document_title: List of Everybody Loves Raymond characters

question_text: who played angelina the waitress on everybody loves raymond

text: Main characters

text:
Actor
Role
Seasons
Episodes

Ray Romano
Raymond "Ray" Barone
All 9
210

Patricia Heaton
Debra Barone
209

Brad Garrett
Robert Charles Barone

Doris Roberts
Marie Barone
210

Peter Boyle
Frank Barone
206

Madylin Sweeten
Alexandra "Ally" Barone
146

Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten
Michael and Geoffrey Barone
136

Monica Horan
Amy MacDougall-Barone
64

text: Ray Barone

text:
Raymond Albert Barone

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"The Finale"
Final character appearance: King of Queens – "Raygin' Bulls"

Created by
Ray Romano & Philip Rosenthal

Portrayed by
Ray Romano

Number of episodes
210

Information

Occupation
Sportswriter

Family
Frank Barone (father)
Marie Barone (mother)
Robert Barone (brother)
Mel Barone (uncle)

Spouse(s)
Debra Barone (since 1988)

Children
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (daughter)
Geoffrey Barone (twin son)
Michael Barone (twin son)

Relatives
Warren Whelan (father-in-law)
Lois Whelan (mother-in-law)
Amy MacDougall-Barone (sister-in-law)
Jennifer Whelan (sister-in-law)
Gerard (maternal cousin)

text: Raymond Albert "Ray" Barone (Ray Romano) is the protagonist of the sitcom. Most of the series’ storylines revolve around him, hence the title of the show. He lives on Long Island, with his wife Debra and their three children Ally and twin boys, Michael and Geoffrey Barone. He attended St. Johns University (New York) in Queens, New York. Ray is well-known through the community due to his profession as a sportswriter for Newsday. In some episodes, he is seen reviewing a famous sportsperson. However, this is shown to have subsided in the later seasons. Due to the nature of his work, Ray is often seen on the couch, watching sports, rather than assisting Debra with household duties and the children.

text: At times Raymond appears rather introverted. He often rants in a nasal, whiny voice. His fears include not being liked by everyone and confronting his parents, particularly his mother. He often gets annoyed because he feels that he and Debra lack intimacy. He is also promoted as chief sports writer.

text: Parts of the backstory of his childhood have explained Raymond’s attitude and personality as an adult. Raymond and Robert were spoiled by their mother. However, their father, who worked long hours, had been neglectful in showing them affection and instead showed verbal abuse. Ray has sometimes shown this pattern of behavior in his reluctance to participate with his own children.

text: A running gag in the show is how much Ray was mothered and spoiled by his mother, while Robert was neglected. Raymond was pampered by Marie, which in turn, made him lazy and causing him to act like a child, and very often, to defend himself to Debra, he goes to Marie for advice and protection. He is also very scared of her and often sides with her instead of Debra.

text: In 2004, TV Guide ranked Ray Barone number 10 on its '50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time' list.[1]

text: The character has made several crossover appearances:

text:
1997: Cosby – "Lucas Raymondicus"
1998: The Nanny – "The Reunion Show"
1998–2005: The King of Queens (4 episodes)
1999: Becker – "Drive, They Said"

text: Debra Barone

text:
Debra Louise Whelan Barone

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"The Finale"

Portrayed by
Patricia Heaton

Number of episodes
209

Information

Occupation
Homemaker

Family
Warren Whelan (father)
Lois Whelan (mother)
Jennifer Whelan (sister)

Spouse(s)
Raymond Barone (since 1988)

Children
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (daughter)
Geoffrey Barone (twin son)
Michael Barone (twin son)

Relatives
Frank Barone (father-in-law)
Marie Barone (mother-in-law)
Robert Barone (brother-in-law)
Amy MacDougall-Barone (sister-in-law)
Mel Barone (uncle-in-law)
Gerard (cousin-in-law)

text: Debra Louise Whelan-Barone (Patricia Heaton), is the wife of Ray. She was raised by wealthy parents, Lois (Katherine Helmond) and Warren Whelan (Robert Culp), and grew up in an upper-class background, unlike the other major characters in the sitcom. She has a sister, Jennifer Whelan (Ashley Crow), who is seen only once in the entire series. Following her graduation from high school, she traveled a lot and dated many famous sportspeople. Before marrying Ray, she worked in public relations for the New York Rangers hockey team.

text: Debra is vulnerable and emotionally sensitive. She is unhappy as a housewife, having to put up not only with Ray’s immature jokes and lazy behavior, but more with his intrusive family members, who often barge in uninvited, leaving havoc in their wake. Though Ray's parents frustrate her, she rarely shows her feelings to them, resulting in occasional bursts in private of yelling, stomping, and throwing objects.

text: Debra has a feud with Marie, who shows a large amount of distaste of her ability to be a mother and a wife. Throughout the series, Debra often finds Robert the most patient of the Barones, and at times she is shown to get along well with Frank, who thinks of her as a daughter and understands Debra's intolerance towards Marie.

text: She is also depressed about her parents when they were in an argument, and she was distraught when they were divorcing. Even though she grew up in a traditional conservative family, she was a free-spirited and a popular teen in her early years. Ray once noted that, during college, she went to Mardi Gras and flashed her breasts to many people who gave her beads and also ended up topless in the newspaper.

text: Her main catchphrase is, usually addressed to Ray in an ominous voice when he has done something bad, "What did you do?"

text: The character has also appeared in the King of Queens episode "Dire Strayts".

text: Barone children

text:
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (154 episodes; played by Madylin Sweeten) – Ray and Debra's only daughter. She is six years old at the beginning of the series, and is fourteen by the series finale. She was named for Romano's real-life daughter. In the beginning, she is somewhat mischievous and naughty much like her brothers, but becomes loyal and helpful by the end. However, she still occasionally fibs and answers back to her parents if she doesn't get what she wants, such as a $250 silk dress which would only be worn once.
Geoffrey and Michael Barone (130 episodes; played by Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten) – Ray and Debra's identical twin sons. They are two years old at the beginning of the series and are ten years old by the series finale. A running joke is Frank's insistence that Geoffrey may have homosexual tendencies, such as when he walks in on the two boys rehearsing to play fairies in a school production. The two are stereotypically playful, energetic, and prone to causing chaos even without trying but in general are well-behaved. (In the pilot episode, they were played by a different set of twins plus a set of triplets and were called "Gregory" and "Matthew" after Romano's real-life twin sons.)

text: Marie Barone

text:
Marie Janella Barone

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"Finale"

Portrayed by
Doris Roberts

Number of episodes
210

Information

Occupation
Homemaker

Spouse(s)
Frank Barone (since 1957)

Children
Raymond "Ray" Barone (son)
Robert Barone (son)

Relatives
Debra Barone (daughter-in-law)
Amy MacDougall-Barone (daughter-in-law)
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (granddaughter)
Geoffrey Barone (grandson)
Michael Barone (grandson)
Mel Barone (brother-in-law)
Gerard (nephew)

text: Marie Janella Barone (Doris Roberts) is the wife of Frank, and matriarch of the Barone family. As a housewife, she excels in household duties, including cooking, cleaning, and generally keeping and maintaining a good household. Marie appears to have narcissistic personality disorder, and her treatment of people due to this becomes a focal point of several episodes of the show. She is very nosy, snobbish, arrogant, insulting, and has a strong hold over her family due to her penchant for her likely narcissistic abuse, bullying those around her with guilt and a victim complex to get her way. She has very high self-esteem and regards herself as a positive example of what every wife, mother and woman should be, but in reality is responsible for a majority of the misery and conflict within the Barone family. She takes special pride in her Italian background and even arranges a tour of Italy for the whole family out of her own savings.

text: Throughout the series, she is shown to have favorites with certain people, with her son Raymond being the first and Debra being possibly the last. Other than Frank, everyone has a hard time standing up to Marie due to her ability of making people feel guilty, although Debra does occasionally take a stand. She is well aware of Raymond’s reluctance to stand up to her, and in many situations takes advantage of this to achieve her own interests.

text: It is established in the flashbacks of "How They Met" that she has never liked Debra ever since Debra asked Ray to fix her futon at dinner time, but Marie has never admitted her dislike of Debra outright and is careful about not saying it out loud, but she never ceases the chance to annoy her or indirectly insult her on many occasions just for her own pleasure.

text: She has saved a little money on the side every day and admitted to Debra that she collected over $46,000 since her wedding. She also sends money to South America to a fundraiser. She is also shown to actually control the family's finances in front of Frank, who always thought he was the one in charge and remained oblivious to much of her savings or expenses.

text: As her boys were growing up, she spoiled her younger son while completely cutting Robert out of the picture. However, in a later episode, she claims that this was because Robert was able to take care of himself and was independent, in contrast to Ray who was a sensitive, timid, needy little boy (this was likely said just to manipulate Robert into getting Amy pregnant, as both he and Raymond note and Marie herself winks to Ray, indicating this is another manipulation). In some cases, however, she is shown to care and be overprotective of Robert as well. This includes when he had nightmares growing up, when he was gored by a bull, when he was interviewing for an FBI position, and her frequent attempts to get Robert out of the police force in effort to keep him safe.

text: Marie is also seen constantly arguing with her husband Frank in nearly every episode, with them constantly fighting and annoying each other. However, in some situations, there have been times when they do evidence their love for one another, despite their reluctance to be open with it. Much to Debra's annoyance, even Debra's parents find them more interesting, since they are honest to each other.

text: Her catchphrase is "I don't like that, [insert name]." whenever anyone says anything inappropriate.

text: The final episode reveals that her birthday is December 9 (this was one of Frank's classic "one-liners" as he adds "1802").

