The Fount of Animation Keeps Giving

Hm. Wonder where this comes from??

Disney's feature animation unit created an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture with Beauty and the Beast. And that hand-drawn feature from 1991? It has spawned a billion dollar live-action/animated hybrid in 2017, and now ...p>

Gaston and LeFou are getting an origin story.

Streaming service Disney+ is teaming with Once Upon a Time creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz as well as stars Josh Gad and Luke Evans for a Beauty and the Beast prequel limited series to the 2017 feature film in which the latter pair starred.

The untitled limited series will be a six-episode musical event, with composer Alan Menken in talks to return as well. Sources say the project, which is currently in the early development stage, will take place well before the events of the film and also expand the Beauty and the Beast universe. No other stars from the film — like Emma Watson and Dan Stevens — are currently attached, though sources say there is a possibility that they could pop in for a guest spot.

Here in the 21st century, with broadcast networks, cable networks, and multiple streaming services in frantic search of material that global eyeballs will watch, the House of Mouse once again dips into the IP developed by animation story artists way back when.

Because, you know, the material has a proven track record. And the characters are known. And it beats hell out of developing unfamiliar content from scratch that a fickle public may or may not watch.

The trades, of course, reference "the live-action film", but let's be honest. The whole shebang derives from the full-length feature film that Disney feature artists, writers, animators, designers and crew created on a tight schedule and budget almost thirty years ago.