The plot revolves around a little girl who sneaks out of her room at night and grabs a few snacks. After returning to her room, a man on her wallpaper comes out and sprinkles her with sleep powder. She falls into the "Land of Slumbers", where she is welcomed with open arms, but warned of the "big, bad beast".
After meeting a toy soldier and going through a few cartoonish hijinks, the girl and the soldier read a bit of "Beauty and the Beast" (albeit with words that don't exist in the original)... only for the beast to come out of the book and try to eat her.
Despite the name, this cartoon is entirely unrelated to the fairy tale of the same name or the Disney film.
The short can be viewed on HBO Max.
"Beauty and the Beast" provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: The Beast is not at all like his literary counterpart. Although, given he's a product of the girl's dream, this could just be her misunderstanding what the story is about.
- All Just a Dream: Most of the short was this; the girl only wakes up while in the middle of being clenched in the hands of the beast.
- Animate Inanimate Object: A large number of residents of the Land of Slumbers are toys (though a few fairy tale characters are in the mix too).
- The "Be Careful!" Speech: Part of the Welcoming Song has one of the singers tell the girl to be careful of the titular beast.
- Berserk Button: What gets the beast really mad is having some of his fur shaved off.
- Big Eater: The little girl eats two bananas, an entire bunch of grapes, and a whole box of chocolates before going back to bed.
- Close-Call Haircut: The toy soldier tries to use a wind-up toy airplane to get the beast to release the little girl, but it just shaves some of his fur off.
- Forced Sleep: The powder that makes the girl fall asleep (though this may have been part of the dream; it's hard to tell).
- In Name Only: This cartoon has nothing in common with the fairy tale it was named after.
- Iris Out: After the girl wakes up and hides under the covers following the dream, the short irises out on her bare butt (she's wearing pajamas that open on the backside).
- Jerkass: Humpty Dumpty laughs at the toy soldier for his embarrassment as getting kissed, only for him to fall and break open.
- Joke of the Butt: The short has a scene where the girl's behind is exposed from her dropseat functioning like a parachute and ends by irising out on the girl's bare bottom when her dropseat pops open after she ducks under the covers.
- Love at First Sight: The little girl approaches the lead toy soldier and says "ain't he cute?" before picking him up and kissing him on the lips, much to his embarrassment.
- Mickey Mousing: Much of the music in this cartoon is matched to the action.
- Mouth Stitched Shut: As a frog attempts to join in on the Welcoming Song, one of the men gets angry and zips his mouth shut.
- No Name Given: None of the characters ever speak their names out loud, not even the little girl.
- Pain to the Ass: The toy soldier tries to light a cannon to fight off the beast... but this just causes the cannon to drag his ass along the ground while hollering in pain.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: The little girl wears pajamas throughout the short.
- Parachute Petticoat: The girl at one point has the dropseat of her pajamas used as a parachute.
- Welcoming Song: After the girl enters the castle, three men sing her one of these.
- Would Hit a Girl: The beast is more than happy to try to eat the little girl.
- Would Hurt a Child: Again, the beast has no problem with putting the girl in harm's way.