text: The character has also appeared in the King of Queens episode "Rayny Day".

text: Frank Barone

text:
Frank Oscar Barone

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"Finale"

Portrayed by
Peter Boyle

Number of episodes
207

Information

Occupation
Bookkeeper (retired)

Spouse(s)
Marie Barone (since 1957)

Children
Raymond "Ray" Barone (son)
Robert Barone (son)

Relatives
Debra Barone (daughter-in-law)
Amy MacDougall-Barone (daughter-in-law)
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (granddaughter)
Geoffrey Barone (grandson)
Michael Barone (grandson)
Mel Barone (older brother)
Gerard (nephew by marriage)

text: Francis Oscar "Frank" Barone (Peter Boyle) is the husband of Marie and a retired bookkeeper. In the episode "The Gift" (season 2), it is Frank's 65th birthday, making his year of birth 1932. He can be seen as aggressive, selfish, uncaring, and masculine. Although it is briefly mentioned that he has a sensitive side, Frank refuses to accept it. In episodes like "Pet the Bunny", "Christmas Present", "Fathers Knows Least" and "Frank Goes Downstairs", he indicates that, though capable of patience and kindness, he deliberately cultivates a tough guy persona. However, Frank is sometimes shown to be a good family man, such as taking the fall for Debra when Marie's prized canister goes missing or even trying to console Robert after he becomes morose from a breakup.

text: He is always seen at Ray and Debra’s house on the black armchair with his pants unbuttoned and zipper open watching sports or at home ordering Marie to prepare his meals while sitting and reading the paper. During his sons’ childhood, Frank was virtually absent and had refused to show any sign of affection and love to either boy. He was constantly at loggerheads with his wife Marie to how the boys were to be raised. He is very opinionated, outspoken, and has no problem insulting family members and strangers out in the open (this applies in particular to his wife, Marie). He calls men names like "Nancy", "Shirley", "Peaches", and "Mary" who do not live up to his standards to what it takes to be a man. His main catchphrase on the show is "Holy crap".

text: Throughout the sitcom, Frank is shown to have socially conservative values, particularly regarding minority groups such as gays and lesbians, and ethnic groups such as the Koreans and Japanese to which he occasionally mutters "Japanese crap". He doesn’t follow or accept anything outside the social norms, to which Marie proclaims "Frank lives in blissful ignorance". Despite Marie’s constant self-regard, she is accepting of these minority groups. Much to other characters' dismay, he's not above engaging in illegal or dubious activities such as gambling or stealing cable from Ray.

text: In his spare time, Frank is a skilled handyman and a history buff, with a particular interest in the American Civil War. He's frequently seen making repairs in Ray and Debra's house, and in "Frank Goes Downstairs" is injured while fixing their staircase. His regular get-away activity is having naked pool bath with his elderly friends at a community center referred to as "the lodge". On every other Saturday, he takes Raymond's children to The Happy Zone.

text: Frank is also a war veteran. He fought in the Korean War and he uses this as a reference for recounting stories of survival and how he came to be a "man". In one particular incident, where all three Barone men were pretending to go to counseling sessions it was revealed that Ray and Robert had a long line of physically disciplinarian grandparents. However, Frank vowed to never be physically abusive towards his sons, never enforcing corporal punishment on them and never engaging in anything more than yelling at them.

text: Though for the most part largely anti-social and honest in his relationships with others, he is often depicted as the only member of the family who is not only unafraid of Marie, but the only one who will put his foot down and stand up to her, much to the combined relief and horror of the other characters. Many of their arguments revolve around trivial and even irrational subjects, such as who invented the lawn and literally comparing apples and oranges.

text: They also come into conflict over Debra, whom Frank, unlike Marie, overwhelmingly loves, and even tends to be more affectionate with than he is with either of his sons. True to his blunt personality, in one episode in which the entire family (the adults) were at a counseling session with their church priest Father Hubley, he yelled out in front of everyone that the main reason why Marie looks down on Debra – "She [Debra] married him [Raymond], and [Marie] still can't deal with it."

text: Robert Barone

text:
Robert Charles Barone

First appearance
"Pilot"

Last appearance
"Finale"

Portrayed by
Brad Garrett

Number of episodes
209

Information

Gender
Male

Occupation
Police Officer (NYPD)

Family
Frank Barone (father)
Marie Barone (mother)
Raymond "Ray" Barone (brother)
Mel Barone (uncle)

Spouse(s)
Joanne Glotz (1994–1995; divorced)
Amy MacDougall-Barone (since 2003)

Relatives
Debra Barone (sister-in-law)
Hank MacDougall (father-in-law)
Pat MacDougall (mother-in-law)
Peter MacDougall (brother-in-law)
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (niece)
Geoffrey Barone (nephew)
Michael Barone (nephew)
Gerard (maternal cousin)

text: Robert Charles Barone (Brad Garrett) is Raymond's older brother (4 years older than Ray) and the first-born son of Frank and Marie. His birthday is April 6 and his birth weight was 12 pounds (5443 g). Standing at 6' 8½" (204 cm), he is the tallest Barone, and has several quirks, the biggest being a nervous habit of touching food to his chin before eating it, commonly known as the "Crazy Chin", which he developed to cope with anxiety which started when Raymond was born and all of Marie's attention turned to Raymond. Robert is a loving uncle and still deeply cares for his little brother Raymond. Robert has been a police officer with the N.Y.P.D for 27 years, eventually attaining the rank of Sergeant and then, by the end of the series, Lieutenant. His height, appearance and demeanor are the source of much humor, but despite his imposing size, Robert is a very skilled dancer.

text: After divorcing his first wife Joanne in 1995, Robert moved back in with his parents, became a workaholic, and was acknowledged by the NYPD for never being absent one day of his career for three years straight. Robert's advanced skills as a police officer even got him an interview with the FBI, but his mother intentionally interfered in the interview process. Robert was passed over but simply because the other candidates were more qualified. He was injured on the job when he was gored in the bottom by a bull. When he returned, he left the police force out of a lack of self-confidence, and became a telemarketer. Later, he took a side job as an alarm salesman for a brief time (one episode) but returned to the NYPD, mainly with Raymond's help.

text: Robert dated Debra's best friend Amy MacDougall for several years, despite a number of breakups. After a bad date with yet another woman, Robert ran into Amy in a bar and they soon got back together and married in 2003. In 2004, they purchased Frank and Marie's home for $26,000, but they had to welcome them back in when the elder Barones were kicked out of a retirement community in New Jersey in the episode "Not So Fast."

text: Robert is very jealous of his brother Raymond, who was favored by their mother, and though Robert is four years older than Ray and much taller, he constantly feels as if he's stuck in Ray's shadow. Despite the obvious favoring of Ray, Marie has claimed that there was never any favoritism. He has a very dark sense of humor and will make fun of Raymond to no end to get a little belated revenge. He is also known for being very passive-aggressive.

text: While he enjoys taunting Ray himself, Robert is very protective of his younger brother; in one episode, he overhears a radio sports show host insulting Ray at length and angrily humiliates the man in retaliation. He also respects Ray as a well-meaning, if generally absent, father, in the pattern of Frank. Robert serves as the moral conscience in the family, as the most virtuous of the characters, and often pleads with others when they are considering doing something questionable.

text: Robert's catchphrase in the show is when he finds the family gathered together silent and says: "Is this about me?"

text: Robert also appears in the King of Queens episode "Road Rayge".

text: Amy MacDougall-Barone

text:
Amy Louise MacDougall-Barone

First appearance
"Who's Handsome?"

Last appearance
"The Finale"

Portrayed by
Monica Horan

Number of episodes
66

Information

Gender
Female

Family
Hank MacDougall (father)
Pat MacDougall (mother)
Peter MacDougall (brother)

Spouse(s)
Robert Barone (since 2003)

Relatives
Frank Barone (father-in-law)
Marie Barone (mother-in-law)
Ray Barone (brother-in-law)
Debra Whelan-Barone (sister-in-law)
Alexandra "Ally" Barone (niece by marriage)
Geoffrey Barone (nephew by marriage)
Michael Barone (nephew by marriage)
Mel Barone (uncle-in-law)
Gerard (cousin in-law)

text: Amy Louise MacDougall (Monica Horan) is Robert's on-and-off girlfriend, and eventual wife. They met because Amy is Debra's best friend. She and Debra share the same middle name. Although Amy marries Robert in Season 7, Episode 24: "Robert's Wedding", she also appears in the previous seasons. Many issues have caused Amy and Robert to break up in the first six seasons, with one being caused by Raymond and another being that Robert had sex with another woman. Frequently, Amy apologizes to someone even if she didn't do anything wrong.

text: She is a confident woman who was raised in a family of devout Protestants, who live in Pennsylvania. She describes her parents as "people who wouldn't yell if they were on fire." Amy was a virgin when she met Robert, which Ray had a hard time understanding, as Amy was 33 at the time. She eventually lost her virginity to Robert before they were married, but they were spotted having sex by their neighbors, causing Robert's neighbors to sign a sheet mandating bedroom curtains in the apartment building.

text: Recurring

text: Hank and Pat MacDougall (13 episodes; played by Fred Willard and Georgia Engel) are Amy's parents. They first appear in "Just a Formality" (episode 7.14). Devout conservative Presbyterians, they oppose their daughter's marriage because of Robert's previous marital status and Catholic faith. These matters are not helped as they soon learn that the MacDougalls and the Barones are not the most compatible of families; the two sides still do not like each other after many tries at truce, although the Barones have always loved Amy, and the MacDougalls come to tolerate Robert.

