look out the window and sees the villagers coming to attack the beast, and attack them when they come inside. Gaston sneaks upstairs and finds the beast, then stabs him in the side. Gaston and the beast get into a fight, and the beast almost kills Gaston, then Belle arrives. The beast stops dangling Gaston by his neck over the edge and turns to look at Belle. Gaston stabs the beast once again, then loses his balance and falls off the castles edge.

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From the moment Gaston saw the Beast in the magic mirror, it became clear that a conflict between the two was inevitable. And Gaston couldn't ask for a more complacent target: ever since he let Belle go rescue her father, the Beast has been sunk in a deep depression, he doesn't think Belle is ever coming back and so he doesn't care if he lives or dies. Thus, when Gaston appears in the West Wing with an arrow cocked at him, the Beast doesn't even twitch (that alone should've told Gaston that this was no ordinary "Beast" but we already know that he's not one to think anything through), that is until he gets an arrow in the back.
Beauty and the Beast "Battle on the Tower" (1991)
Gaston is being deliberately cruel: clearly an an expert hunter, he's deliberately taunting the Beast (as opposed to a swift kill) because (in his mind) "how dare this ugly thing claim Belle as his own in any way?" He's so blinded by hate that he can't see that the Beast is clearly heartbroken. But Gaston's taken way too long; Belle comes riding up and when Beast sees that Belle has come back, the entire game changes (and not in Gaston's favor).

While Belle races to the West Wing, Gaston and Beast play cat and mouse on the roof tops of the castle. I mentioned in the post for "Tale as Old as Time" that this scene very nearly became the CGI scene (in which case the roof of the castle would've been computer generated), but the test images weren't nearly realistic enough, so the idea was scrapped and animated traditionally.

Musically, this scene is a blending of several themes, most noticeably there are several lines from "Something there" but in an entirely different key (you can hear "for he's no prince Charming" when Belle is seen running up the stairs, and "something there I didn't see" when Gaston smashes the head of a statue by mistake).
Beauty and the Beast "Battle on the Tower" (Soundtrack version) (1991)
Gaston is delusional at this point, going so far as to say "Were you in love with her Beast? Did you honestly think she would want you? When she had someone like me??" It's a total lie and the Beast knows it (if Belle had been attached to anyone in the village in that way, she would've surely said something to him), and he sneaks up for the attack. But Gaston believes he has him cornered until he goes one step to far and shouts "Belle is mine!!" This is too much for the Beast who, in two swift movements, knocks Gaston's club away and leaves him dangling off the rooftop with one hand around his neck. What happens next is very, very important. Gaston (true to his character) is now a sniveling coward, pleading for his life. He'll do anything, ANYTHING, just don't kill/hurt him. I always knew that when the Beast did NOT kill Gaston, that he had learned mercy, embracing his inner humanity, but it only struck me last week that there was something more as well.

Remember in the prologue when, just before his initial transformation, the Beast tried to apologize to the Enchantress? It occurred to me, just then, that the Prince must have begged for mercy in the exact same way that Gaston begged for his life. And the Beast paused (with a magical theme echoing in his ears no less), not just because he was choosing mercy, but because he can see the person he was (a spoiled young man) in Gaston. And so, he's granting Gaston the mercy that the Enchantress did not show him (the Prince) in the hopes that he will learn something from it, merely telling him to "Get out!"

Just at that moment, Belle appears on the balcony, and the Beast only has eyes for her. Gaston watched him climb towards Belle, but neither of them care; the Beast is awestruck that Belle really did come back and there's a beautiful moment as the two grab hands, and you can tell they're both happy to be together again. But just as the moment is building to a romantic climax...Gaston intrudes for the last time. Not content to run away with his life, Gaston has fully embraced the "if I can't have her, no one can" mindset, snuck up from behind and STABBED the Beast in the back! Anyone who's seen the movie knows what comes next, but would you believe me if I said the ending used to be a whole lot darker?

Don't get me wrong, Gaston was always going to die, but it was the how of his death that was changed. In the original script, after stabbing the Beast, Gaston was going to shout something cruel to Belle and then throw himself laughing off the balcony down to his own death. And I can hear people saying Disney wanted to do this?? While it is incredibly shocking and dark, bear in mind that this is the same studio that originally planned for Bambi to come back and find his death mother in a pool of blood (Disney himself vetoed that idea once he got wind of it). Thankfully for all concerned, the animators and writers felt that this really was too dark and Gaston's death was re-animated to the version we know today: the Beast thrusts Gaston aside and he falls screaming to his death. But you can actually see a few frames of the original ending (because the animators were running out of time and money): look at Gaston's face and body posture just before he gets knocked off and begins to flail. See that insane grin? You can tell he's positioned to jump, but in the very next shot, he's in a slightly different spot.
No one dies like Gaston (I couldn't resist)
And there we have the end of Gaston, and also the end of the Beast as Belle knows him. Next time, the final entry for Beauty and the Beast: "The Transformation"

