Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast)
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| Lumiere | |
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| First appearance | Beauty and the Beast (1991) |
| Created by | Nik Ranieri |
| Voiced by | Jerry Orbach (films,House of Mouse) Jeff Bennett (Kingdom Hearts II) |
Lumière is the maître d' of the Beast who was turned into a candelabra, or a candlestick, for ten years until Belle broke the spell from Disney's 1991 American animated film, Beauty and the Beast. He was voiced by Jerry Orbach and later by Jeff Bennett.
Lumière is a ladies' man, and is very charming. He obviously has knowledge of how to win a girl's affections since he along with Mrs. Potts helps the Prince with his relationship with Belle. Mrs. Potts helping with manners, Lumière helps with looks and self-confidence.
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[edit] Biography
Starting off as the spoiled Prince's maitre'd, the spell transformed him into a humanoid candelabra on Christmas Eve when his master refuses to allow the Enchantress (disguised as an old woman at the time) in the castle for shelter from the bitter cold. Along with his master and fellow servants, Lumiere's only hope to return to his normal state is for his master (the Beast) to fall in love with a woman and earn her love in return before the last petal of the Beast's magic rose falls.
Over the years, as the Beast grows bitter and angrier, Lumiere's attitude remains almost the same: cheerful and kind-hearted, which often lands him in some disputes with his fellow servant and best friend, Cogsworth (a humanoid clock). One night, however, while Lumiere and Cogsworth are on guard, an old man named Maurice enters the castle after wolves chase his horse away. Cogsworth immediately prepares to throw Maurice out (not for being cold-hearted, but out of fear of the Beast's reaction), but Lumiere refuses to send the man back out into the cold and even dares to allow Maurice to sit in the Beast's chair. However, their master, having heard them, enters the room and angrily locks Maurice in the tower, much to Lumiere's despair..
The next night, Maurice's young daughter Belle arrives at the castle, and Lumiere and Cogsworth secretly lead her to the tower, where the Beast has locked Maurice. But the Beast is three steps ahead and confronts her in the tower. Lumiere witnesses the cold deal Belle makes with Beast (she will stay at the castle forever in exchange for her father's freedom), and persuades his master to let Belle stay in one of the guestrooms instead of keeping her in the freezing tower. Lumiere also advises the Beast to invite Belle to dinner later on that night. But a few hours later, Cogsworth reports that Belle isn't coming, and the Beast angrily demands that Belle join him. Lumiere tries to get the Beast to ask her in a gentle and kind tone, but Belle still refuses, and Beast angrily tells Lumiere and Cogsworth to guard her doors until she is prepared to eat with him.
But due to the boredom, Lumiere wanders off after a while and flirts with his girlfriend Babette (a humanoid featherduster) despite her protests that she was "burned" by him before. Soon after, Belle emerges from her room, Lumiere (albeit delayed) follows her to the kitchen, where Cogsworth angrily tells her that she will only be having a glass of water and a crust of bread. Lumiere, now fed up of Cogsworth's behaviour, silences him and kindly leads Belle into the dining room. In the dining room, he treats her to a caberet dinner show.
After the dinner, Lumiere (and a reluctant Cogsworth) offer Belle a tour of the castle, during which they lose her and she wanders off into the West Wing. Minutes later, Lumiere and Cogsworth, to their horror, see Belle quickly running out of the castle to flee from the Beast, who had lost his temper upon seeing Belle in the West Wing. Lumiere informs the Beast of this, knowing the wolves in the black forest will surely try to kill Belle.
Belle and an injured Beast return to the castle, and Belle heals Beast's wounds, marking the start of their friendship, much to Lumiere and the other servant's delight.
Over the next few days, Beast also strikes up a friendship with Lumiere and Cogsworth. Beast, who wants to do something special for Belle, asks Lumiere for advice. Lumiere, who remembered Belle's love for books during the tour, suggests Beast give her the castle library as a "thank-you" present. The plan works, and Beast and Belle's bond deepens, as does Lumiere and Beast's friendship.
One night, Lumiere and the other servants prepare a private ball for Beast and Belle, and Lumiere supplies the Beast with encouragement before the ball. However, Lumiere is then one of the servants to receive the bad news from Cogsworth that the Beast has apparently allowed Belle to leave the castle in order to rescue her stranded father (Maurice had tried to look for Belle, but lost his way). Lumiere and the others then give up hope.