text: Hank is a former professor and is now a high school principal. He is known to be opposed to smoking, and his line when he sees someone smoking is "Why don't you just drink poison?". Pat is a housewife, and has a high-pitched, gentle voice. She is shown to be a protective and loving mother.

text:
Peter MacDougall (10 episodes; played by Chris Elliott) is Amy's older brother. He has a strange, psychologically unstable personality (Robert once stated that "There are squirrels juggling knives in his head") and a duplicitous, quick-witted mind. Opposed to his sister's marriage, he insists that he will keep trying to break it up, which explains the reason why during Robert's wedding that Robert and Ray looked at him when the pastor asked if anyone objected to Robert and Amy's marriage. Peter is single but lives with his pet house cat, Miss Puss. At first, Peter and Robert hate each other, but in "Peter on the Couch," the two find common ground in the fact that they both suffered from being the overshadowed older sibling and living with their parents. He is fond of Ray, although the feeling isn't mutual. Peter was originally introduced as "Russell", the owner of a comic book shop (played by comedian Paul Reubens) in a one-time appearance. Russell abruptly became Peter because in "Just a Formality" (episode 7.14), Peter mentions meeting Ray at the comic book store (which was Russell).
Lois and Warren Whelan (14 and 11 episodes, played by Katherine Helmond and Robert Culp) are Debra's parents. Even though they are an authoritarian conservative family, they are shown to have a breakdown and actually hate their marriage and hobbies. They are from Connecticut. They are also upper class, and have different beliefs from the middle class Barones. However, the Whelans have a huge amount of respect towards them for their bluntness and start to imitate them, angering Debra.

text: Lois is a housewife, and traveled around on fundraisers. Her line of work was not mentioned. She is friendly and patient, but easily insulted. She also appears to be nervous around Robert, who feels the same way. She has a struggling relationship with Warren, and even though she suggested and went to counseling in New Jersey, he eventually files in for a divorce, which she accepts, since she cannot find love in her marriage anymore.

text: Warren is a businessman, achieving success at a young age, and a caring, happy-go-lucky father. He is very passionate about antiques, and, in a running joke on the show, is often referred to as having a problem with alcohol. He had problems with Lois about their marriage. They agreed to go on counseling in New Jersey, but they eventually divorced. Debra was distraught and furious with Lois because she thought that she filed it, but Warren tells her the truth.

text:
Andy (26 episodes; played by Andy Kindler) – A fellow sportswriter and friend of Raymond's, and a bachelor. He is known to have bad luck with women.
Gianni (25 episodes; played by Jon Manfrellotti) – A contractor, ex-futon repairman, and friend of Raymond's. He briefly dated Amy, much to Robert's consternation, and is disliked by Debra as immature. He worked with Ray when they were younger. He also appeared on The King of Queens. Jon Manfrellotti first appeared as a cable guy from Lynbrook cable in "The Game" (episode 1.17).
Bernie and Linda Gruenfelder (17 and 11 episodes; played by Tom McGowan and Maggie Wheeler) – Married couple, friends of Ray and Debra. They are very happy together and express their love in public.
Kevin Daniels (9 episodes; played by Kevin James) – Announcer for the Mets, and friend and golf buddy of Raymond. He also hosts "Sports Talk with Roy Firestone" in "Ray's on TV" (episode 2.1).
Stan (9 episodes; played by Victor Raider-Wexler) – Friend of Marie and Frank.
Garvin (9 episodes; played by Len Lesser) – A friend of Frank's. A running gag is that when he sees Raymond, he shouts, "Hey, Ray's here! Ha-ha-ha!" while shaking his arms in the air. Lesser used a similar gag on Seinfeld when he portrayed Uncle Leo, enthusiastically saying "Jerry! Hello!" while holding out his arms every time he greeted his nephew Jerry.
Sgt. Judy Potter (9 episodes; played by Sherri Shepherd) – Robert's NYPD patrol partner.

text: Minor

text:
Nemo (7 episodes; played by Joseph V. Perry, Robert Ruth) – Pizza restaurant owner. Disappears when Marco takes over his pizzeria and calls it Marco's.
Gerard (7 episodes; played by Fred Stoller) – Ray and Robert's annoying, unintelligent and hypochondriacal cousin who makes several appearances. He plays the accordion (mostly the first notes of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water or The Carpenters' (They Long to Be) Close to You).
Father Hubley (6 episodes; played by Charles Durning) – The local parish priest. He loves Marie's lasagna. Very wary of the Barones, his long-time parishioners, but usually has helpful advice to offer.
Stefania Fogagnolo (6 episodes; played by Alex Meneses) – Robert's hot and jilted Italian ex-girlfriend he met while vacationing with the Barone clan in Italy. He had a fling with her in Italy while he was still with Amy, which later causes breakups with both girlfriends.
Marco Fogagnolo (6 episodes; played by David Proval) – The intimidating and threatening Italian father of Stefania, who takes over Nemo's Pizza after the family moves to America, jokingly implying that he "did away with" Nemo. Although he dislikes Robert, he befriends Frank and Marie but the two end up fighting for his friendship.
Molly Ardolino (6 episodes; played by Ray Romano's actual daughter, Alexandra Romano) – Daughter of Peggy Ardolino (Ray's archenemy and Debra's friend) and Ally's best friend. However, she was first seen as a flower girl in a flashback of Ray and Debra's wedding.
Max (5 episodes; played by executive producer and main writer Phil Rosenthal's real-life father, Max Rosenthal) – A lodge friend of Frank, seen in various lodge-related episodes.
Angelina (4 episodes; played by Tina Arning) – a very attractive waitress from Nemo's. Ray often goes to the restaurant just to fantasize about her beauty. She appears in four episodes.
Uncle Mel Barone (4 episodes; played by Phil Leeds) – Frank's older brother. Mel is mean and always seems agitated. A running gag is since he was never married, and sometimes shows up at family events with other men, he mentions at least once in every episode he is in fact, not gay.
Bill Parker (3 episodes; played by David Hunt) – Ray's nemesis neighbor. Parker is often seen showing-up Ray as a father, and Ray often makes jokes that Debra wishes she had married him instead, (the in-joke being that he is played by Patricia Heaton's real-life husband). Ray's character has said lines that has him thinking out loud that his kids are possibly Bill Parker's doing, because all the kids playing his children on the show are blond, like Bill Parker.
Albert (3 episodes; played by Ray Romano's real-life father, Albert Romano) – A lodge friend of Frank, seen in various lodge-related episodes.
Lee (3 episodes; played by Debra Mooney) – Friend of Marie and Frank's
Dave (2 episodes; played by Dave Attell) – A friend of Raymond and a member of the Nemo's sponsored basketball team in "Captain Nemo" (episode 1.11).
Joanne Glotz (2 episodes; played by Suzie Plakson) – Robert's first wife, who is depicted very negatively. She and Robert divorced before the beginning of the series. She formerly worked as a stripper in Atlantic City named Cinnamon. Marie knew about her former job since she appeared on the show, but kept quiet for Robert's sake until Joanne asked for a divorce.
Bryan Trenberth (2 episodes; played by Dan Castellaneta) – The T-ball "healthy snacks" overseer that Debra tangled with and Ray finally blew up on in "T-Ball" (episode 2.42). He was also Coach Bryan in "It's Supposed To Be Fun" (episode 6.8).
Harriet Lichtman – Marie's bridge partner, and Frank's fantasy woman. Often talked about but only appears in Season 7, Episode 20: "Who's Next".
Abe Warchiser aka "Bullethead" (John David Conti) – Frank's worst enemy at his lodge, seen in various lodge-related episodes. He proved he hated Frank in the episode "Franks Tribute" by telling Robert and Raymond "I don't like Frank Barone!"
Peggy Ardolino (Amy Aquino) – Single mother of Ally's best friend who has bullied Ray and later becomes Peter's girlfriend. Referred to as "The Cookie Lady" and "Peggy Hitler" by Ray. Whenever they see each other, Peggy says, "Hello, Ally's dad," while he just says "Hello... Peggy," in a very intimidating way. Debra ends up scaring Peggy off so she would leave Ray alone saying, "Nobody beats up my husband." Her characteristics are similar to Hitler, according to Ray.
Shamsky II – the bulldog Robert gets in Season 1, Episode 19: "The Dog" after having him neutered and later finding out he was a pure bred used for breeding stock. Shamsky II, named for Robert's favourite baseball player Art Shamsky, makes brief cameos in other episodes.
Jennifer Whelan (Ashley Crow) – Debra's wayward sister who finally becomes a nun in "The Sister" (episode 4.6).


document_title: Naomi (given name)

question_text: what is the meaning of naomi in hebrew

question_tokens: what is the meaning of naomi in hebrew

root

text: Naomi (given name)

text: Hebrew[edit]

text: Naomi (נָעֳמִי) is a feminine Jewish name of Hebrew origin. In Hebrew, it means "pleasantness" and was originally pronounced with the stress on the a (the o is a hataf qamatz, marked with a shva to indicate that it is very short). In Judaism and Christianity, Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law. Because Naomi appears in the Old Testament, this makes the name Naomi a Biblical name.

tag: p

text:
Variant forms of Naomi

Armenian
Նոյեմի

Czech
Noemi

Dutch
Naomi

English
Naomi

Finnish
Noomi

French
Naomé (Belgian), Noemy, Noémi, Noémie, Noëmie

German
Noemi, Noomi

Greek
Νωεμιν

Haitian Creole
Nahomie

Hebrew
נָעֳמִי

Hungarian
Naómi, Noémi

Irish
Náoimí

Italian
Noemi

Persian
نائومی

Polish
Noemi

Portuguese
Noemi, Noémia, Noêmia (Brazilian)

