LeFou performs for Gaston at the Tavern

llustration: Beauty and the Beast (Walt Disney, 1991) ‘Sequence 8 / Scene 11’ original pencil-test

Blue pencil illustration with red pencil motion-lines over test background on 17” x 12.5” five peg-hole vellum paper.

I had been trolling the Disney auctions at Heritage for a few months when I saw this piece, I found the humour and LeFou’s dramatized motion compelling and it was unlike any of the other scenes available. My intention was to win a drawing that included Belle, but she and the Beast were in a price category unto themselves.

Created for the beginning scene of the performance by LeFou at the Tavern, as he and the other villagers try to cheer-up Gaston after Belle rejects his marriage proposal, singing a song, ‘Gaston’, about how great he is. As LeFou begins the scene, dancing about the tavern, he comes upon a patron flirting with a barmaid and removes his belt causing his pants to fall down.

Disney boldly screened a ‘work-in-progress’ cut of Beauty and the Beast at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, in which 70% was complete and 30% remained storyboard illustration and pencil-tests. The final edit of “Seq8 Sc11” was finished for this screening, but was book-ended by numerous incomplete scenes. The final cut premiered at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 13, 1991.

The Festival-screened ‘Work-in-Progress‘ cut, set 20 seconds in advance to show the pencil-test scenes which precede and follow.

Since the final cut was digitally produced, there are no production cells. This is the final version of the layout-drawing.