To make things worse, Lumiere and the others look out of the window and see a lynch mob heading for the castle, led by another man competing for Belle's feelings: Gaston. Lumiere and the others try to block the doors to stop the rioters, but the strength of the rioters' log proves too strong, so Lumiere and the other servants see no other choice but to fight back. Darkening the castle, the servants spread all over the room and wait for the rioters to move into the right position. On Lumiere's command, the servants attack the rioters and manage to drive them out. At one point, Lumiere himself is nearly killed by Gaston's right-hand man, LeFou, but is saved at the last minute by Cogsworth.
Knowing that Gaston escaped the battle, Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts run for the West Wing as fast as they can. They arrive, only to see a mortally wounded Beast with Belle at his side, Gaston nowhere in sight (he fell to his death off balcony after stabbing the beast in the back). Lumiere and the others sadly watch the Beast die, and the last petal fall from the rose. But, Belle's love for the Beast revives him and the spell breaks just before the last petal falls.
The next day, a ball is held to celebrate the victory, during which Lumiere and Cogsworth get into yet another argument, this time over which of the two told the other that Belle would be the one to break the spell.
[edit] Friendship or Rivalry
When Lumière and Cogsworth first notice Belle, they believe that she is the one to break the spell. Lumiere claims that allowing Belle into the castle was his idea. Cogsworth obnoxiously denies it and states that he was the one who told Lumière. Looking at Cogsworth's dialogue at the end of the movie, it is understood that Lumière and Cogsworth had known each other for a long time, presumably longer than they have known the Prince. How they became friends is unknown.
Despite being at odds most of the time, Cogsworth saves Lumiere from Lefou when the castle is under attack. However, Cogsworth is much more afraid of the Prince then Lumière is, which causes him to appear uncaring, though when he's really afraid of the outcome. While still very afraid of his master, Lumière is more kind, caring, loyal, and hospitable than Cogsworth, as he offers Maurice a seat by the fire, and he tried his best to make Belle feel welcome and comfortable during, "Be Our Guest".
As Cogsworth proclaims several times throughout the film that he is in charge, and tries to act like he is, he is ultimately out witted by Lumière. Even though Cogsworth outranks Lumière by being the majordomo, and Lumière being the Butler, Lumière always finds a way to embarrass and out smart Cogsworth. Though being good, old friends, a friendly rivalry often sparks between them, and usually causes hilarious, ridiculous arguments. And twice during the film when they were still objects, Lumière had the upper hand against Cogsworth since he could burn his hands if he did something to annoy him especially when Cogsworth covers Lumière's mouth in order to keep him quiet.
[edit] Relationships
Throughout the time in the castle, or maybe even before, Lumière is romantically interested in one of the maids that serve the Prince, who is identified as Babette in the Broadway musical version of "Beauty and the Beast" (but is incorrectly referred to as "Fifi" in "Belle's Magical World). She was turned into a feather-duster by the magic spell, as well as all the other maids. Although it is clear that they are romantically interested, and often flirt throughout the movie, in the song "Human Again" in the special edition DVD, Lumière states that if he were human again, he would have a mademoiselle on each arm, and he would be courting again. Mrs. Potts commented that would start up the husbands alarm, it is clear that Lumière was and is a flirt, and may have become interested in several women before Babette. But due to the events in the movie, them teasingly flirting behind a curtain when Lumière was supposed to be on guard watching Belle, he saving her from one of Gaston's men when the castle was under siege, and to romantically catching her in his arms both exchanging loving looks. At the end, when everyone is human again, Babette teasingly and subjectively flirts and teases him with a feather-duster as she walks past him. He immediately runs after her with a lustful look and a big grin on his face.
Due to his appearance as a human, it probably wasn't very hard to attract women, and as stated in Human Again, he missed his good looks and charm. But he and Babette care for each other deeply, as they are seen holding hands at the end.
[edit] Other appearances
- Lumiere makes an appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series as a minor character. In the first game, Lumiere only appears in the game's prologue as a silhouette on the "Beauty and the Beast" podium. However, the real Lumiere appears in Kingdom Hearts II as a supporting character in Beast's Castle. Here, Lumiere and the other servants have been locked in the castle dungeon by the Beast, due to the influence of the villanous Xaldin of Organization XIII. However, he and the others are freed by Sora, Donald and Goofy, and Lumiere shows the three heroes a secret passageway into the West Hall through the castle's undercroft. Later on, after Xaldin has been defeated by Sora, Lumiere complements Belle's valiant actions (she elbowed Xaldin in the stomach and escaped his grasp with the rose), saying "She is rather unique, isn't she?". Owing to Jerry Orbach's passing, Lumiere was voiced by Jeff Bennett for Kingdom Hearts II.
- Lumiere also appears on the TV series House of Mouse as a regular guest at Mickey Mouse's night club.