Russian
Наоми, Ноэми

Spanish
Noemi, Noemí, Nohemi (Mexican)

Tagalog
Noemí, Naomi

tag: table

text: Japanese[edit]

text: Naomi (なおみ, ナオミ), pronounced [naomi] is a feminine Japanese name, meaning "honest and beautiful". Naomi can be spelled using hiragana, katakana, kanji or a combination of kana and kanji.

text:
なお美
ナオ美
直美
尚美
直己
尚己
直実
尚実
奈緒美
奈於美

tag: ul

text: People named Naomi[edit]

text: Academia[edit]

text:
Naomi Chazan, Israeli academic and politician
Naomi Oreskes, American science historian

text: Fine arts[edit]

text: Marie-Noémi Cadiot, French sculptor of the 19th century

text: Authors[edit]

text:
Naomi Frankel, German-Israeli novelist
Naomi Jacob, English author, actress and broadcaster
Naomi Klein, Canadian journalist, author, and social activist
Naomi Lindstrom, Latin Americanist literary critic
Naomi Mitchison, Scottish novelist and poet
Naomi Novik, American novelist
Naomi Royde-Smith, British novelist
Naomi Schor, noted literary critic and theorist
Naomi Wolf, American author and political consultant
Noémi Kiss, Hungarian writer
Denise Naomi Klein, British romantic novelist

text: Film[edit]

text:
Naomi Akimoto (秋本 奈緒美, born 1963), Japanese actress and singer
Naomi Battrick, British actress
Naomi Bentley, British actress
Naomi Childers, silent film actress
Naomie Harris, English screen actress
Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, American screenwriter
Naomi Kawase, Japanese film director
Noémie Lvovsky, French film director
Naomi Nagasawa (Nao Nagasawa), Japanese voice actress
Naomi Nishida, Japanese actress
Naomi Scott an English actress, singer and musician
Naomi Shindō, Japanese voice actress
Naomi Stevens, character actress of film and television
Sonia Noemí, Puerto Rican actress and singer
Noomi Rapace, Swedish actress
Naomi Wakabayashi, Japanese voice actress
Naomi Watanabe (渡辺直美), Japanese actress
Naomi Watts, British actress

text: Law[edit]

text:
Noemí Rial, Argentinian lawyer and politician
Noemí Sanín, Colombian lawyer and politician

text: Modelling[edit]

text:
Naomi Campbell (born 1970), British supermodel
Naomi Sims, African American model, businesswoman and author
Noémie Lenoir, French model
Noemi Letizia, Italian celebrity

text: Music[edit]

text:
Noemi (singer), Italian singer (born Veronica Scopelliti) and music video director
Naomi Allen, singer signed to Def Jam
Natalia Noemi Cappuccini (Natalia Keery-Fisher), English singer-songwriter
Noemí Carrión, Spanish singer and actress
Naomi Hall, American musician
Naomi Judd, American country music singer, songwriter, and activist
Naomi Neville, pseudonym of American composer Allen Toussaint
Naomi Phoenix, English singer-songwriter
Naomi Polani (born 1927), Israeli musical director, theater director, singer, producer, actress, and dancer
Noémi Rime, French soprano
Naomi Shemer, Israeli songwriter, the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry"
Naomi Yang, singer with the group Galaxie 500
Shinta Naomi, member of the Indonesian idol group JKT48.

text: Politics[edit]

text:
Naomi Gonzalez, Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives
Naomi Jakobsson, Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives
Naomi C. Matusow (born 1938), New York politician
Noemí Santana Perera, a member of the Podemos party of Spain
Naomi Tokashiki, Japanese politician
Naomi Wyatt, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Office of Administration
Noemí Rial, Argentine Secretary of Labor
Ruth Noemí Colón, Secretary of State of New York

text: Sport[edit]

text:
Naomi Castle, Australian water polo player
Naomi Folkard (born 1983), English archer
Naomi Hoshikawa (星川 直美, born 1969), Japanese cross-country skier
Naomi James, round-the-world sailor
Naomi Lang, American ice dancer
Naomi Mugo, Kenyan middle distance runner
Naomi Russell, Australian gymnast
Naomi Uemura (male), Japanese adventurer, first person to reach the North Pole solo
Naomi van As, Dutch field hockey player
Naomichi Marufuji, Japanese professional wrestler
Noémi Boekel, Dutch softball player
Noemi Cantele, Italian road bicycle racer
Noémi Dakos, Hungarian handballer
Naomi Knight, ring name for American professional wrestler and dancer Trinity McCray
Noemi Lung, former Romanian butterfly and medley swimmer
Noémi Németh, Hungarian hammer thrower
Noemí Simonetto de Portela, Argentine athlete
Naomi Takewaki (竹脇 直巳, born 1964), Japanese bobsledder
Naomi Taniguchi, Japanese racer
Noémi Tóth, Italian water polo defender
Noémi Trufán, Hungarian handballer
Naomi Osaka, Haitian-American-Japanese professional tennis player

text: Other notable people[edit]

text:
Noémi Ban, Hungarian-born American Jew and Holocaust survivor
Naomi Ferguson, commissioner of the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department
Naomi Milgrom, Australian business owner
Naomi Miller, American murder victim

text: Fictional characters[edit]

text:
Naomi, in Kamen Rider
Naomi, in MicroVolts
Naomi, henchwoman in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me
Naomi, in the Tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Den-O
Naomi, Phantom Society Devil Summoner in the video game Soul Hackers
Naomi, in the U.S. TV Series Supernatural
Naomi Armitage, protagonist of the anime Armitage III
Naomi Bennett, in the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice
Naomi Campbell, in the television series Skins
Naomi Clark, in the CW primetime drama show 90210
Naomi Collins, in Dark Shadows
Naomi Dorrit, in the American drama/adventure television series Lost
Naomi Harper, in the American sitcom Mama's Family
Naomi Hunter, in the Metal Gear series
Naomi Inoue, in Code Geass
Naomi Lapaglia, in movie The Wolf of Wall Street
Naomi Misora, ex-FBI agent in the anime and manga series Death Note
Naomi Nakashima, in the survival horror video game Corpse Party
Naomi Nagata, in the book series The Expanse by James S. A. Corey, and its television adaptation
Naomi Umegae, a government agent with psychokinetic powers in Zettai Karen Children.
Naomi Wildman, in the television series Star Trek: Voyager
Naomi Zeigler, in the book series Pretty Little Liars by Sarah Shepard
Naomi Rodriguez, in the musical 21 Chump Street


document_title: Arsenal

question_text: from which language does the word arsenal come

text: Arsenal

text: Etymology[edit]

text: From Italian: arsenale, and French: arsenal, from Arabic: دار الصناعة, dār aṣ-ṣināʕa, meaning "manufacturing shop".[4][5][6][7][8][9]

text: Types[edit]

text: A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish the materiel and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, small-arms ammunition, small-arms, harness, saddlery tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great store-houses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress.

text: In the early twenty-first century the term "floating armoury" described a ship storing weapons to be supplied to merchant vessels in international waters subject to piracy, so that the weapons do not enter territorial waters where they would be illegal.

text: Operational subdivision[edit]

text: The branches in a great arsenal are usually subdivided into storekeeping, construction and administration.

text:
Under storekeeping we should have the following departments and stores: Departments of issue and receipt, pattern room, armoury department, ordnance or park, harness, saddlery and accoutrements, camp equipment, tools and instruments, engineer store, timber yard, breaking-up store, unserviceable store.
Under construction: Gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory, small-arms factory, harness and tent factory, powder factory, etc. In a second-class arsenal there would be workshops instead of these factories.
Under the head of administration would be classed as the chief director of the arsenal, officials military and civil, non-commissioned officers and military artificers, civilian foremen, workmen and laborers, with the clerks and writers necessary for the office work of the establishments.

text: In the manufacturing branches are required skill, and efficient and economical work, both executive and administrative; in the storekeeping part, good arrangement, great care, thorough knowledge of all warlike stores, both in their active and passive state, and scrupulous exactness in the custody, issue and receipt of stores. Frederick Taylor introduced command and control techniques to arsenals, including the U.S.'s Watertown Arsenal (a principal center for artillery design and manufacture) and Frankford Arsenal (a principal center for small arms ammunition design and manufacture).


document_title: Area code 931

question_text: where is area code 931 located in usa

question_tokens: where is area code 931 located in usa

text: Area code 931

text: North American area code 931 is the telephone area code serving a horseshoe-shaped region of 28 counties in Middle Tennessee. It covers almost all of Middle Tennessee except for the Nashville metropolitan area.

text: The 931 area code was created in 1997 from area code 615, which had previously covered almost all of Middle Tennessee, but afterwards was restricted to the inner ring of Nashville. Area code 931 began operation on September 15, 1997. Permissive dialing of 615 continued across Middle Tennessee until January 15, 1998.

text: Cities covered by area code 931[edit]

text:
Algood, Tennessee
Altamont, Tennessee
Baxter, Tennessee
Beersheba Springs, Tennessee
Celina, Tennessee
Clarkrange, Tennessee
Clarksville, Tennessee
Dover, Tennessee
Columbia, Tennessee
Cookeville, Tennessee
Cowan, Tennessee
Crossville, Tennessee
Estill Springs, Tennessee
Fayetteville, Tennessee
Gainesboro, Tennessee
Huntland, Tennessee
Jamestown, Tennessee
Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
Lewisburg, Tennessee
Livingston, Tennessee
Lynchburg, Tennessee
Manchester, Tennessee
McEwen, Tennessee
McMinnville, Tennessee
Monteagle, Tennessee
Monterey, Tennessee
New Johnsonville, Tennessee
Pulaski, Tennessee
Sewanee, Tennessee
Shelbyville, Tennessee
Sparta, Tennessee
Spring Hill, Tennessee
Tracy City, Tennessee
Tullahoma, Tennessee
Winchester, Tennessee
Waverly, Tennessee


document_title: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

question_text: when did the first beauty and the beast come out

text: Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: One winter's night, an enchantress disguised as a beggar offers a cold-hearted prince a rose in exchange for shelter. When he refuses, she transforms him into a beast and his servants into household objects. She bestows the Beast with a magic mirror before hexing the rose and warning him that, unless he learns to love another and earns their love in return by the time the last petal falls, he and his servants will lose their humanity forever.

