On Nov. 13, 1991, "Beauty and the Beast," Walt Disney Pictures' 30th animated feature, had its worldwide premiere. Released nine days later, on Nov. 22, "Beauty and the Beast" would wind up earning more than $425 million worldwide (including subsequent re-releases). It also holds the honor of being the first animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture.
Many people, especially those who grew up with the film, know showstoppers like "Belle," "Be Our Guest" or the Academy Award-winning title number, "Beauty and the Beast," by heart. One song, however, was left on the cutting room floor. Called "Human Again," the deleted song was inserted back into the film for the 2002 re-release, but it remains a mystery for those raised on the original 1991 version.
Some facts: Additional songs were written by Alan Menken for the "Beauty and the Beast" Broadway musical adaptation, but "Human Again" was the only number written by the film's original songwriting team, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, which never made it to the final film.
When interviewed about the 2002 IMAX re-release, one of the film's original directors, Kirk Wise, was asked why "Human Again" wound up being cut: "Back when it was originally written and storyboarded, it was initially 11 minutes long, which is a pretty heavy milieu for an animated feature that already had a lot of songs," he said.
With the re-release back in 2002, Disney brought back the original directors, Wise and Gary Trousdale, to direct the new segment. They even assembled some of the animators and background artists from the original production to work on the musical number.
Aside from the theatrical re-release, the musical number was included on the 2010 Blu-ray release of "Beauty and the Beast," which has since gone out of print.
Revisit the tale as old as time and check out the lost musical number above.
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