The Bimbettes

The Bimbettes (otherwise known as Claudette, Laurette and Paulette) are excessively boy-crazy identical blonde triplets who fawn over Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. They wear red, amber and green dresses respectively, and possess differing hairstyles that vary constantly throughout their appearances in the movie.

Background
The Bimbettes, whose real names are Claudette (with the red dress), Laurette (with the amber dress) and Paulette (with the green dress), are triplet sisters working as waitresses at a local tavern in the unnamed French village that is the home of Belle. Like most of the young women of the village (according to the 1994 Marvel comics as well as implied in the original film), they are infatuated with Gaston, showing neither awareness or concern over his truly boorish and chauvinistic nature, but he has no interest in marrying any of them because he wants the most beautiful girl in town as his wife.

Physical appearance
The Bimbettes are three identical triplets, with long blonde hair ending just below the waist in a ponytail, and green eyes. They possess voluptuous bodies (though this was toned down slightly in the Marvel Comics series, presumably for the slightly younger reader base). Aside from varying hairstyles that switch at random, the only discernible difference between them are the color of their dresses and hairbows: red for Claudette, amber for Laurette, and green for Paulette. They also wear bloomers and matching black mary-jane shoes (although the latter was depicted as slippers in the comics). Their dresses are slightly similar to Belle's ballgown, only slightly less elaborate, serving as tavern dresses. In addition, their dresses, or at least Claudette's, possessed a ribbon on the posterior. Their physical beauty was high enough for LeFou to briefly react with some infatuation for them, prior to their accidentally squirting LeFou with water. In the issues of Beauty and the Beast set during the winter, they are seen wearing shawls over their dresses, colored in a similar manner to their dresses.

When they appeared as children in one of the comics, they had long winter dresses with a ribbon tied at the back. Although they still had ponytails, they seemed to be strapped with a regular cord instead of a hairbow. In addition, they also wore slippers. Because of the blue coloring of their appearance, it is difficult to discern the colors of the dresses, although Claudette's may have been red due to it having a darker shade than her sisters.

When Adam and Lumiere were getting supplies for Adam and Belle's wedding in Disney Princess: Royal Weddings, Paulette was seen wearing a dress with sleeves covering her shoulders as well as a hat, all colored green, while Claudette was seen wearing a red dress similar to her regular dress, only with a red sash covering her cleavage.

Personality
Collectively, the Bimbettes are lovestruck maidens who are swoon for Gaston due to his handsome physique. Like Gaston, they primarily like someone largely because of how they look, although it is unclear if they are obsessed with their own looks like Gaston is. They think Belle is crazy for not admiring Gaston as much as they do, though they were oblivious to Gaston's aggressive demeanor. They also get upset very easily too. Unlike Belle, they are exceedingly boy-crazy and provocative. They do not seem to have any respect for Gaston's partner LeFou, at least in the Marvel Comics, though they were shown flirting with Lumiere in Royal Weddings. They were also shown to be very forgiving in spite of whatever happened, as evidenced by their giving comfort to Gaston despite the latter's attempt to marry Belle beforehand, and their devastation when they found out he was the groom at the failed wedding, as well as their attending Belle and Adam's wedding despite Gaston's death. In the Marvel Comics, they are shown to be somewhat jealous of Belle and are constantly coming up with plans to ensure Gaston returned their love and stop obsessing with Belle.

Although they are not book-smart, they have had moments of cleverness, at least in the Marvel Comics, a notable instance being when one of the Bimbettes (Laurette) disguised herself as Belle, anticipating that Gaston would want to choose Belle at a wife auction, not letting up the disguise until after she won Gaston during the auction, and even then, only because her sisters interfered. Another instance of their cleverness was demonstrated when Claudette, Laurette and Paulette managed to successfully trick a bear into temporarily breaking out of hibernation by starting a fire to supply warmth, a leafy branch to indicate blossoming plants, and Laurette tweeting like a bird to indicate birds had come out for spring. The same issue also implied they were good at mathematics or at the very least counting, as their first appearance in the issue had them counting up to 783 when watching Gaston use books as barbells.