text: Years later, a beautiful young woman named Belle dreams of adventure and brushes off advances from Gaston, a handsome, narcissistic and arrogant hunter. Lost in the forest while traveling to a fair to present his latest invention, Belle's father Maurice seeks refuge in the Beast's castle. While the castle's servants are sympathetic and welcoming of Maurice, the Beast discovers and imprisons him. Belle ventures out in search for him and finds him locked in the castle's tower. Belle offers to replace her father as the Beast's prisoner, and the Beast accepts. The Beast takes Maurice outside to the horseless carriage.

text: Befriending the castle's servants, Belle is treated to a spectacular dinner. When she wanders into the forbidden West Wing where the rose is kept, the Beast flies into a rage, causing Belle to flee the castle and into the woods. She is attacked by wolves, but the Beast rescues Belle and gets injured in the process. He begins to develop feelings for her while she nurses his wounds and he delights her by showing his extensive library.

text: Returning to the village, Maurice tells the townsfolk of Belle's predicament, but no one believes him. Gaston then bribes Monsieur D'Arque, the warden of the town's insane asylum to have Maurice locked up if Belle refuses to marry Gaston.

text: After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle mentions that she misses her father. The Beast lets her use his magic mirror to check on her father, and she discovers him lying sick in the woods while attempting to rescue her. The Beast releases her to save Maurice, giving her the mirror to remember him with. Belle rescues Maurice and brings him back to the village where she nurses him back to health. Suddenly, an angry mob led by Gaston comes to Belle's house and tries to take Maurice away, believing his claims of the Beast prove that he is insane. Gaston tries to force Belle to marry him in exchange for her father's release, but she refuses. Belle then proves Maurice's sanity by revealing the Beast to the townsfolk using the magic mirror. Belle angrily confronts Gaston that he is a monster and the Beast is not, which enrages Gaston. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, Gaston has her thrown into the basement with her father and rallies the villagers to follow him to the castle to kill the Beast. With the aid of talking teacup Chip, who had stowed away in Belle's bag, Maurice and Belle escape and rush back to the castle.

text: The Beast's servants manage to drive the invading villagers out of the castle. Gaston sneaks away to attack the Beast in his tower. The Beast is too depressed to fight back, but regains his will upon seeing Belle return. He overpowers Gaston but spares his life before reuniting with Belle. Gaston stabs the Beast from behind, but he loses his footing from the Beast's thrashing and falls to his death.[a] The Beast nearly dies from Gaston's stab before the last petal falls. When Belle tearfully professes her love to him, the curse is broken, repairing the castle and restoring the Beast's and servants' human forms. The Prince and Belle host a ball for the kingdom, where they dance happily.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Paige O'Hara as Belle[11] – A bibliophilic young woman who seeks adventure, and offers her own freedom to the Beast in return for her father's. In their effort to enhance the character from the original story, the filmmakers felt that Belle should be "unaware" of her own beauty and made her "a little odd".[12] Wise recalls casting O'Hara because of a "unique tone" she had, "a little bit of Judy Garland", after whose appearance Belle was modeled.[13] James Baxter and Mark Henn served as the supervising animators for Belle.
Robby Benson as Beast[11] – A young prince who is transformed into a beast by an enchantress as punishment for his arrogance. The animators drew him with the head structure and horns of an American bison, the arms and body of a bear, the ears of a deer, the eyebrows of a gorilla, the jaws, teeth, and mane of a lion, the tusks of a wild boar, and the legs and tail of a wolf. Chris Sanders, one of the film's storyboard artists, drafted the designs for the Beast and came up with designs based on birds, insects, and fish before coming up with something close to the final design. Glen Keane, supervising animator for the Beast, refined the design by going to the zoo and studying the animals on which the Beast was based.[10] Benson commented, "There's a rage and torment in this character I've never been asked to use before."[14] The filmmakers commented that "everybody was big fee-fi-fo-fum and gravelly" while Benson had the "big voice and the warm, accessible side" so that "you could hear the prince beneath the fur".[10]
Richard White as Gaston[11] – A vain hunter who vies for Belle's hand in marriage and is determined not to let anyone else win her heart. He serves as a foil personality to the Beast, who was once as egotistic as Gaston prior to his transformation. Gaston's supervising animator, Andreas Deja, was pressed by Jeffrey Katzenberg to make Gaston handsome in contrast to the traditional appearance of a Disney villain, an assignment he found difficult at first. In the beginning, Gaston is depicted as more of a narcissist than a villain, but later he leads all the villagers to kill the beast, enraged that Belle would love a Beast more than him.[15]
Jerry Orbach as Lumière[16] – The kind-hearted but rebellious valet of the Beast's, who has been transformed into a candlestick. He has a habit of disobeying his master's strict rules, sometimes causing tension between them, but the Beast often turns to him for advice. He is depicted as flirtatious, as he is frequently seen with the Featherduster and immediately takes a liking to Belle. A running gag throughout the movie is Lumière burning Cogsworth. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator for Lumière.
David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth[17] – Majordomo, the head of the household staff and Lumière's best friend, who has been transformed into a clock. He is extremely loyal to the Beast so as to save himself and anyone else any trouble, often leading to friction between himself and Lumière. Will Finn served as the supervising animator for Cogsworth. Stiers also narrates the prologue.
Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts[18] – The castle cook, turned into a teapot, who takes a motherly attitude toward Belle. The filmmakers went through several names for Mrs. Potts, such as "Mrs. Chamomile", before Ashman suggested the use of simple and concise names for the household objects.[10] David Pruiksma served as the supervising animator for Mrs. Potts.
Bradley Pierce as Chip[19] – Mrs. Potts' son, who has been turned into a teacup. Originally intended to only have one line, the filmmakers were impressed with Pierce's performance and expanded the character's role significantly, eschewing a mute Music Box character.[10] Pruiksma also served as the supervising animator for Chip.
Rex Everhart as Maurice[11] – Belle's inventor father. The villagers see him as insane for crafting devices believed impossible to construct in reality, but his loyal daughter believes he will be famous one day. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Maurice.
Jesse Corti as Lefou[11] – Gaston's often abused yet loyal sidekick. Chris Wahl served as the supervising animator for Lefou.
Hal Smith as Philippe[20] – Belle's Belgian horse. Russ Edmonds served as the supervising animator for Philippe.
Jo Anne Worley as the Wardrobe[21] – The castle's authority over fashion, and a former opera singer, who has been turned into a wardrobe. The character of Wardrobe was introduced by visual development person Sue C. Nichols to the then entirely male cast of servants, and was originally a more integral character named "Madame Armoire". Wardrobe is known as "Madame de la Grande Bouche" (Madame Big Mouth) in the stage adaptation of the film and is the only major enchanted object character whose human form does not appear in the film. Tony Anselmo served as the supervising animator for the Wardrobe.
Mary Kay Bergman and Kath Soucie as the Bimbettes[22] – A trio of village maidens who constantly fawn over Gaston, known as the "Silly Girls" in the stage adaptation.
Brian Cummings as the Stove[23] – The castle's chef who has been transformed into a stove. He is named Chef Bouche in 1998's Belle's Magical World.
Alvin Epstein as the Bookseller[24] – The owner of a book shop in Belle's home town.
Tony Jay as Monsieur D'Arque[25] – The sadistic warden of the Asylum de Loons. Gaston bribes him to help in his plan to blackmail Belle.
Alec Murphy as the Baker[26] – The owner of a bakery in Belle's home town.
Kimmy Robertson as the Featherduster[27] – A maid and Lumière's sweetheart, who has been turned into a feather duster. She is unnamed in the 1991 film (listed as Featherduster in the credits); Babette is the name given to this character later in the 1994 stage adaptation of the film; Fifi in the 1998 animated musical film Belle's Magical World and Plumette in the 2017 live-action remake.
Frank Welker as Sultan[28] – The castle's pet dog turned into a footstool.

