U.S. #4027
Beauty and the Beast
Art of Disney – Romance
Issue Date: April 21, 2006
City: Orlando, FL
Quantity: 175,000,000
Printed by: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd
Printing method: Lithographed
Perforations: Die cut 10 ½ x 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored
In 1910, Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne classified different types of folk tales. Later, American folklorist Stith Thompson enlarged and created numbers for the categories. The Aarne-Thompson system lists “Beauty and the Beast” as type 425C, search for a lost husband.
In 1740, Dame de Villeneuve published La Jeune Ameriquaine et les Contes Marins, a type-425C story of more than 200 pages.
The “Beauty and the Beast” story that is familiar to most people was adapted from Villeneuve’s by Madame Prince de Beaumont in 1756. Beaumont was highly regarded in her day and wrote more than 70 books. Today, however, she is remembered only for her version of “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Beauty and the Beast” is one of the few fairy tales where the main characters spend a long time with each other before falling in love. The message is that true beauty is within. In Beaumont’s version, Beauty says “it is neither wit, nor a fine person, in a husband, that makes a woman happy, but virtue, sweetness of temper, and amiability....”
Disney’s film Beauty and the Beast was based on Beaumont’s telling of the tale. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1992.