How Beauty and the Beast Is Connected to Another Classic Disney Film

Even some Disney diehards would have trouble picking up on the latest Easter egg: the live-action Beauty and the Beast contains a brief (but important) nod to 1996's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Before we get into the new hint, you should know that Hunchback includes a blink-and-you-missed-it shot of Belle, wandering through the streets of Paris with her nose buried in a book. Disney animators love to put existing characters into new films, but the latest nod is even more subtle.

The new Beauty and the Beast gives Belle a backstory, and as she and the Beast travel back to her childhood home in Paris, we get a glimpse at the skyline. And what do you know? Notre Dame is right there. To be fair, the stories take place in vastly different time periods; Hunchback is originally set in 1482, and Beauty doesn't take place until the 1800s. But still! The connection is there.