text: Production[edit]

text: Early versions[edit]

text: After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney sought out other stories to adapt into feature films, with Beauty and the Beast being among the stories he considered.[12][29] Attempts to develop the Beauty and the Beast story into a film were made in the 1930s and 1950s, but were ultimately given up because it "proved to be a challenge" for the story team.[12] Peter M. Nichols states Disney may later have been discouraged by Jean Cocteau having already done his 1946 version.[30]

text: Decades later, during the production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1987, the Disney studio resurrected Beauty and the Beast as a project for the satellite animation studio it had set up in London, England to work on Roger Rabbit. Richard Williams, who had directed the animated portions of Roger Rabbit, was approached to direct but declined in favor of continuing work on his long-gestating project The Thief and the Cobbler. In his place, Williams recommended his colleague, English animation director Richard Purdum, and work began under producer Don Hahn on a non-musical version of Beauty and the Beast set in 19th-century France.[31] At the behest of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Beauty and the Beast became the first Disney animated film to use a screenwriter. This was an unusual production move for an animated film, which is traditionally developed on storyboards rather than in scripted form. Linda Woolverton wrote the original draft of the story before storyboarding began, and worked with the story team to retool and develop the film.[32]

text: Script rewrite and musicalization[edit]

text: Upon seeing the initial storyboard reels in 1989, Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered that the film be scrapped and started over from scratch. A few months after starting anew, Purdum resigned as director. The studio had approached Ron Clements and John Musker to direct the film, but they turned down the offer, saying they were "tired" after just having finished directing Disney's recent success The Little Mermaid. Disney then hired first-time feature directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. Wise and Trousdale had previously directed the animated sections of Cranium Command, a short film for a Disney EPCOT theme park attraction. In addition, Katzenberg asked songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who had written the song score for The Little Mermaid, to turn Beauty and the Beast into a Broadway-style musical film in the same vein as Mermaid. Ashman, who at the time had learned he was dying of complications from AIDS, had been working with Disney on a pet project of his, Aladdin, and only reluctantly agreed to join the struggling production team. To accommodate Ashman's failing health, pre-production of Beauty and the Beast was moved from London to the Residence Inn in Fishkill, New York, close to Ashman's New York City home.[31] Here, Ashman and Menken joined Wise, Trousdale, Hahn, and Woolverton in retooling the film's script.[12][32] Since the original story had only two major characters, the filmmakers enhanced them, added new characters in the form of enchanted household items who "add warmth and comedy to a gloomy story" and guide the audience through the film, and added a "real villain" in the form of Gaston.[12]

text: These ideas were somewhat similar to elements of the 1946 French film version of Beauty and the Beast, which introduced the character of Avenant, an oafish suitor somewhat similar to Gaston,[33] as well as inanimate objects coming to life in the Beast's castle.[34] The animated objects were, however, given distinct personalities in the Disney version. By early 1990, Katzenberg had approved the revised script, and storyboarding began again.[12][32] The production flew story artists back and forth between California and New York for storyboard approvals from Ashman, though the team was not told the reason why.[12]

text: Casting and recording[edit]

text: Disney had originally considered casting Jodi Benson from The Little Mermaid as Belle.[35] They eventually decided upon Broadway actress and singer Paige O'Hara in favor of having a heroine who sounded "more like a woman than a girl".[36] According to co-director Kirk Wise, O'Hara was given the role because she "had a unique quality, a tone she would hit that made her special",[37] reminiscent to that of American actress and singer Judy Garland.[38] O'Hara, who, after reading about the film in The New York Times,[39] competed for the role against 500 hopefuls,[40] believes the fact that lyricist Howard Ashman admired her cast recording of the musical Show Boat proved integral in her being cast.[41]

text: Animation[edit]

text: Production of Beauty and the Beast was to be completed on a compressed timeline of two years rather than the traditional four-year Disney Feature Animation production schedule; this was due to the loss of production time spent developing the earlier Purdum version of the film.[10] Most of the production was done at the main Feature Animation studio, housed in the Air Way facility in Glendale, California. A smaller team at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida assisted the California team on several scenes, particularly the "Be Our Guest" number.[12]

text: Beauty and the Beast was the second film, after The Rescuers Down Under, produced using CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), a digital scanning, ink, paint, and compositing system of software and hardware developed for Disney by Pixar.[12][31] The software allowed for a wider range of colors, as well as soft shading and colored line effects for the characters, techniques lost when the Disney studio abandoned hand inking for xerography in the early 1960s. CAPS/ink & paint also allowed the production crew to simulate multiplane effects: placing characters and/or backgrounds on separate layers and moving them towards/away from the camera on the Z-axis to give the illusion of depth, as well as altering the focus of each layer.[10]

text: In addition, CAPS/ink & paint allowed an easier combination of hand-drawn art with computer-generated imagery, which before had to be plotted to animation paper and then xeroxed and painted traditionally.[12][42] This technique was put to significant use during the "Beauty and the Beast" waltz sequence, in which Belle and Beast dance through a computer-generated ballroom as the camera dollies around them in simulated 3D space.[10][12] The filmmakers had originally decided against the use of computers in favor of traditional animation, but later, when the technology had improved, decided it could be used for the one scene in the ballroom.[30] Before that, CGI environments had first been printed out as wireframe, but this was the first time Disney made use of 3D rendering.[43] The success of the ballroom sequence helped convince studio executives to further invest in computer animation.[44]

text: Music[edit]

text: Ashman and Menken wrote the Beauty song score during the pre-production process in Fishkill, the opening operetta-styled "Belle" being their first composition for the film. Other songs included "Be Our Guest," sung (in its original version) to Maurice by the objects when he becomes the first visitor to eat at the castle in a decade, "Gaston," a solo for the swaggering villain, "Human Again," a song describing Belle and Beast's growing love from the objects' perspective, the love ballad "Beauty and the Beast (Tale as Old as Time)" and the climactic "The Mob Song." As story and song development came to a close, full production began in Burbank while voice and song recording began in New York City.[12] The Beauty songs were mostly recorded live with the orchestra and the voice cast performing simultaneously rather than overdubbed separately, in order to give the songs a cast album-like "energy" the filmmakers and songwriters desired.[10]

text: During the course of production, many changes were made to the structure of the film, necessitating the replacement and re-purposing of songs. After screening a mostly animated version of the "Be Our Guest" sequence, story artist Bruce Woodside suggested that the objects should be singing the song to Belle rather than her father. Wise and Trousdale agreed, and the sequence and song were retooled to replace Maurice with Belle. The film's title song went through a noted bit of uncertainty during production. Originally conceived as a rock-oriented song, it was changed to a slow, romantic ballad. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken asked Angela Lansbury to perform the song, but she did not think her voice was suited for the melody. When she voiced her doubts, Menken and Ashman asked her for at least one take and told her to perform the song as she saw fit. Lansbury reportedly reduced everyone in the studio to tears with her rendition, nailing the song in the one take asked of her. This version went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. "Human Again" was dropped from the film before animation began, as its lyrics caused story problems about the timeline over which the story takes place.[12] This required Ashman and Menken to write a new song in its place. "Something There," in which Belle and Beast sing (via voiceover) of their growing fondness for each other, was composed late in production and inserted into the script in place of "Human Again."[10]

text: Menken would later revise "Human Again" for inclusion in the 1994 Broadway stage version of Beauty and the Beast, and another revised version of the song was added to the film itself in a new sequence created for the film's Special Edition re-release in 2002.[10][12] Ashman died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 40 on March 14, 1991, eight months before the film's release. He never saw the finished film, though he did get to see it in its unfinished format. Ashman's work on Aladdin was completed by another lyricist, Tim Rice. Before Ashman's death, members of the film's production team visited him after the film's well-received first screening, with Don Hahn commenting that "the film would be a great success. Who'd have thought it?", to which Ashman replied with "I would." A tribute to the lyricist was included at the end of the credits crawl: "To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman: 1950–1991."[31] A pop version of the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson over the end credits, was released as a commercial single from the film's soundtrack, supported with a music video. The Dion/Bryson version of "Beauty and the Beast" became an international pop hit and performed considerably well on charts around the world. The song became Dion's second single to land within the top-10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart. In Canada, "Beauty and the Beast" peaked at number two.[45][46] Outside of North America, the song peaked within the top ten in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while peaking within the top twenty in Australia, Netherlands, and Ireland. The song sold over a million copies worldwide.[47] This version of the song was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammys, and it won the Grammy for Dion and Bryson for Best Pop Duo/Group Vocal Performance.

text: Release[edit]

text: In a first-time accomplishment for The Walt Disney Company, an unfinished version of Beauty and the Beast was shown at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991.[48] The film was deemed a "work in progress" because roughly only 70% of the animation had been completed; storyboards and pencil tests were used in replacement of the remaining 30%.[49] Additionally, certain segments of the film that had already been finished were reverted to previous stages of completion. At the end of the screening, Beauty and the Beast received a ten-minute-long standing ovation from the film festival audience.[31][50] The completed film was also screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.[51] The finished film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 13, 1991, beginning a limited release before expanding wide on November 22.[50]

text: Re-issues[edit]

text: The film was restored and remastered for its New Year's Day, 2002 re-release in IMAX theatres in a special-edition edit, including a new musical sequence. For this version of the film, much of the animation was cleaned up, a new sequence set to the deleted song "Human Again" was inserted into the film's second act, and a new digital master from the original CAPS production files was used to make the high-resolution IMAX film negative.[52]

text: A sing along edition of the film, hosted by Jordin Sparks, was released in select theaters on September 29 and October 2, 2010. Prior to the showing of the film, Sparks showed an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the newly restored film and the making of her new Beauty and the Beast music video. There was also commentary from producer Don Hahn, interviews with the cast and an inside look at how the animation was created.[53][54]

text: A Disney Digital 3D version of the film, the second of a traditionally animated film, was originally scheduled to be released in US theatres on February 12, 2010, but the project was postponed.[55] On August 25, 2011, Disney announced that the 3D version of the film would make its American debut at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre from September 2–15, 2011.[56] Disney spent less than $10 million on the 3D conversion.[57] After the successful 3D re-release of The Lion King, Disney announced a wide 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast in North America beginning January 13, 2012.[58]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The film was released to VHS on October 30, 1992 as part of the Walt Disney Classics series, and was later put on moratorium on April 30, 1993, it was not included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line.[59] This version contains a minor edit to the film: skulls that appear in Gaston's pupils for two frames during his climactic fall to his death were removed for the original home video release. No such edit was made to later reissues of the film. The "work-in-progress" version screened at the New York Film Festival was also released on VHS and LaserDisc at this time;[10] however, said version was the only one available on the latter format until the fall of 1993, when the completed theatrical version was released. This measure was to diminish the threat of video pirates making copies derived from the LaserDisc (which are not copy-protected) and selling them in international markets, where the film was yet to be available for home release.[60][61]

