It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since the world was first introduced to the classic animated Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. Last night, ABC aired Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration — a two-hour animated and live-action blended special that paid tribute to the original film.
While the live special mainly stayed true to the original movie’s storyline, a lot of surprises were added, like never-before-seen musical performances and a more diverse cast, which included H.E.R. as Belle, Josh Groban as the Beast, Shania Twain as Mrs. Potts, and Joshua Henry as Gaston — to name a few.
During the 30th celebration special, it was hard to miss the stunning costumes that each cast member wore. Many of the looks were recognizable from the original film, but it was also very noticeable how modernized they were thanks to award-winning costume designer Marina Toybina and her team.
We spoke to Marina about all things Beauty and the Beast and what went on behind the scenes with creating the special’s costumes — including how H.E.R. (Gabi Wilson) paid homage to her heritage in one of the costumes, how the Beast’s costume was brought to life, and more.
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One of the challenges Marina and her team faced was keeping with the classic fairy-tale looks of the original movie while adding a modern twist to them.
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Marina and her team had to design the costumes in a way that would allow the actors to move easily during the live production.
“It couldn’t be your typical kind of Disney approach to it that you see in parades. I just wanted this to have such a cinematic feel that people felt like they were watching a movie while also allowing the actors to sing and dance comfortably,” Marina added.
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The costumes were one of the first things to be created on this production — even before the choreography, which made things tricky.
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A lot of thought was put into each costume but especially the opening “provincial life” scene with Belle.
“At the same time, I did a lot of research as to where the fabrics were coming from back then. I decided to go with denim and linen for the whole opening scene just to have that kind of vintage-y color tone and get very close to the pan tones of the original film. I didn’t go too bright with the colors either.”
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The Beast’s live costume was inspired by the costumes seen in The Lion King and War Horse.
“His take to me was always ‘I don’t want this cheesy. I don’t want this [to be] like a birthday character coming to life.’ Since we were all inspired by this kind of bigger-in-life approach without covering our cast members — the idea came about of using puppetry for the Beast,” Marina said.
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Josh Groban was trained on how to self-puppeteer the 10-foot Beast costume that Marina and her team built for him.
“No mechanics were used. We were going back and forth about building animatronics into it and having this robotic touch to it. After many conversations, we decided to make it as simple, as stunning, and unique as possible. I told Josh, ‘The way I’m going to build it, you’re gonna have to self-puppeteer, you’re going to have to become this character,'” Marina added.
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Gabi — whose mother is Filipina-American and her father is African American — paid homage to her heritage in one of the Belle costumes she wore.
“I hired an artist that was of Filipino descent as well. I wanted it to be hand-painted. I wanted her to have something very special and that was so forward. So that was probably one of the most special parts for both of us to be able to bring this forward, and then the production stood behind me on that decision. I think it’s so important that we were able to include that and not just hide it as a little detail,” Marina said.
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It was important for the actors to not be hidden behind the costumes.
“I told the cast that I’m not going to create something where you’re stuck in a costume. I think when you’re dealing with such an iconic cast, the last thing I wanted to do was hide them. All the costumes are so strategically designed to have our cast shine and be able to act.”
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Paying close attention to every detail was important for Marina and her team.
“There are so many times we chose Pantones (colors) out of the animated [movie] and then kept correcting it and printing until it was the right lavender, the right pink. I can’t even begin to describe to you what a madhouse it was trying to not miss a single detail,” she said.
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It was important for Gabi to add her own originality to Belle, so Marina did not want to copy exactly what the character’s costumes looked like in the Broadway and movie versions.
“When it came down to the final rendering of Belle’s dress, I wanted the layers to feel like rose petals — the new beginning of a new life. You’ll see that transformation in the gown so it’s very similar to what the original is but it was also such a different take on it,” Marina said.
What did you think of the 30th anniversary special? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
