The Cottage is a building that appears in the 1991 Disney animated film, Beauty and the Beast. It was the residence of Belle, and her father Maurice. Directly behind the house was a valley with a winding riverbed. It was also a walk away from the village.
Development
Original screenplay
The farmhouse in the 1989 screenplay, like in the original tale, would have been the recent home of Belle, Maurice, Aunt Marguerite, and Clarice, after the family were forced to move out of their mansion due to Maurice's ships being lost at sea. In addition, the family would also have nearly lost the farm because Maurice was unable to pay his taxes, resulting in Maurice trying to sell his late wife's music box, and Marguerite trying to marry Belle off to Marquis Gaston.
Places of Interest
- Main Foyer - The room first seen when the house is entered. It also contains the house's primary living area, dining room, and Belle's bookcase. The front door has a contraption used to view other people outside with what resembled binoculars, similar to peepholes.
- Maurice's Bedroom - This is presumably where Maurice sleeps, and is also where Belle nurtures Maurice after returning him home from the forest. It is only seen during one of the film's scenes.
- Cellar - A small partition beneath the house which Maurice uses as a laboratory to construct his numerous inventions. It is also where Gaston locks Belle and her father to prevent them from warning the Beast of the angry mob's arrival until Chip freed them with Maurice's Machine.
Printed media
New Adventures of Disney's Beauty and the Beast
In the first issue's second storyline Bothered, taking place a few years before the original film, although the cottage was never actually seen, the "ship" that the boys playing pirates used for their game (where they locked Belle into a cellar as her "galley prisoner") and was later rescued from by Maurice and Pierre, bore some resemblance to the cottage albeit in ruin, implying that Belle and Maurice may have eventually moved into the cottage and presumably fixed it up some time after the comic (as the comic depicted her and her father living closer to the village square instead of the cottage).
Disney Parks
Belle's cottage was also used for the New Fantasyland attraction at Walt Disney World. In addition to the locations shown in the movie, the New Fantasyland version of the cottage also featured some other elements, including a growth post for Belle's height and growth since birth, a portrait of Belle's mother, and a book read to her by her mom while she was still alive. This book was Sleeping Beauty, and it was also confirmed via the bitten book to be the same book that Belle had been reading in her opening song (of which the book's story was implied but never directly stated).
Gallery
