Beauty and the Beast's enchanted forest features 20,000 icicles

OHMYGOSSIP — ‘Beauty and the Beast’s enchanted forests featured a staggering 20,000 icicles.
Filmmakers have shared the secrets of making the live action Disney tale on a spectacular set built on the backlot at Shepperton Studios, located on the outskirts of London, revealing certain backdrops took months to complete.
In an official guide to the film, handed to cinemagoers on the opening weekend, details of the enchanted 18th Century setting – built on a total of 27 large-scale practical sets – were revealed, including a spectacular challenge to make a spine-chilling enchanted forest.
According to the guide: “The enchanted forest took 15 weeks to complete, includes real trees, hedges, a frozen lake, a set of 29-foot high ice gates and approximately 20,000 icicles.”
The forest is a key part of the film as it adds the fear factor when both Belle (Emma Watson) and also her father make their way from the village to the spooky castle and it’s spine chilling detailing gives the added scare factor to scenes featuring the sharp teeth-baring wolves.
A team of more than 1,000 members worked “around-the-clock” to build and decorate all the mammoth sets, providing an incredible amount of hand-detailed artistry.
And the thousands of books featured in the library at the Beast’s castle, were not regular propers as they were “created especially for the production”.
The live-action movie starts in the fictional town of Villeneuve, which is home to Belle and her father.
The town, measuring 28,787 square feet, was named after the author of the original ‘Beauty and the Beast’ story, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and it includes Belle’s cottage, a school house, a dress shop, a village tavern, a church and the village square.
For the film’s epic opening number, ‘Belle’, which takes place in Villeneuve, more than 150 extras, hundreds of animals, 28 wagons and countless props and set decorations were used, each with an incredible amount of detail.
And replicating the magic of the village wasn’t the only challenge, the floor of the Beast’s castle had to be made from 12,000 square feet of faux marble.
The guide added: “And featured ten glass chandeliers – each measuring 14 ft x 7 ft – which are based on actual chandeliers from Versailles which were then frosted, covered in fabric and candlelit.”

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