text: Beauty and the Beast: Special Edition, as the enhanced version of the film released in IMAX/large-format is called, was released on two-disc "Platinum Edition" DVD and VHS on October 8, 2002. The DVD set features three versions of the film: the extended IMAX Special Edition with the "Human Again" sequence added, the original theatrical version, and the New York Film Festival "work-in-progress" version. This release went to "Disney Vault" moratorium status in January 2003, along with its direct-to-video follow-ups Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World.[62]

text: The film was released from the vault on October 5, 2010 as the second of Disney's Diamond Editions, in the form of a three-disc Blu-ray Disc and DVD combination pack[63]—the first release of Beauty and the Beast on home video in high-definition format.[64] This edition consists of four versions of the film: the original theatrical version, an extended version, the New York Film Festival storyboard-only version, and a fourth iteration displaying the storyboards via picture-in-picture alongside the original theatrical version.[65] Upon its first week of release, the Blu-ray sold 1.1 million units, topping the Blu-ray sales chart and finishing in third place on the combined Blu-ray and DVD sales chart for the week ending on October 10, 2010.[66][67] It was the second-best-selling Blu-ray of 2010, behind Avatar.[68] A two-disc DVD edition was released on November 23, 2010.[63] A five-disc combo pack, featuring Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray 2D, DVD and a digital copy, was released on October 4, 2011. The 3D combo pack is identical to the original Diamond Edition, except for the added 3D disc and digital copy. The Blu-ray release went into the Disney Vault along with the two sequels on April 30, 2012.[69]

text: A 25th-anniversary Signature Edition was released on Digital HD September 6, 2016 and was followed by Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on September 20, 2016.[70] Upon its first week of release on home media in the U.S., the film topped the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, and debuted at number 3 in the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Captain America: Civil War.[71]

text: Reception and legacy[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 94% based on reviews from 110 critics, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Enchanting, sweepingly romantic, and featuring plenty of wonderful musical numbers, Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney's most elegant animated offerings."[72] The film also holds a 95/100 on Metacritic, which indicates the reviews as "universal acclaim".[73] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade.[74]

text: Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the film with the following statement, "Two years ago, Walt Disney Pictures reinvented the animated feature, not only with an eye toward pleasing children, but also with an older, savvier audience in mind. Disney truly bridged a generation gap with The Little Mermaid … Now, lightning has definitely struck twice with Beauty and the Beast."[75] Awarding the film a perfect score of four stars, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times compared Beauty and the Beast positively to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, writing, "Beauty and the Beast reaches back to an older and healthier Hollywood tradition in which the best writers, musicians and filmmakers are gathered for a project on the assumption that a family audience deserves great entertainment, too."[76] In 2001 Ebert again gave the IMAX re-release a full 4 out of 4 stars.[77] James Berardinelli of ReelViews rated the film similarly while hailing it as "the finest animated movie ever made", writing, "Beauty and the Beast attains a nearly-perfect mix of romance, music, invention, and animation."[78] The use of computer animation, particularly in the ballroom sequence, was singled out in several reviews as one of the film's highlights.[10] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post gave the film a positive review, calling the film "A delightfully satisfying modern fable, a near-masterpiece that draws on the sublime traditions of the past while remaining completely in sync with the sensibility of its time."[79] Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, saying "It is a surprise, in a time of sequels and retreads, that the new film is so fresh and altogether triumphant in its own right."[80] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Beauty and the Beast is certainly adequate holiday entertainment for children and their more indulgent parents … But the film has little of the technical facility, vivid characterization and emotional impact of Disney past."[81]

text: Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel gave the film four out of five stars, saying "It's not an especially scary movie, but right from the start, you can tell that this Beauty and the Beast has a beauty of a bite."[82] John Hartl of The Seattle Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "It's exceptionally difficult to make an audience care for animated characters unless they're mermaids or anthropomorphized animals or insects, yet the Disney animators, with a big assist from the vocal talents of a superb cast, have pulled it off."[83] Gene Siskel, also of the Chicago Tribune, gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Beauty and the Beast is one of the year's most entertaining films for both adults and children."[84] On their Beauty and the Beast edition of Siskel & Ebert, both Siskel and Roger Ebert proclaimed that the film is "a legitimate contender for Oscar consideration as Best Picture of the Year." Michael Sragow of The New Yorker gave the film a positive review, saying "It's got storytelling vigor and clarity, bright, eclectic animation, and a frisky musical wit."[85] Eric Smoodin writes in his book Animating Culture that the studio was trying to make up for earlier gender stereotypes with this film.[86] Smoodin also states that, in the way it has been viewed as bringing together traditional fairy tales and feminism as well as computer and traditional animation, the film's "greatness could be proved in terms of technology narrative or even politics".[87] Animation legend Chuck Jones praised the film, in a 1992 guest appearance on Later with Bob Costas he claimed he "Loved it. I think it should have won [Best Picture] … I think the animation on the beast is one of the greatest pieces of animation I've seen".[88]

text: Animation historian Michael Barrier wrote that Belle "becomes a sort of intellectual less by actually reading books, it seems, than by hanging out with them", but says that the film comes closer than other "Disney-studio" films to "accepting challenges of the kind that the finest Walt Disney features met".[89] David Whitley writes in The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation that Belle is different from earlier Disney heroines in that she is mostly free from the burdens of domestic housework, although her role is somewhat undefined in the same way that "contemporary culture now requires most adolescent girls to contribute little in the way of domestic work before they leave home and have to take on the fraught, multiple responsibilities of the working mother". Whitley also notes other themes and modern influences, such as the film's critical view of Gaston's chauvinism and attitude towards nature, the cyborg-like servants, and the father's role as an inventor rather than a merchant.[90]

text: In 2010, IGN named Beauty and the Beast as the greatest animated film of all time, directly ahead of WALL-E, The Incredibles, Toy Story 2, and The Iron Giant.[91]

text: Several critics regard the 1991 animated film as superior to the 2017 live-action remake. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said that the 1991 film "worked wonderfully because it was pure Broadway, written for the screen, blending comedy and romance and magic and just enough snark in the margins", while the 2017 remake got lost in translation since "The movie takes our knowledge and our interest in the material for granted. It zips from one number to another, throwing a ton of frenetically edited eye candy at the screen, charmlessly." Phillips also wrote of the 2017 film that "too often we're watching highly qualified performers, plus a few less conspicuously talented ones (Watson, primarily), stuck doing karaoke, or motion-capture work of middling quality".[92] Dana Schwartz of the Observer criticized some of the 2017 film changes to the characters like Gaston and the Beast as regressive by watering down their distinguishing personalities from the 1991 film, also arguing that the added backstory to the characters in the 2017 version failed to "advance the plot or theme in any meaningful way".[93] David Sims of The Atlantic wrote that the 2017 film "feels particularly egregious, in part, because it's so slavishly devoted to the original; every time it falls short of its predecessor (which is quite often), it's hard not to notice".[94]

text: Box office[edit]

text: During its initial release in 1991, the film grossed $145.9 million in revenues in North America and $351.9 million worldwide.[5] It ranked as the third-most successful film of 1991 in North America, surpassed only by the summer blockbusters Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.[95] At the time Beauty and the Beast was the most successful animated Disney film release, and the first animated film to reach $100 million in the United States and Canada in its initial run.[96][97] In its IMAX re-release, it earned $25.5 million in North America and $5.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $31 million.[98] It also earned $9.8 million from its 3D re-release overseas.[5] During the opening weekend of its North American 3D re-release in 2012, Beauty and the Beast grossed $17.8 million, coming in at the No. 2 spot, behind Contraband, and achieved the highest opening weekend for an animated film in January.[99][100] The film was expected to make $17.5 million over the weekend; however, the results topped its forecast and the expectations of box office analysts.[101][102] The re-release ended its run on May 3, 2012, and earned $47.6 million, which brought the film's total gross in North America to $219 million.[103] It made an estimated $206 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $425 million.[5]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's song "Beauty and the Beast" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, while Menken's score won the award for Best Original Score.[104] Two other Menken and Ashman songs from the film, "Belle" and "Be Our Guest", were also nominated for Best Original Song.[104] Beauty and the Beast was the first picture to receive three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, a feat that would be repeated by The Lion King (1994), Dreamgirls (2006), and Enchanted (2007).[104] Academy rules have since been changed to limit each film to two nominations in this category, due to the consecutive unintentional failures of Dreamgirls and Enchanted to win the award.[104]

text: The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Sound.[104] It was the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, and remained the only animated film nominated until 2009 when the Best Picture field was widened to ten nominees, and it remains the only animated film nominated for the award when it had five nominees.[104] It became the first musical in twelve years to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year, following All That Jazz (1979), and the last one to be nominated until Moulin Rouge! (2001), ten years later.[104] It lost the Best Picture award to The Silence of the Lambs.[104] With six nominations, the film currently shares the record for the most nominations for an animated film with WALL-E (2008), although, with three nominations in the Best Original Song category, Beauty and the Beast's nominations span only four categories, while WALL-E's nominations cover six individual categories.[104]

text: While The Little Mermaid was the first to be nominated, Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.[104] This feat was later repeated by The Lion King and Toy Story 2.[104]

text:
List of awards and nominations

Award

Date of ceremony

Category

Recipients and nominees

Result

Academy Awards[104]

