The things I think about when it's time to think thoughts

[oakenguy]

So I was listening to 'Be Our Guest' this morning at the gym (because I am a dork, yes), and for the first time something struck me as being a little bit off. So I looked up the lyrics when I got to work.

I'm ordinarily pretty good with the suspension of disbelief. Singing, dancing crockery? No problem. Preparing a 50-person meal for a single guest? I totally understand, because a) they've got enthusiasm and b) France.

But here's the thing: the second verse mentions beef ragout. The third verse, much more disturbingly, mentions Singing pork! Dancing veal! WHERE DID THE MEAT COME FROM? Every other dancing thing in the castle is an enchanted, transformed human. Did some poor saps draw the short straw and get turned into living food? Or, maybe even worse, when the spell hit did Bob the Butcher...sorry, Bernard le Boucher...and his assistants get turned into a chopping block and an assortment of large knives, and periodically they have to go out into the countryside hunting down local livestock?

Comments

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

My icon says it all.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Well...the master of the castle is a beast, after all, and supposedly the singing and dancing crockery also prepare food for him. Perhaps he does his own hunting.

[wellstar.livejournal.com]

Singing pork! Dancing veal!

Clearly you have never tried to feed recalcitrant preschoolers. This is a variation on the popular Flying Vegetables! routine.

[clionona.livejournal.com]

DUDE!!!
Why did you have to post this?
I will never see Beauty and the Beast the same way!
:P

[katestine.livejournal.com]

+1

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Um...did I mention my third theory, where they have magic pantries and all the food arrives that way?

Yes. Magic pantries.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I would guess the crockery is dancing with those items in them, not that those items are dancing on their own.

[godswraith.livejournal.com]

You sir, are a nerd.

Oh and it's Be OUR Guest. :)

[kittybrat.livejournal.com]

I had to also look up the lyrics... because as someone who has seen this movie... FAR too many times in the past 18 years (it and the little mermaid are my favorite disney movies, and i have a lot of random crap and many copies of the movies to prove it, lol), I don't even remember this verse. I'm wondering if I'm just overtired right now and can't think straight, or if they cut the song short in the VHS version (I actually don't own B&tB on dvd yet, which is bizarre), and I've only watched the re-release VHS version once... hmm...

I like that you were listening to it at the gym. I'd have a hard time with that because I'd want to start belting out the song. :D

[kittybrat.livejournal.com]

oh wait, were you listening to the soundtrack to the movie or the musical? wikipedia is telling me that the lyrics slightly differ between the two.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Oh, that might explain it! It was the soundtrack from the musical.

[kittybrat.livejournal.com]

haha okay, good. for a moment there, i thought i was forgetting things. :-O

[katestine.livejournal.com]

This explains a lot. There's a lot they added to the musical that's inconsistent with the world-building in the movie.

[bulrogue.livejournal.com]

See, now I have The Simpsons version in my head "See My Vest" as sung by Mr. Burns.

Like my loafers/former gophers/it was that or skin my chauffeurs...

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I bought their album for that song, and the 'Streetcar!' medley. :)