The flashback scene where the Prince is transformed into the Beast was the original idea for the prologue for Beauty and the Beast (1991), as suggested by late lyricist Howard Ashman.
The storybook that Belle gives to the Beast, as a present, was written in French.
When the Beast is getting ready for Belle to listen to her Christmas song, he licks his teeth in the mirror the same way Gaston did in Beauty and the Beast (1991) before he proposes to Belle.
The only two actors who did not reprise their roles from Beauty and the Beast (1991) were Hal Smith (Phillipe) and Bradley Pierce (Chip). Smith, who died in 1994, was replaced by Frank Welker, while Pierce's role was taken over by Haley Joel Osment because Pierce's voice had changed due to growing older.
One of the songs, "Stories", was heavily based on the motif in the third movement (Allegro molto) of Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 5 in E-flat.