The World of Forgotten Disney

Belle's Sisters

Belle's Sisters: Beauty and the Best

Deleted Disney Characters

In honor of Beauty and the Best's 25 Anniversary on November 22.

Belle's sisters were two characters who were deleted from the 1988 screenplay of Beauty and the Beast, and would have acted as co-antagonist with Belle's suitors. They were cut, alongside the overall screenplay, due to then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg feeling it wasn't what the Walt Disney Company had in mind.

Her sisters were, as the name states, the older sisters to Belle. Having been ignored constantly by three suitors to Belle's hand in marriage, they held a huge amount of jealousy towards Belle. They also leave their father to the fate of execution by the Beast, clearly not wishing to go to him. They also later scheme to get Beast's wealth to attract Belle's suitors, and proceeded to do so by manipulating Belle into staying with them via the use of onions to fake crying (a reference to the original tale.) They then manage to discover the wealth, however, they are caught and are forced to flee from the Beast, although not before one of Belle's suitors proceeds to mortally wound him. Belle's sisters, alongside the suitors, are later turned into animals by the Enchantress as punishment for their misdeeds shortly after the Beast's curse was lifted, with each animal representing their particular vices.

When the film was rewritten by Richard Purdum in 1989, the sisters were condensed into a single character, Marguerite, Belle's aunt, who shared several similar characteristics to the sisters, most notably being vain and being obsessed with wealth. However, the sisters didn't want Belle to be married out of their jealousy, while Marguerite tries to force Belle into marriage to gain wealth via the suitor in question, Marquis Gaston. Marguerite, alongside the screenplay, ended up cut at Jeffrey Katzenberg's order due to it being "too dark and dramatic." Any chance of the sisters returning was removed when Linda Woolverton was selected to write the final version of the film, as she decided to have them cut out of the adaptation in order to give significant focus on Belle's distaste for Gaston, and also because she felt they would have otherwise been mistaken for the evil stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia Tremaine from Cinderella. The closest in the final film to their characterization were the Bimbettes, three blonde triplet sisters who fawned over Gaston, although unlike Belle's sisters, they weren't demonstrated to be anywhere near the level of wickedness of Belle's sisters.

A variation of their role as Belle's siblings would have been kept in Belle's other sister Clarice from Purdum's version who, unlike the sisters, was kind to Belle. However, she was also written out of the film after the screenplay was rejected.

Had they been kept, they would have been the first Disney Villains to act as blood-related siblings to the main protagonist (as Drizella and Anastasia were only stepsiblings to Cinderella).

Now the mock buster made more sense.

This will be dedicated to a friend of mine who LOVES Beauty and the Best.