It was implied in the film, the Wedding Wishes coloring book, and Disney Princess: Royal Weddings that despite their differences, especially their differing views of Gaston, the Bimbettes viewed Belle as a friend, as they were seen attending both the failed wedding between Gaston and Belle and the wedding between Belle and Adam (the latter of which only was directly confirmed in the coloring book as well as implied in Royal Weddings). The former instance also showed them personally helping in setting up the wedding. While there was little interaction between them and Belle, Wedding Wishes as well as to a lesser extent Royal Weddings does imply that Belle at least considered them friends during her wedding with Adam.

Although they were in love with Gaston, their actual relationship with Gaston varied: in the original film as well as the comics, it is strongly implied that Gaston completely ignored them (outside of general acknowledgement that they love him in the case of the comics) in favor of Belle since childhood, with the latter source having Gaston ending up outraged when he discovered one of them posing as Belle; while in the musical, they were mentioned to have some sort of romantic relationship prior to Gaston pursuing Belle. On a related note, their reactions to Gaston's arrival in the failed wedding proposal in the original film implied that they had been kept in the dark about Gaston being the groom for Belle's wedding, while in the musical version of the event, it was made clear that Gaston informed them of his intention of marrying Belle. In one of the comics, they were shown trying to attract Gaston's attention while sledding, thus implying that they were attracted to Gaston since childhood, and thus their love for Gaston was not merely the shallow kind.

Beauty and the Beast
They first appear in the introduction song of the film, where they are remarking on how Gaston's dreamy, cute and a strong brute, eventually fainting. They are so busy singing about how much they love Gaston that they accidentally squirt water on LeFou. Afterwards, Claudette and Laurette, while witnessing Belle rejecting Gaston's advances, state in shock and anger how Belle is crazy because of the way she deals with Gaston, while Paulette (followed by her sisters shortly thereafter) begin swooning Gaston again. They are later seen during the preparations of what would have been Gaston and Belle's wedding, setting up what was apparently a wine table. They seemed somewhat content with setting up until they saw Gaston arrive, which, after reacting with some shock and with Laurette whispering something into Claudette's ear and Paulette briefly eavesdropping, they became visibly shocked and devastated (implying they were unaware of who Belle was marrying until that point). They are briefly seen crying and sobbing vigorously shortly thereafter when he is announcing that he will propose to Belle as well as thanking for the attendance to the wedding. They later comforted him at the Tavern after his plan to marry her backfired with him falling into mud, although they briefly hesitated in actually giving comfort for a few seconds until LeFou finished singing "and it's not very hard to see why."

During "Gaston", the three Bimbettes are sitting on a bench singing how Gaston was the burliest and brawniest of all, and Gaston picks the Bench with them up and shows off his muscles to the Bimbettes and then throws their bench back down onto LeFou. They later return in the reprise immediately after Gaston whispered his plan into LeFou's ear. Although they seemed to support Gaston's blackmail plot, they do not appear as part of the lynch mob Gaston garnered later on.

House of Mouse
Despite the fact that they only appear a few times in the movie, the Bimbettes appear several times in the show as cameo characters, all voiced by Kath Soucie due to Mary Kay Bergman's suicide at that point. In the episode "Big Bad Wolf Daddy", Gaston seems to be annoyed with them singing a song with Zeke Wolf, even if he seemed to ignore them in the movie. They also acted as groupies for Donald Duck in the episode "Three Caballeros", when the duck became The Duck Formerly Known as Donald--they called Donald "super-duper duck-a-riffic", and even got autograph pads from the stand -- and later they, alongside Tilda from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, stormed the stage for Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles as all three of them performed.

Just like in the movie, the girls retain their habit of hairdo-switching.

Comics
Their roles in the official comic adaptation was largely the same as in the movie, although with more minor roles due to several of the songs being excised. In addition, their reactions to Belle's refusal to Gaston are cut.

Besides the official comic adaptation, the Bimbettes also had fairly large roles in some of the Marvel comics released between 1994 and 1995, three to four years after the first film. In these, the Bimbettes generally tried to find a way to get Gaston to focus on them in the Village subplots. They appeared in Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 directly, and in issues 5 and 8 in flashback form. It should be noted that they are depicted in the comics with a slightly different personality from the film: Notably, they took measures to circumvent Gaston's plans regarding impressing Belle, while in the film, the only thing they did when they discovered Gaston was going to marry Belle was cry up a storm, as well as being depicted as more explicitly jealous of Belle being the center of Gaston's attention over themselves than in the film.