March 30, 1992

Best Picture

Don Hahn

Nominated

Best Sound

Terry Porter, Mel Metcalfe, David J. Hudson & Doc Kane

Best Original Score

Alan Menken

Won

Best Original Song

Alan Menken & Howard Ashman for "Be Our Guest"

Nominated

Alan Menken & Howard Ashman for "Beauty and the Beast"

Won

Alan Menken & Howard Ashman for "Belle"

Nominated

Chicago Film Critics Association

February 1992

Best Picture

Nominated

Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association

1992

Best Film

3rd place

Best Animated Film

Won

Golden Globe Awards[105]

January 18, 1992

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Don Hahn

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

Alan Menken

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

Alan Menken and Howard AshmanFor the song "Be Our Guest"

Nominated

Alan Menken and Howard AshmanFor the song "Beauty and the Beast"

Won

Grammy Awards[106]

February 18, 1993

Album of the Year

Nominated

Record of the Year

Celine Dion and Peabo BrysonFor the song "Beauty and the Beast"

Nominated

Best Album for Children

Won

Best Pop Performance by a Group or Duo With Vocal

For "Beauty and the Beast"

Song of the Year

For "Beauty and the Beast"

Nominated

Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture

Alan Menken

Won

Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television

For "Beauty and the Beast"

Best Pop Instrumental Performance

For "Beauty and the Beast"

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

December 14, 1991

Best Animated Film

Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Producers Guild of America

March 4, 1992

Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

Don Hahn

Nominated

text: In 2002, Beauty and the Beast was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten" lists of the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres, based on polls of over 1,500 people from the creative community. Beauty and the Beast was acknowledged as the seventh-best film in the animation genre.[107][108] In previous lists, it ranked number 22 on the Institute's list of best musicals and number 34 on its list of the best romantic American films.[109] On the list of the greatest songs from American films, Beauty and the Beast ranked number 62.[110]

text: American Film Institute recognition:

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated[111]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – No. 34[109]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
Belle – Nominated Hero[112]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
"Beauty and the Beast" – No. 62[110]
"Be Our Guest" – Nominated[113]
AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – No. 22[114]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated[115]
AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 7 Animated film[108]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: Broadway musical[edit]

text: According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, "The catalyst for Disney's braving the stage was an article by The New York Times theater critic Frank Rich that praised Beauty and the Beast as 1991's best musical Theatre Under The Stars executive director Frank Young had been trying to get Disney interested in a stage version of Beauty about the same time Eisner and Katzenberg were mulling over Rich's column. But Young couldn't seem to get in touch with the right person in the Disney empire. Nothing happened till the Disney execs started to pursue the project from their end … When they asked George Ives, the head of Actors Equity on the West Coast, which Los Angeles theater would be the best venue for launching a new musical, Ives said the best theater for that purpose would be TUTS. Not long after that, Disney's Don Frantz and Bettina Buckley contacted Young, and the partnership was under way."[116] A stage condensation of the film, directed by Robert Jess Roth and choreographed by Matt West, both of whom moved on to the Broadway development, had already been presented at Disneyland at what was then called the Videopolis stage.[116] Beauty and the Beast premiered in a joint production of Theatre Under The Stars and Disney Theatricals at the Music Hall, Houston, Texas, from November 28, 1993 through December 26, 1993.[116]

text: On April 18, 1994, Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway at the Palace Theatre in New York City to mixed reviews.[117][118] The show transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 11, 1999.[119] The commercial (though not critical) success of the show led to productions in the West End, Toronto, and all over the world.[119] The Broadway version, which ran for over a decade, received a Tony Award, and became the first of a whole line of Disney stage productions.[120] The original Broadway cast included Terrence Mann as the Beast, Susan Egan as Belle, Burke Moses as Gaston, Gary Beach as Lumière, Heath Lamberts as Cogsworth, Tom Bosley as Maurice, Beth Fowler as Mrs. Potts, and Stacey Logan as Babette the feather duster.[119] Many well-known actors and singers also starred in the Broadway production during its thirteen-year run, including Kerry Butler, Deborah Gibson, Toni Braxton, Andrea McArdle, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Christy Carlson Romano, Ashley Brown, and Anneliese van der Pol as Belle; Chuck Wagner, James Barbour, and Jeff McCarthy as the Beast; Meshach Taylor, Patrick Page, Bryan Batt, Jacob Young, and John Tartaglia as Lumière; and Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, and Donny Osmond as Gaston.[119] The show ended its Broadway run on July 29, 2007 after 46 previews and 5,461 performances.[119] As of  2017[update], it is Broadway's tenth-longest-running show in history.[119]

text: Live-action film[edit]

text: In June 2014, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a live-action film adaptation of the original film was in the works, with Bill Condon directing and Evan Spiliotopoulos writing the script.[121][122] Condon originally planned on not only drawing inspiration from the original film, but also to include most, if not all, of the Menken/Rice songs from the Broadway musical, with the intention of making the film as a "straight-forward, live-action, large-budget movie musical".[123] In September 2014, it was announced that Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) would re-write the script.[124] In January 2015, Emma Watson announced on her Facebook page that she would portray Belle in the new live action remake film.[125] In March 2015, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Emma Thompson, Josh Gad, Audra McDonald, and Kevin Kline joined the film as the Beast, Gaston, Mrs. Potts, Lefou, Garderobe, and Maurice, respectively.[126][127][128][129] The following month, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw joined the cast, as Cogsworth, Lumière, Cadenza, and Plumette, respectively.[130][131][132][133] Composer Alan Menken returned to score the film's music, with new material written by Menken and Tim Rice.[134] In June 2015, Menken said the film would not include the songs that were written for the Broadway musical.[135] Filming began on May 18, 2015 in London, and production officially wrapped in August 2015.[136][137] The film was released on March 17, 2017.[138]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Beauty and the Beast merchandise cover a wide variety of products, among them storybook versions of the film's story, a comic book based on the film published by Disney Comics, toys, children's costumes, and other items. In addition, the character of Belle has been integrated into the "Disney Princess" line of Disney's Consumer Products division, and appears on merchandise related to that franchise.[139] In 1995, a live-action children's series entitled Sing Me a Story with Belle began running in syndication, remaining on the air through 1999.[140] Two direct-to-video followups (which take place during the timeline depicted in the original film) were produced by Walt Disney Television Animation: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas in 1997 and Belle's Magical World in 1998; in contrast to the universal acclaim of the original, reception to the sequels was extremely negative.[141][142] Disney on Ice produced an ice version of the movie that opened in 1992 in Lakeland, Florida. The show was such a huge commercial and critical success, touring around the world to sell-out crowds, that a television special was made when it toured Spain in 1994.[143] The show ended its run in 2006, after 14 years.[143]

text: Video games[edit]

text: There are several video games that are loosely based on the film:

text: The first video game based on the film was titled Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest and is an action platformer for the Sega Genesis. Developed by Software Creations, the game was released in North America in 1993.[144] It is one of two video games based on the film that Sunsoft published for the Genesis, the other being Beauty & The Beast: Roar of the Beast. Characters from the film like Gaston can help the player past tricky situations. As Belle, the player must reach the Beast's castle and break the spell to live happily ever after. To succeed, she must explore the village, forest, castle, and snowy forest to solve puzzles and mini-games while ducking or jumping over enemies. Belle's health is represented by a stack of blue books, which diminishes when she touches bats, rats, and other hazards in the game. Extra lives, keys and other items are hidden throughout the levels. While there is no continue or game saving ability, players can use a code to start the game at any of the seven levels.[145]

text: The second video game based on the film was titled 'Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast and is a side-scrolling video game for the Genesis. As the Beast, the player must successfully complete several levels, based on scenes from the film, in order to protect the castle from invading villagers and forest animals and rescue Belle from Gaston.[146]

text: The third and fourth video games based on the film are action platformers developed by Probe Software[147] and published by Hudson Soft. One, titled Beauty and the Beast, was released in Europe in 1994 for the NES,[148] while the other, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, was released in North America in July 1994 and in Europe on February 23 1995 for the SNES. The entire games are played through the perspective of the Beast. As the Beast, the player must get Belle to fall in love so that the curse cast upon him and his castle will be broken. The final boss of the game is Gaston.[147] The Beast can walk, jump, swipe, stomp, super stomp, and roar, the last of which is used to both damage enemies and reveal hidden objects.[149]

text: The fifth video game based on the film was titled Disney's Beauty and the Beast: A Boardgame Adventure and is a Disney Boardgame adventure for the Game Boy Color. It was released on October 25, 1999.[150]

text: The video game series Kingdom Hearts features a world based on the film, named "Beast's Castle", along with several of the film's characters. In the first game, the world has been destroyed and Belle kidnapped by the Heartless, led by Maleficent, but the Beast travels to Maleficent's stronghold and works with Sora to defeat Maleficent and rescue Belle and the other captured princesses.[151] In Kingdom Hearts II, the world has since been restored following Ansem's defeat, but Beast and Belle are having difficulties due to the enigmatic Xaldin of Organization XIII attempting to bring out the Beast's darker side in order to turn him into a Heartless and a Nobody, but the Beast eventually comes to his senses and works with Sora once again to defeat Xaldin once and for all. In the game's ending credits, the Beast turns back into the Prince. In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, the world is featured as a playable level but the story is not essential to the main plot. In Kingdom Hearts χ, the world is featured again, this time as a hallucination that follows the plot of the movie more closely. The characters featured in the series are Beast, Belle, Lumiere, Gaston, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Maurice, and the Wardrobe. After Gaston is defeated, the Beast transforms back into the Prince. Gaston does not appear in Kingdom Hearts II, the world's primary antagonist being Xaldin, an original character created for the series, but who shares several traits with Forte, the main antagonist of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.[152]