One that the novelisation reveals that affects the film — Cadenza and Garderobe are not servants of the Prince; she's a famous Italian opera singer and he's her husband/accompanist. They were hired by the Prince to sing and play at his party and they are only cursed because the Enchantress punishes everyone working in the castle at that specific moment, guilty or not; Garderobe and Cadenza are collateral damage in the curse.
As, quite sadly, is Chip. He wasn't alive to affect the Prince growing up. He still gets cursed.
Even if Cadenza and Gerderobe were punished for their "inaction" for not helping the disguised Enchantress as adults, do you think Chip would be even old enough to understand what's going on and what needs to be done even be allowed to help her?
Perhaps the saddest part of this is that she didn't even see fit to spare Froufrou (who, as a dog, would have been even more powerless to help her than Chip).
Belle's exchange with Jean the potter seems normal enough, until you realize that the thing he lost and can't remember is his family. The curse made him forget his wife, Mrs. Potts, and his son, Chip.
Maurice's little song "How Does a Moment Last Forever" early in the film. He sings softly to himself whilst making a music box depicting himself painting his wife and child. Maurice even takes a moment to glance over to the actual painting of his wife holding their infant daughter hanging on the wall nearby.
The song is his way of coping with giving up a creation that has a piece of his life in it. He's telling himself that the memory of his family is not in this music box he'll be selling, but in himself and his daughter.
It's heart-wrenching for every artist who's ever had to give up their masterpiece to someone else.
The villagers destroying Belle's washing machine, for no reason other than to punish her for using her intellect and daring to teach another girl to read.
Lumiere telling the Beast "With each passing day, we become less human." There's a certain sad hollowness in his voice, as though even he recognizes the gravity of the situation. In a sense, he's pleading his master to think of the well-being of his servants.
"Another petal has fallen..."
The Beast's whole backstory is this. When he was a boy, his mother was very kind and loving to him. When she died, his cruel father took him and twisted the prince to be just like him. Even worse, when you see the torn painting in the west wing, you see his father's face torn off as well as his own, but his mother was the only one not torn down. Even though he became just like his father temporarily, he never forgot his mother and still loved her.
"Days in the Sun", one of the new songs written for the film, displays all the despair and longing the cursed servants have in wanting to be human again.
The moment at the beginning of the song in which a young version of the prince is at his mother's deathbed only to be led away by his father. A small moment to be sure, but it cuts back to the Beast, as if he was thinking about that very moment, as if it still haunts him in his adulthood.
Cadenza, after what is probably decades of a curse, is still madly in love with his wife, whom he hasn't seen since the original day of cursing:
"Will I tremble again, to my dear one's gorgeous refrain?"
Belle's lyrics about how she's gone from "innocent and certain" to "wiser but unsure"; they show how she's reeling from how the Beast's father was so cruel that it made his son who he is today. Belle knows fathers and loved ones shape who you become. But she never imagined the Beast to have a sympathetic backstory. And perhaps, it's a reminder that, like Belle, nobody who's a fan of the first movie is a child anymore. Or that nobody will ever look at the first movie the same way again.
If a person sees the movie for the first time while going through a particularly rough stretch themselves, there's a good chance that this song will be the main thing they'll remember about it.
Belle being taken to her old home and learning the truth from the Beast about what happened to her mother, after he discovers a doctor's mask. She was stricken with the plague, and Maurice could never bear to tell Belle the truth.
Beast: What happened to your mother? Belle: It was the one story Papa can never bring himself to tell. I knew better than to ask. [Beast discovers a doctor's mask on the chair] Beast: A doctor's mask... [turns to Belle with a saddened expression.] Plague.
It becomes worse when you consider that Maurice never even saw his wife actually pass away. He was not there for her in her last moments because they both agreed that their baby's life mattered more, and he had to leave as quickly as possible. When the sacrifices Maurice has made for his loved ones dawns on the Beast, he gives this exchange to Belle.
The last sight we see of Belle's dying mother in the flashback is of her kissing baby Belle's rose rattle, because she can't kiss her daughter goodbye without infecting her.
The same for Maurice. He never even gets to share one last kiss with the love of his life.
Agathe (who is also the Enchantress), who saved Maurice, is unable to defend him when Gaston insulted her and convinced the villagers that she was untrustworthy. She can only watch helplessly as Maurice is deemed insane by Gaston—a man who is far worse than the Beast ever was.
It can also be interpreted that although she's capable of saving Maurice again, she refrains from doing so because, despite being the powerful Enchantress, she must allow the bad moments to play out.
While preparing for the dance, the Beast mopes how he Cannot Spit It Out. But the enchanted objects remind him that if he doesn't break the spell tonight, he'll be drinking cold tea (because he doesn't have Mrs. Potts), sitting in the dark (because he doesn't have Lumiere), in a dusty room (because he doesn't have Plumette). This is slightly depressing on two levels:
It's reminiscent of every parents' speech where they tell you they're not going to be around forever.
In the same vein as Naveen, it reflects how the Beast isn't entirely self-reliant without his servants.
The exchange between Beast and Belle after the dance:
Beast: It's foolish I suppose...for a creature like me to hope that one day he might earn your affection.
Belle: I don't know.
Beast:(hopeful) Really? You think you could be happy here?
Belle:(after a pause) Can anyone be happy if they're not free?
Beast:(deflated, turns away and sighs)
A couple things happen here: Belle is pointing out that it's kind of hard to be happy when you're technically serving out a prison sentence, which she is, with him as her captor. We're also reminded that the Beast knows a thing or two about lack of freedom being an obstacle to happiness, himself a prisoner of the curse (as are his staff).
