Title Revealed for Beauty and the Beast Prequel Coming to Disney+

Back in March, we learned a prequel to the 2017 live action film, Beauty and the Beast, would be coming to Disney+. Now, the composer for the new film, Alan Menken, has revealed the title!

In an interview with Variety Menken shared, “I’m excited about the projects I’m doing. I’m working on “Disenchanted” and a new “Beauty and the Beast” prequel, “The Little Town I’ve also been working on the new animated picture “Spellbound” with John Lasseter. And I’m doing a bunch of Broadway shows.

Decider shares some insight on what we know so far about the film, and what the name Little Town likely stems from:

The name Little Town likely comes from “Belle,” the opening song in Beauty and the Beast, as Collider points out. The lyrics include the lines “Little town, It’s a quiet village, Every day, Like the one before, Little town, Full of little people, Waking up to say.”

Decider goes on to share: Both Luke Evans and Josh Gad are returning to reprise their roles from the 2017 live action film. Evans will return to his role as Gaston, the arrogant and greedy hunter determined to have Belle all to himself. Gad will play LeFou, Gaston’s loyal sidekick. Neither Watson nor Dan Stevens, who starred as the Beast in the Disney film, are expected to return for Little Town. 

Little Town does not have a release date yet, but it’s likely that whatever tentative premiere the series set was pushed back by the coronavirus pandemic. Since the Beauty and the Beast prequel hasn’t begun production yet, we don’t expect to see it hit streaming any time soon.

Composer Alan Menken Talks About Recent Projects; Enchanted Sequel, The Little Mermaid, etc

In a recent “Talk Back” interview with Young Artists of America, composer and Disney Legend Alan Menken has revealed an exciting array of projects he is currently involved with for Disney. Having composed the magical and iconic scores for many of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ biggest hits, we’re definitely excited to hear what Menken has been up to, and getting some sneak details on what we can expect!

The first thing Menken mentioned in the interview was “Disenchanted”, the sequel to the 2007 live action/animated crossover movie. Along with fellow composer Steven Schwartz, Menken has been writing new music for the new movie, to carry the feel from the original. We have known that this sequel was going to come about for over five years now, and it was way back in 2016 that Amy Adams was confirmed to reprise her role as Giselle in the movie, which will be directed by Alan Shankman (“Hairspray”). Hearing Menken discuss his work on the movie implies that the production could be coming along, so we’ll definitely look forward to more details about that in the future!

Another exciting project mentioned by Menken is the upcoming live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid”. We learned that Halle Bailey had been cast to play Ariel in the movie last summer, and in his interview Menken shared that Melissa McCarthy will be playing Ursula, Javier Bardem will be playing King Triton, Awkwafina will be Scuttle, and Daveed Diggs will play Sebastian. Lin Manuel Miranda is also on-board, co-writing four new original songs for the movie. Menken discussed that he had been in London with the cast recently to record the music from the film, which was luckily completed before the COVID-19 outbreak lockdown in the UK.

It was exciting to hear Menken discussing some of his upcoming stage projects. First, a musical version of “Night at the Museum” is being written and is in early reading stages. Second, Menken mentioned that he has been working on the stage adaptation of “Hercules”, which will be moving to Broadway soon.

Watch Alan Menken Break Down Writing Princess Jasmine's New Solo ...

Back in March, we reported that a prequel series to the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” was in development for Disney+. Focusing on the backstory of Gaston and Le Fou, it was reported that Luke Evans and Josh Gad would reprise their roles for the show, and Menken has confirmed he is working on new songs for this too. Finally, Alan Menken briefly mentioned that he has been working on an upcoming animation with John Lasseter, more details of which he did not share.

You can watch the full interview from YAA here. Alan Menken is one brilliant and busy composer and we can’t wait to hear his scores and find out more details about what he has been working on!