How long was the Beast cursed

Índice Show

• How much older is the beast than Belle?
• How long did Belle stay with the beast?
• How old is the beast when he meets Belle?
• Did the beast stop aging?

As great as Walt Disney Animation's Beauty and the Beast is, there is one significant flaw in its storytelling. Lumiere establishes in "Be Our Guest" that the curse has lasted for 10 years -- but since the curse is meant to end on the Prince's 21st birthday, that means that he was only 11 when the spell was initially cast (and that he was totally justified in not letting a stranger into his house while alone during a storm). This is an issue that the new live-action adaptation avoids by both removing both the 21st birthday plot point and the "10 years we've been rusting" lyric... but this still leaves the question of how long the curse has lasted in the new film. Fortunately, it was a query that I was recently able to pose to both star Dan Stevens and director Bill Condon.

I sat down with both men earlier this month at Beauty and the Beast's Los Angeles press day, and used the opportunity to dig for details about the fantasy film's timeline of events. First sitting down with Dan Stevens -- who was paired with co-star Emma Watson -- I asked if the production had established a definitive history of the curse to study in his character work. While he did remember that they had set a number during filming, he was fuzzy on the details -- but with a bit of support and suggestion from Watson he settled on an odd number. Said Stevens,

That's a good question. I couldn't give you to the nearest day -- I'm trying to remember how long we had established that he had been cursed. I think by this stage it's been a while. You get the sense that it's been a few years... Ten? I think we were playing in that sort of ballpark. Let's say maybe nine!

Later that same day I asked Bill Condon about his thoughts on the matter -- and not only did he admit to not firmly answering that question within Beauty and the Beast, but also supported the inquiry and pointed out a funny benefit that the Prince gets from the witch's curse:

We don't definitively answer that question. I think it's not a bad thing to imagine that's what it is. And he doesn't age during that point, but he's a grown up, you know?

Funny enough, this idea of the curse essentially pausing time for the Prince and everyone else in the castle occurred to me while talking with Dan Stevens as well, and you can watch his funny reaction and realization in the video below:

In the coming days I have plenty more fun pieces coming from my time interviewing the cast and filmmakers behind Beauty and the Beast -- and it won't be long until you have a chance to see the film for yourself. Look for the blockbuster in theaters this Friday, March 17th.

NJ native who calls LA home and lives in a Dreamatorium. A decade-plus CinemaBlend veteran who is endlessly enthusiastic about the career he’s dreamt of since seventh grade.

It seems to be a popular argument on Reddit that the prince had to be 10 years old when he was cursed because Lumiere sang that they had been rusting for 10 years, and also that the rose would bloom until his 21st year. I have seen also that in the sequel, it was established that the prince was appx. 20 years old when he was first cursed, which I believe. Here's why: The painting he claws up in Beauty and the Beast is clearly a portrait of the same man he turns into at the end of the movie. So the prince is roughly 20 years old.

Where my theory differs is that everybody seems to be operating under the assumption that "his 21st year" seems to be referring to his 21st birthday, while I believe that it meant his 21st year spent under the curse. I assume that he was cursed at 20, his aging was arrested, and he was cursed to spend 21 years (not aging) as a beast. At the end of the prologue, the narrator says that if the beast did not find love before then, he would remain a beast for all time. His aging would be arrested permanently and his ultimate curse would be to remain ugly and unloved forever.

I've tried to explain this more times than I would care to elaborate on but here we go...

The Prince in Beauty and The Beast was NOT eleven-years-old when he was cursed.

1.  The Lines "Until his twenty first year" (said by the narrator) and "Ten years we've been rusting" from Be our Guest are the only reason people think the prince was eleven.

2.   Those two lines mentioned above were later removed for the Broadway production of Beauty and The Beast to make it clear that The Prince was not eleven-years-old.  Sometimes they put the "Ten years we've been rusting" line back in but the "Until his twenty first year" part is replaced with "bloom for a time." or "Bloom for many years" (depending on the narrator).

Listen. Listen, it's not in the Broadway version.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N67dSJCSdB8

Listen, it's not in the Broadway version.  

3.  Beauty and The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas shows the flashback of the Prince being cursed. In the flashback you can see little Chip, who is clearly the same age he was when the curse is lifted.  That means the objects are not aging and that also means it's likely that The Beast is not aging.

4.  To further establish that the objects are not aging we know they have to have been cursed for at least ten years (If we trust that lyric that does not exist in the Broadway version) and yet there is a dog (footstool) and cat (throw pillow).  You see the dog early on in the animated film and the cat is seen during the Human Again song number in the Extended cut.  Cats and dogs have much shorter life spans than humans. In ten years that dog would have passed away or been elderly.

5.   In Beauty and The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas the flashback of Prince Adam being cursed you will find he is voiced by the same voice actor who plays present day Prince.  That is very unlikely casting on Disney's part for what is meant to be an eleven-year-old.  Even for direct to video sequels they still had some standards.

6. Chip is not even ten-years-old yet so for him to be aging would have to mean he was literally born a tea cup.  Think how weird that would be.  Did The Beast deliver him by plucking a very tiny tea cup out of Mrs. Pott's top? Is that how he got chipped?  Being banged around by a clawed finger?        

7.  For The Beast to be eleven when cursed that means he's aging but the objects are not, which is odd because should the last petal fall he would "Be doomed to remain a Beast forever." Notice the word "forever" which is always used.  It does not say "until he dies of old age."  This indicates that the curse entails immortality.  

8.  The Beauty and The Beast Broadway musical and new live action movie both entail a sinister feature to the already dark curse.  In these versions the servants will be doomed to turn into nothing more than the objects they resemble and essentially die when the last petal falls, dooming The Beast to be alone forever.  There's that word "Forever" again.   It doesn't really sound like "until he does of old age as a furry."    

9. Though not quite the same continuity, in the Disney TV series, Once Upon a Time the story merged The Beast with the character of Rumplestiltskin and instead of a furry chimera-type of creature he's a lizard-like imp with scaly skin and claw nails.

  In this form he is known as The Beast and "The Dark One" and "The Dark One is immortal."

 That version of The Beast, Rumplestiltskin, is three-hundred-years-old and reluctant to going back to being mortal.

He is reluctant to revert to being human partly because he was a crippled mortal and partly because he fears being without his powers.  That and he doubted anyone could truly love him.

He can only be killed when stabbed with a special dagger, which parallels Gaston stabbing the Beast in the animated Beauty and The Beast movie shortly before his curse is lifted.

10. Not that it really matters with Disney but in the original Beauty and The Beast novel by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, which was later shortened into the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, neither version portrayed the cursed prince as having been a child when cursed.  It was always after he was considered an adult.

Things might be different with the new live action movie but Disney did not originally intend for The Beast to have been eleven-years-old when cursed in Beauty and The Beast.

How much older is the beast than Belle?

How long did Belle stay with the beast?

How old is the beast when he meets Belle?

Did the beast stop aging?