Oh dear God THE LOOK Beast gives Belle after he sets her free and she turns to look back at him. Made even worse by the fact that Beast, a seven foot Chimera looks as if he's about to cry. Its even more gut wrenching and unnerving than in the animated movie where he howled his grief!
"I set her free. I'm sorry that I couldn't do the same for all of you. Now go. Our time is almost past."
That was probably code for "please don't hang around here and make me watch you turn completely".
The song "Evermore", which the Beast sings after letting Belle go so she can help her father.
The fact the song isn't just the Beast mourning losing Belle. He's reflecting on how she's changed him and will have a hold on his heart forever, and resigning himself to being alone forever. He knows that if he lets Belle go, the curse deadline will hit and he'll be a beast forever, and all his servants will become inanimate objects. But he lets Belle go anyway because he loves her, and he knows it's the right thing to do. So not only is the Beast watching Belle leave him for what he thinks will be forever, he's watching his last chance at a happy life run away.
I'll fool myself she'll walk right in... and as the long, long nights begin, I'll think of all that might've been... waiting here, for evermore.
When the Beast is singing, he keeps running and crawling up "his lonely tower" and occasionally stops to look out. He's trying to look at Belle for as long as possible.
"And as the long, long nights begin" takes on a whole new meaning when you remember his servants will be inanimate if the spell isn't broken. It's bad enough imagining the Beast living the rest of his life as a bachelor when at least he'll have the company and comfort of the enchanted objects. But alas, he knows (and they know) that won't be the case. He won't just be bereft of Belle's company, but the company of the servants he's come to see as family.
The lyrics, "Wasting in my lonely tower, waiting by an open door." They just evoke the image of the Beast sitting in his tower, alone, waiting by the door, just in case Belle comes back.... even though he clearly doesn't think she will. Which, had she really left forever, is probably exactly what he would've done.
There's a beast running wild, there's no question. But I fear the wrong monster's released
Later, when crushed under the weight of Cadenza, LeFou begs for Gaston to help him out. Gaston coldly leaves his loyal friend behind, taking even the harpsichord crushing him by surprise.
Just like in the first movie, the Beast naturally doesn't fight back, believing Belle does want him dead. Under that assumption, he solemnly waits for Gaston to get it over with. It's I Want My Beloved to Be Happy at its saddest.
The first bullet Gaston fires. Even though it's not fatal, it's painful to watch the Beast's anguished wince. He's a good person, at the mercy of this sadistic monster.
Just when Beauty and the Beast are reunited, Gaston shoots the Beast in the back for a second time. It's so shocking, even more than when he stabbed the Beast in the first movie. You can practically feel the bullet in your heart!!
Belle is begging Gaston to stop, to no avail. However, Gaston pays no heed and shoots the Beasta third and final time.
Belle — practical, logical, down-to-earth Belle — senselessly begging the dead beast to, "Come back!" is already heartbreaking when used by a character who genuinely doesn't understand that their loved one is dead — but to see it used by someone who very much does, who has experienced pain and loss before, and now has to go through it all over again...
Before he dies, the dialogue between the two is this too.
Belle: I'll never leave you again. Beast: I'm afraid it's my turn to leave...
Doubly sad if you're familiar with Dan Stevens' other most famous work, where there was no Enchantress to bring him back.
Naturally, the moment prior to the Beast's transformation back into the Prince with Belle crying over him, only this time, the castle objects actually turn inanimate after the last petal falls. Lumière holds Plumette as she is the first to turn into an ordinary feather duster.
Garderobe accepting her fate graciously as she says good-bye to her husband. Cadenza begs for her to stay awake, before he gasps his final breath. Made worse by the fact that they've spent what was probably decades separated, only to reunite for a moment and then die.
Garderobe: Maestro, you were so brave. Goodbye, my love... Cadenza: Amore! No, don't leave me!
Frou-Frou panicking and whimpering after the above takes place. His owner isn't responding, his owner's husband isn't responding, nobody is responding! And you can see it in the poor dog's frantic body language. And then, Frou-Frou goes stiff as he too becomes inanimate, and topples lifelessly onto his back. For anyone who's ever lost a dog, this hits close to home.
Mrs. Potts frantically searching for Chip before she becomes a regular teapot, right before Chip comes in and nearly crashes until Chapeau catches him. By then, his face is gone from the teacup. Mrs. Potts didn't even get to see if Chip was okay before she was gone. Finally, Lumière and Cogsworth express their mutual friendship before they both freeze up.
Cogsworth is quickly losing his ability to speak, and he and Lumière are the last ones left of the main group. Cogsworth can barely sputter out that he can't speak. It's just agonizing to hear him choke on his last words and desperately fight to say goodbye.
Lumière, the last of the enchanted objects to become inanimate, bids farewell to Cogsworth andthe audience. For some reason, it makes one feel old and grief-stricken to see a childhood character say goodbye to us as he dies, even if it's a Disney Death.
The final long shot of the castle's servants, now just a random assortment of "rubbish", abandoned in the snow. Even though you know it's all going to be fixed, it's still painful. And watching as all the lamps, which had always been lit, quietly burn out and everything goes dark... chilling.
The moment Cadenza and Garderobe transform back to humans; it's a flurry of fabric and they're still in love and kiss, even though he's missing many of his teeth at this point. Given that she told him, before they became inanimate objects, that he was "so brave", they're definitely in a good place despite many years apart.
Cadenza refers to Frou Frou as "Froufy". If you have a dog whom you have nicknamed, you'll know how this feels.
