The Latin Motto
The opening scenes of the film show us the pre-transformation life of the Prince as a series of motifs in a stained-glass window of the castle. Although I'm quite sure you would never spot this if you saw it in the theatre, there is a motto, in Latin, at the bottom. It says 'vincit qui se vincit', which means, in a subtle prefiguring of the arc of the whole story, 'He conquers, who conquers himself'. In the end, that is what the film is all about.
You're.. a toy!
He certainly is. In Aladdin, take a careful look during the scene where the Sultan is playing at stacking up a pile of toy animals - one of them is a little toy Beast.
Belle In Paris
It's true! Belle does make a sneak appearence in The Hunchback of NotreDame. During Quasimodo's song 'Out There' we are treated to an aerial exposition of Paris; during one of these scenes you can clearly see our heroine wandering across a square, deeply engrossed in a book. She is in the image to the right - if you can't spot her, roll your mouse over the image and I give you a hint!Perhaps it was lucky for Beast that she didn't meet Quasi beforehand...
It's A Sign
..but what does it say? And what does it mean? Maurice is hoping it'll guide him to the Inventors Fair, but I'm not so sure. Two French villages called Anaheim and Valencia? Hmm. 'Anaheim' points to the 'good' route, while 'Valencia' points towards the 'bad' one that Maurice foolishly takes...So far, I've heard two competing theories on this:
- This is an oblique reference to the rivalry between Disneyland (in Anaheim, California) and the Six Flags Magic Mountain park (in Valencia)...
- ...or, it's an equally oblique reference to the fact that Valencia is the location of CalArts - that reknowned birthplace of many Disney animators, including Glen Keane. Quite why this should be assigned as the 'bad' route is not really clear! :)
Although even more difficult to confirm than the above, it is possible that the sign partly obscured by the 'Valencia' sign reads 'Newhall'. These places are, I am assured, cities in the Santa Clarita Valley in California, allegedly on the signs as an in-joke because an animator on the movie lived in this area (possibly Glen Keane?).
In The Jungle
Mrs. Potts, Chip and a variety of other serving-ware end up in the jungle in Tarzan. The grabs at right show them in the scenes where Terk and her buddies invade the camp - in the musical number appropriately named 'Trashin' The Camp' - fortunately we never see any of our porcelain pals crack under the pressure!
Many thanks to Zeverken who prompted me on this one and kindly sent me the nice grabs that you see! :)
Premonition Of The End
Here's another that I missed and that came to light only recently - for this I have to kindly thank Brenda Carolina Salas Castillo for pointing it out to me and sending the image to go with it. Neat!Clearly, the end is nigh for our vain villain as he takes his final plunge from the Beast's tower...