This article is about the wolves from Beauty and the Beast. For the characters from Frozen, see Wolves.
The Wolves are minor antagonists in Disney's 1991 animated feature film, Beauty and the Beast.
Appearances
Beauty and the Beast
These meat-eating predators are shown to be inhabitants of the Black Forest surrounding the Beast's castle, presumably as a part of the Enchantress's spell.
After Maurice gets lost in the forest following his separation from his horse, Philippe, the wolves spot Maurice and immediately chase him all the way to the castle. Even when Maurice manages to get inside past the gate and close it, they still try to get him and one manages to bite his foot, but he still gets away safely. Later on, when Belle runs away from the castle after the Beast frightens her, she is ambushed by the wolves and attacked. During the chase, one of the wolves inadvertently fell into the thin ice of the lake and was stranded, slowing him down from the rest of the pack. The wolves almost kill her, but the Beast turns up, possibly tipped off by Lumière and Cogsworth (who saw Belle leave and alarmed the Beast to save her from the wolves), and fights an entire pack of the wolves. Although they manage to bite him several times, the Beast throws one (possibly the alpha male) against a tree and knocks him out cold, and the rest run off in fright. This is the last they are seen in the film.
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
The wolves make a cameo in the midquel. When Belle, Chip and Philippe go into the Black Forest to look for a Christmas tree, the wolves are seen watching them, but this time they don't attack them. This may possibly be due to the memory of their past experience with Belle and the Beast, and they know not to mess with them in order to not get hurt again.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
The wolves appear in the live-action remake, inhabiting the woods surrounding Beast's castle like they did in the animated film. In this version, they have a more violent approach towards trespassers but seem to avoid the castle at all costs, as they quickly backed away from the castle gates the moment Maurice entered them. Notably, one of the wolves (distinguished by the scar across its left blind eye) appears to be the pack's leader.
Gallery
Trivia
- To call them villains is rather unfair because these wolves, savage as they acted, were just predators looking for their next meal, which is harder during winter. Though it could also be possible that their aggression was amplified as part of the spell.
- In real life, wolves are normally afraid of humans and tend to stay far away from them. Their behavior in The Enchanted Christmas was closer to their actual behavior.
- The planned involvement of wolves fatally attacking Gaston was eventually reused as Scar's death in The Lion King. It features the Hyenas devouring Scar after he falls off a cliff during a royal battle with his nephew.
- They appear to have inspired a group of wolves in Frozen, as the latter group plays a similar role in attacking the main characters and being a form of the setting's antagonistic wildlife.