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*all images are the property of Walt Disney Studios
For more Beauty and the Beast, see:
Beauty and the Beast "Belle" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Belle (reprise)" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Gaston" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Be Our Guest" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Something There" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Human Again" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast/Tale as Old as Time" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "The Mob Song" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "The West Wing" (1991) Beauty and the Beast "Transformation" (1991)
For more great Disney songs and films, check out the main page here: Disney Films & Soundtracks A-Z

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Beauty and the Beast "Battle on the Tower" (1991)

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From the moment Gaston saw the Beast in the magic mirror, it became clear that a conflict between the two was inevitable. And Gaston couldn't ask for a more complacent target: ever since he let Belle go rescue her father, the Beast has been sunk in a deep depression, he doesn't think Belle is ever...

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While taking care of her father, Belle hears a knock on the door and sees a man outside trying to take him to an insane asylum. She insists her father does not need to go, but the villagers go on to say how he was crazy and mock him. He insists he is not lying but the villagers throw him into the asylum anyway. Gaston tries to convince Belle to marry him by saying he can get her father out of the asylum if she says yes. She shows the villagers the beast on the magic mirror to prove her father is not crazy, and Gaston gets angry when he discovers Belle has feelings for the beast. He tells the villagers the beast is a monster and comes up with a plan to kill him, and throws Belle into the asylum.

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After belle sees her father in the mirror, the beast urges her to go find and rescue him. He tells her she is no longer his prisoner and she thanks him deeply. She tries to return the mirror to the beast, he insists on her keeping it so she can look back on him at the castle whenever she pleases. She leaves, and the beast tells the appliances how she released her, because he loves her. Though the beast has learned to love, the spell is not yet broken because she has to also love him. As she leaves, the beast cries out from his window in agony. Belle finds her father and returns him home.

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Belle tells the beast how she longs to see her father again, so he brings her into the west wing and shows her the mirror that will show her anything she wants to see. She tells the mirror how she wants to see her father, and when the image in the mirror comes up, she sees him in the middle of the forest, lying on the ground, sick and alone.

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The beast rescues Belle after she escapes and is chased my wolves. Belle tries tends to the beasts needs, and they argue over who was in the wrong while the beast refuses for her to help him. Belle then thanks the beast for saving her life, and the beast allows her to clean his wound. The beast begins to fall in love with Belle, and to do something special for her, shows her the library. He begins to work on controlling his temper, work on his manners, and be gentle and patient. He and Belle begin to spend quality time together, and the beast plans to confess his love to Belle, and they share a dance and fall in love.

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Belles father makes it back to the village, and tells the villagers that the beast has captured Belle and tries to get them to help him go save her. The villagers do not believe him, and start mocking him and then throw him out of the tavern.  Meanwhile, the appliances try to convince Belle to join the beast for dinner, but she insists against it. When she refuses, the beast gets incredibly angry and threatens to break the door down on her room, and the appliances try to help him be gentle when speaking to her.The magical rose begins to wither, and the Beast worries that the curse will never be broken. Then, Belle wanders into the west wing, the only place in the castle in which she is forbidden from. She sees the rose and uncovers it, then the beast sees her and gets incredibly angry, and belle tries to escape.

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After Belles father is sent back to the village, the Beast gives belle her own room and allows her to go anywhere in the castle except the west wing. Lumiere, Cogsworth and Ms. Potts urge him to invite her to dinner, in hopes of her falling in love with him and the curse on the castle being broken.

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Belle lives in a small village with father, and the people in the village find her odd and confusing, but beautiful. Gaston has an interest in marrying belle because of her beauty, but belle does not want to marry him. She wants more to life than living in the village with close minded people, and her father, an inventor, wants to give that to her.

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After Belles father has left to go to an inventors festival, and she is left alone at her house in the village to deal with Gaston and the villagers, where Gaston has planned to go propose to Belle in her home, and she declines. When Belle goes into the pasture just outside of the village, she sees her fathers horse, who is very distraught, has return to the village without her father on it. She becomes very worried about him, and goes to find where he is.

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When Belle discovers her father has been kidnapped by the beast, she is faced with the decision of whether or not she should take her fathers place in the castle. Though she is hesitant and her father insists against it, she switches places with him, even though it means she may never see her father again.