Gaston (Disney)

Gaston is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 30th animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (1991). He is voiced by American actor and singer Richard White.

Development

Gaston is based on the character Avenant who appears in Jean Cocteau's 1946 film adaptation of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, although screenwriter Linda Woolverton indicated that she based Gaston primarily on former lovers she had.^[1]

Created by screenwriter Linda Woolverton, Gaston is an arrogant hunter whose feelings for Belle drive him to murder the Beast out of jealousy once he realizes that she has fallen in love with his adversary. The character was animated by supervising animator Andreas Deja.

Supervising animator Andreas Deja's initial drawings of Gaston were as an arrogant, burly, mustached man with a small brow and a large jaw. However, Jeffrey Katzenberg insisted that he be drawn more seriously to push the "don't judge a book by its cover" message. Deja revised his drawings with the idea of Gaston being more "soap opera handsome" than a typical casanova.^[2] The animator's interpretation would show that Gaston is superficially handsome on the outside, but ugly on the inside.^[2] Opera singer Richard White, who finally won the role of voicing Gaston, believes many people were interested and auditioned for the role besides himself.^[3]

Characterization

He is depicted as rude, conceited, small-minded, narcissistic, and spends his time fighting, drinking and hunting. He is considered by many townspeople to be the town hero.^[4] Gaston believes that Belle would best suit as his wife based purely on her beauty, but Belle is not as shallow as Gaston and refuses his every advance. His desire to marry Belle leads him to evolve from a narcissistic but harmless and humorous buffoon to a menacing, murderous villain.^[5] Gaston was not a character in the original fairy tale. The 1946 French film did, however, feature the character of a handsome suitor, named Avenant, whom Belle rejected and who ultimately tried to kill the Beast.^[6] Disney claims to have added Gaston as a character to the film in order to create a heightened sense of danger as well as to showcase the theme of inner versus outer beauty.^[4]

Appearances

Beauty and the Beast

As Gaston believes he is the best man in town, he sets his sights on marrying the most beautiful woman in town, Belle. However, she refuses his proposal when he throws a wedding party without her prior knowledge. Thoroughly humiliated, he sulks, but when her father Maurice shows up saying that she has been captured by a hideous Beast, he comes up with the idea of having him thrown into an insane asylum, unless Belle agrees to marry him. His plan fails when Belle proves the Beast does exist, and she says that he is her friend, and that he is a better person than Gaston. He becomes jealous, snaps, and decides to gather a band of villagers to kill the Beast, playing off their fears that the Beast might wreak havoc on their village.^[7] In the ensuing fight, he shoots the Beast with an arrow and beats him down, taunting him about his hideous appearance, and still refusing to believe that Belle will not marry him. The Beast has no heart to fight until he sees that Belle came back for him, when he easily overpowers Gaston and intends to kill him. However, when Gaston begs for his life, the Beast decides to be the better man and have mercy, choosing to spare his life, and climbs back up to Belle. Gaston then stabs the Beast in the back, but loses his balance when the Beast swings his arm backwards at him; consequently, Gaston dies from the fall. In an interview, White admitted that he did not even know whether or not Gaston died pointing out that Gaston was never seen to die, and so it was questionable if he actually survived the fall.^[3] However, a 2002 DVD commentary from the film's screenwriters confirmed his death.^[8]

In other media

Printed media

Gaston also appeared in the Marvel Comics serial for Beauty and the Beast, taking place during Belle's stay at the castle. He generally served as comic relief and effectively the "protagonist" of the village B-stories, where he is trying to come up with some scheme to get Belle to marry him, only for the triplets to interfere and sabotage his plans in order to get him to focus on them over Belle.

Broadway musical

Gaston's character in the musical is the same as that in the film.^[9] Besides the songs "Belle", "Gaston", and "Kill the Beast" (which were from the Disney movie), Gaston performs "Me" (in which he self-centeredly proposes to Belle), "Gaston (Reprise)" (which was expanded to have Gaston and Lefou sing about his wicked plan, with Gaston also admitting he "won't feel the least bit remorseful" so long as it works), and "Maison de Lunes" (in which he recruits the asylum owner to have Maurice committed). In the Melbourne stage production of the film, he was played by Hugh Jackman.^[10] Notable actors who have played the role on Broadway include Burke Moses, Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, and Donny Osmond.

Video games and television

Gaston has appeared in the television series Disney's House of Mouse, and was voiced again by White.^[11] A running gag in the series is Gaston, now reduced to mere comic-relief, stating randomly that "Nobody can (perform a specific action) like Gaston", often getting on other characters' nerves to the point that Hades remarks that "Nobody can be extremely annoying like Gaston". Gaston also makes sporadic appearances in Sing Me a Story with Belle, mostly acting as a comedic foil.

Kingdom Hearts

Gaston makes his debut appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series in Kingdom Hearts χ in a world based on the film, "Beast's Castle", in which he plays out the same role as in the film only by leading an army of Heartless to the castle instead of rioters, and sets a stronger Heartless on the player while he fights and ultimately loses to the Beast. Since the game is set one hundred years before the events of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the Gaston featured in the game is actually a projection of his future self, as are all the Disney characters in the game, hinting that he will potentially return in Kingdom Hearts III.

Notably, Gaston is the only Disney villain in the Kingdom Hearts series who did not debut in the same game as his world, which actually first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II and then Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. He was originally slated to appear in Kingdom Hearts II as a boss for Sora, but was scrapped in favor of Xaldin.

Once Upon a Time

Gaston appeared twice in Once Upon a Time.

References