In the first issue, the Bimbettes came up with an idea to use a "love potion" (implied to be perfume) that was powerful enough for even Gaston to fall for them instead of for Belle. It worked temporarily, but a skunk ended up forcing them to separate and flee. Later, they tried a different approach: placing a net trap to ensnare Gaston while he was on a hunting trip outside the village, but LeFou ended up setting off the trap instead after Gaston knocked him away in irritation at missing.

In the second issue, the Bimbettes ended up reacting to Gaston's display of his features while the latter came up with a plot to announce a wife auction. In it, while he was mentioning his features, the Bimbettes reacted in a similar manner to the opening song, eventually fainting and being knocked out as he left. While out, they dreamed Gaston proposed to them [depicted as Paulette]. It should be noted that this was the only issue where they don't plot to either have Gaston forget about Belle or otherwise land him for themselves.

In the third issue, Laurette managed to realistically disguise herself as Belle to get to Gaston during the ensuing wife auction (Gaston naturally wanting Belle). The disguise was Belle's white and blue village outfit and a wig that resembled Belles hair color and style. To complete her disguise, she grabs a book, but hides it from Gaston because he hates the idea of women reading. It works for a few moments, but the other two Bimbettes, desperate to get at Gaston, accidentally ripped her disguise away (apparently believing she was Belle), causing Gaston to become angry at the deception, and retaliate at LeFou for mistaking her for Belle. Afterwards, they are seen sitting on a bench in the tavern, once again swooning over Gaston.

In the fourth issue, they are swooning over Gaston balancing books, although he makes no secret that Belle is his object in a conversation with LeFou, causing them to become determined that Gaston be theirs or no one else's. They then followed him to a snowy hill, and attempted to stop him, apparently because it would have otherwise guaranteed that Belle would fall for Gaston. However, the snow forced them to lose their grip and fall on LeFou, causing him to mention that it was "snowing girls." They later found Gaston with a sleeping bear (who had tied it up), and decided to wake it in an attempt to stop Gaston. Following a plan created by Laurette, Claudette proceeded to start a fire in the cave, and Paulette proceeded to brush its nose with a branch while Laurette herself started mimicking a bird in an attempt to imply that it was springtime. They then fled as the bear woke up, with Gaston being forced out of the cave while attempting to take on the bear by himself.

The Bimbettes themselves do not physically appear in the fifth issue itself, although they do appear in a flashback Belle experienced, referencing the opening of the movie, where they were swooning Gaston. Their reaction to Gaston focusing on Belle is slightly different, wondering why Belle should be the object of Gaston's attention when he could go with one of them, especially when she doesn't even go to dances, instead of in the film where they were shocked and angered that she refused Gaston's advances.

They reappear in Issue 7, where they hope Gaston marries one of them when LeFou advised Gaston to give it up as he tried everything. However, Gaston decided to use the bookkeeper instead to lure Belle, causing Laurette to scream after Claudette mentioned Belle, admitting they are getting tired of their jealousy of Belle, deciding to give Gaston a "taste of his own medicine" by making him jealous of LeFou. They managed to get Gaston angry enough to attack LeFou at the bookstore by fawning over him and kissing him (much to LeFou's pleasure), although not in the way they hoped, as he was more incensed that LeFou had shirked off his duty regarding being on lookout for Belle than the fact that he was interacting with the Bimbettes, causing them to run out of the bookstore screaming. This is their last appearance in the serial in person.

Like in the fifth issue, they don't actually appear in the eighth issue, although they do appear in Belle's flashback to an instance regarding a past event where Belle went to the fair with her father. Although initially relieved that Belle was leaving the village, they realized that it meant she would come back like before, so they resolved to switch the sign leading to the fair to the other direction to ensure they can't come back. Ultimately, their plan was undone, with Belle returning. This is their last appearance in the comic serial as a whole, not counting Disney Comic Hits! below.

Aside from the main Marvel Comics series, one of the comics (issue 5, more specifically) from Disney Comic Hits! (also released by Marvel) also depicted the Bimbettes, alongside Gaston and Belle, as children on a snowy day. They proceeded to watch Gaston and get him to look at them (who likewise was trying to impress Belle) while teasing Belle for using a box as a sled, only for them and Gaston to hit a tree while Belle goes by. This suggests that Belle and her family have lived in the village for a very long time. In addition, the narration during this bit had Maurice, when giving Belle the sled, mention sledding "with all of your friends," suggesting that the Bimbettes and Gaston were at that time on friendly terms with Belle.

