Sunday, August 15, 2010

A Single Macbeth Reference in Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Perf. Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury. 1991. DVD. Walt Disney Video, 2002.

Toward the end of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the villainous Gaston (he about whom it is said that "No one's slick as Gaston; / No one's quick as Gaston; / No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's") rallies the villagers to attack the Beast.

In the big fight song ("The Mob Song"), he uses a line that Lady Macbeth used under similarly disheartening circumstances: "Screw your courage to the sticking point."

The image above shows and tells it all!

Links: The Film at IMDB.

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5 comments:

Duane Morin said...

Oh now I *know* you didn't just discover that one, did you?

http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2006/07/im-back.html

My kids were way to young to notice it then but these days I get a kick out of pointing out the random bits of Shakespeare they hear every day, like this one (the song's in one of their playlists).

Then again I probably start to sound like Clark Griswold on his European Vacation ("Look kids, Big Ben! Parliament!") Only in my house it's "Shakespeare, kids! Macbeth!"

kj said...

I calls 'em like I sees 'em, and, furthermore, I calls 'em when I sees 'em—even if that means I get to them four years later than truer, more vigilant Shakespeare Geeks!

kj

Emmy said...

That is so crazy! I never caught that before. Obviously, I'm going to have to reread Macbeth and rewatch Beauty and the Beast. What a delightful assignment, to be sure :):):)

Padge said...

There is actually another Shakespeare reference in the "extended" DVD version--during the "Human Again" sequence, Belle is reading the end of "Romeo and Juliet" to the Beast. ("Never was a tale of more woe ...") He asks her to read it again, and she says for him to read it to her; at this point, it becomes clear he has trouble reading because, as he says, it has been a long time. Belle offers to help him, and he starts off at the beginning of the play ("Two households" -- he mispronounces two, and she gently corrects him).

That restored Romeo and Juliet reference actually makes sense, too, when you consider there is a "balcony" scene at the end of the film, with Beast climbing to Belle (just before he is stabbed).

kj said...

Thank you, Padge! That is extremely interesting. I'll be searching for that DVD!

kj

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Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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