Gaston (song) facts for kids

"Gaston" is a song from the 1991 Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast. A short reprise is performed later in the musical.

It is sung by Jesse Corti and Richard White in their voice roles of Le Fou and Gaston, respectively.

The song also appears in the 2017 live-action remake, where it is again performed by the characters of LeFou and Gaston, played by Josh Gad and Luke Evans, respectively.

Synopsis

"Gaston" sees Gaston and the village people singing about how great he is, in an effort to cheer him up after Belle's rejection. Gaston's talent ranges from fighting, to spitting, to eating excessive quantities of eggs with no apparent negative health impacts, to interior decoration. Gaston, however, is portrayed as somewhat unintelligent, or at least as a relatively poor chess player. "Gaston (Reprise)"' sees Gaston hatch a plan with the help of Le Fou to send Maurice to an insane asylum in order to force Belle to marry him in order to stop him.

Composition

The Globe and Mail described the song as a "Lerner and Loewe-flavoured drinking song".

Versions

In the theatrical version, the section where Le Fou forgets how to spell Gaston's name was cut, but was retained in the soundtrack. It was reinstated in the 2017 live-action version, with Le Fou explaining that he is illiterate.

The 2017 film includes lyric changes which Menken described as part of the original lyrics by Ashman that were cut from the animated film.