Novelizations
In the novelization Weddings, set after the first film, Belle and Adam paid a visit to the village as a sort of vacation. While there, the Bimbettes swooned for Adam the same way they swooned over Gaston. Like their coloring book appearance, and in one of the illustrations for Disney Princesses: Royal Weddings this suggests that they have let go of him.

Although not a separate novelization per-se, they also appeared in two pages of a French book adaptation of the Disney film. The first was when Gaston was introduced, swooning him, and the second was their attendance at Gaston and Belle's failed wedding. Interestingly, the French version showed them singing along joyfully despite the original film crying up a storm as well as being implied to have been kept in the dark about Gaston being the groom. This was fixed in the English version of the book. Similarly, the same novelization also gave them a slightly different facial design, with raised eyebrows, narrow eyes, and small mouths that were grinning. The English version altered the looks to have a better resemblance to their film design, although two different books from the same English translation gave them brown or green eyes.

Beauty and the Beast (musical)
In the Musical, their roles are the same, although they are given more dialogue, Gaston pays more attention to them, and their role is expanded slightly. They are referred to as the Silly Girls in the musical, and there can be more than three of them if a director chooses to cast more girls. In addition, at least in some showings, they are given more garish and unkempt appearances, presumably to better contrast them from Belle in terms of physical appearances.

Like in the movie, their first scene is in Belle, fawning over Gaston, although their scene is also expanded to having them socializing with other villagers and gossiping about Belle's "odd" nature. Their "oh, he's so cute" verse is delivered much louder than in the movie too, and their lyrics can precede and be accompanied by "fangirl screams" in some productions as well. However, here they are not present when Gaston stops Belle. They make their second appearance outside Belle's cottage, accompanying Gaston. They are crying over the fact that he's going to propose to Belle. They light up a bit when he promises to keep up with their little rendezvouses, but exit sobbing as he once again express his wish of proposing to Belle and sends them off. They appear after Gaston's unsuccessful proposal, having hid after being sent away, asking how it went. Each gets new hopes of getting him for herself, and they squabble over it while they exit.

They make their third and final appearance in the song Gaston, comforting Gaston by stroking his ego and flirting. In the Broadway production, they sit in his lap and feel his biceps, also partaking into an intricate choreography with mugs. Unlike the movie, they are present as Maurice storms in, alerting about the Beast who has made Belle a prisoner. However, they are not present as the hunter and LeFou schemes in Gaston (reprise). Instead, they walk away with the other patrons, laughing after Maurice leaves.

They do not appear in Act II. However, in non-Broadway productions, they can appear during The Mob Song if a director chooses so. They may also not be triplets, having different hair colors (wearing different wigs) and races.

Disney Parks
The Bimbettes also make an appearance at the parks (with identical hairstyles rather than different ones), but they currently only appear in the stage show (during the opening scenes only). Although mostly the same, the Bimbettes hairstyles are significantly shorter, only ending at the bottom of the shoulder blades, instead of down to below the waist. Besides the obvious green, amber, and red dresses, they also sometimes wore lavender, pink, and blue dresses, with their aprons similarly being variable. The girls were meetable at Disneyland Paris from 2002 to 2007. Unlike in the film, the Bimbettes wore a more modest outfit with white fur collars and cuffs (due to the show occurring during the Christmas season), and were wearing the same colored dress (magenta), leaving only their hairstyles and fabric belts as their differentiating factor. Additionally, recent Vinylmation figures of the girls are now being sold in Walt Disney World. In addition, they will also be supplied with a New Fantasyland pin that depicts them in the tavern.

Their role in the stage show is the same as in the movie, but with a difference—at one point, during the Gaston number, they faint on the floor with a thud, something they only did in Belle.

Disney on Ice
They also appeared during the Disney on Ice segment. Because of the nature of the segment, their dresses stop at the knee rather than reaching their feet. Like in the stage show versions, however, their hair is significantly shorter than in the film, and has a hint of orange to it.

