Thread:DisneyTriviaBuff/@comment-1672596-20150325200633/@comment-1672596-20150327194735

DisneyTriviaBuff wrote: @WeedieMcHairybug: You're welcome, and I checked out a preview of the book on-line and I know that there's an entire chapter on the 1989 screenplay that comes with never-before-seen concept art! I hope that it will tell me more about how the story went, such as what Belle did while she was at the castle and what Marguerite's ultimate fate was, did she turn good or not? Yeah, agreed, especially when removing Marguerite was a huge mistake that if anything hurt the film more than helped it. I can kinda understand the rationale for removing Belle's sisters, even if I don't really agree with it (Disney had no problem reusing characters in their fairytales, like how The Evil Queen was somewhat reused with Lady Tremaine and Maleficent, not to mention Aurora suffered a similar fate to Snow White. And besides, they technically reused Vanessa with the Featherduster's human form), but removing someone would have been perfect as a foil for Belle for the purposes of the moral was inexcusable, especially when thanks to Woolverton's insistence on trying to base Belle on the women's movement, she came across as pretty ugly in her character, almost as bad as Woody in the Black Friday reel (which ironically was also Jeffrey Katzenberg's fault).

I never understood why it needed to be rewritten. The whole "dark, dramatic and somber" element doesn't seem to cut it because, quite frankly, Snow White and even Cinderella were about as dark as if not darker than that draft (not to mention the final film came across as extremely cynical as a result). Not to mention, Katzenberg tried to do to Toy Story what he decried Beauty and the Beast as being.