Trivia

 * At one point in the movie Claudette has Belle's/Vanessa's hairstyle, Laurette has Jasmine's, and Paulette has Ariel's. However, at the end of the reprise to Gaston, all three girls have Jasmine's hairstyle, likely as the result of an animation error that could not be fixed in time for the movie's release. During the song and pretty much the whole time they're shown in the movie, their hairstyles continually switch around. They basically all wear the hairstyle of three of the Disney Princesses.
 * Ironically, the dress colors each of the Bimbettes were wearing were later worn by Belle later in the film. Specifically, Belle wore a green-colored dress in the scenes featuring her being supplied with a library by Beast like Paulette; Belle wore a red/pink colored dress with a matching cloak during Something There (and technically Human Again) similar to Claudette; and Belle wore her trademark ballroom gown during the ballroom scene and the ending, which was colored yellow, similar to Laurette's amber dress.
 * Claudette and Laurette were voiced by the late Mary Kay Bergman and Paulette was voiced by Kath Soucie (Who coincidentally voices The Enchantress in The Enchanted Christmas, who bears some resemblance to her).
 * In House of Mouse, they are all voiced by Kath Soucie due to Mary Kay Bergman's death by that point.
 * In the final version of the film, due to the character of Aunt Marguerite being cut from Katzenberg's demand of a rewrite to the film, the Bimbettes were the closest counterparts to Belle's spoiled sisters from the original fairy tale, though not as malicious.
 * In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Flop Starz", the Ferbettes (Who were Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, Milly, Gretchen and Adyson Sweetwater) parodied the name.
 * The name "Bimbette" more than likely comes from the American word, "bimbo", which means 'a physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence, and also uses her body to get what she wants'.
 * The American word itself is derived from an Italian word that meant "boy". The feminine equivalent would have been "bimbette".
 * Even though the girls are called the "Bimbettes" in the film and "Silly Girls" in the musical, they're unofficially known by many other monikers, such as the "The Tavern Girls", "The Village Girls", "The Babettes", "Triplets" and even "Barmaids", "Gaston's Entourage" and "Tavern Wenches". Even their actual given names were never revealed until the Platinum and Diamond Edition DVDs were released.
 * "Babettes", one of the sisters' collective names by fans, is pronounced "babe-ettes"; while the name "Babette" is pronounced "bab-et".
 * Despite technically being allies of Gaston, the Bimbettes are not bad, as they never do anything truly malicious or evil, they are shown to have some moments of sweetness, and it is mostly naïvete that causes them to "love" Gaston for his looks and initially fail to see his true colors.
 * Not counting song lyrics, sighing dreamily and crying (wailing like infants in most adaptations in the musical), in the movie they only have one line of dialogue each: Specifically, their expressing shock that Belle wouldn't like Gaston while swooning him. They are given more dialogue in the Broadway musical, however, and their role in the story is expanded a bit.
 * Ironically, the scene relating to their sole dialogue in the film frequently ended up cut in most adaptations or other mediums featuring the triplets (the latter via flashbacks).
 * The end of "Gaston" confirms that the girls are indeed waitresses as Paulette (with Laurette's hairstyle) is seen holding a silver tray while Gaston's buddies are cheering for him.  However, they are not yet presently doing this job at Walt Disney World's New Fantasyland equivalent.
 * In the Belle's Village area of New Fantasyland, in the ordering area of Gaston's Tavern, there is a beer barrel on the wall that says "Trois Blondes Biere" (french for "Three Blondes Beer") on it. Trois Blondes is the girls' collective name in French.
 * Claudette and her sisters have at least one similarity to Anna. Both were blind to the true nature of a handsome villain.
 * The figurine and the comics reveal that the Bimbettes have blue eyes, but they have green eyes in the movie. In addition, their appearance in Disney Princess: Royal Weddings depicts them with brown eyes.
 * While singing their verses in the Gaston song, Paulette's hand while motioning (immediately prior to Gaston lifting their bench) is using the handsign that means "A-Okay" in the heavy metal subculture.
 * A similar trio of girls were seen in the "Bothered" story section for the first issue of Disney Comics' New Adventures of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, watching a trio of boys playing pirates who eventually abduct Belle and attempt to chase them due to wanting to be taken prisoner. However, it is unclear if they are intended to be the same as the Bimbettes due to one of their dresses being purple instead of green, as well as their being redheads with freckles instead of blondes with no freckles, as well as apparently being much younger than Belle, or at least much shorter, while in the film and Marvel Comics, they were around the same age, or at least the same height.
 * Similar groups of characters in Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog were seen sharing the Bimbettes' designs.