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The King is a posthumous antagonist of the 2017 Disney live-action film Beauty and the Beast based on the acclaimed 1991 animated classic with the same name. He is the late father of the Prince (who was transformed into the Beast) who used to rule an unnamed French kingdom alongside his kind-hearted wife, the Queen.
Role in the film
According to Mrs. Potts (the head of the castle's kitchen), the King was known to rule his kingdom through an iron fist with his dear wife (the Queen) and young son (the Prince) by his side. Unlike the Queen (who is kind-hearted and caring to her son), the King is very arrogant and cruel in nature. The King only appeared briefly when the young Prince stood by singing at the Queen's deathbed as she died from unknown causes, right before he leads his son away from the scene. The King then took the opportunity to harden his son's heart through abuse to make him a vain and selfish ruler like himself. Of course, the castle servants secretly disapprove of the King's treatment towards the Prince, but they were too scared to do anything about it as they feared of any retaliation that the King would inflict on them.
The King's horrible treatment is what caused the Prince to develop an arrogant personality towards his own subjects during his young adult years. Eventually, the King suffered the Queen's fate as he died from unknown causes, passing on his power to the Prince to carry on his legacy. It wasn't until one winter night during a debutante ball, a visiting Enchantress places a spell on the Prince as punishment for denying her any shelter, transforming him into the Beast and the castle servants into household objects. After erasing the memory of the castle from the townsfolk, the Enchantress tells the Beast that he can break the spell by learning to love another and earn her love in return before the enchanted rose's last petal falls, otherwise his monstrous form will remain and that the servants will become permanent antiques, much to their distraught.
Because of this event, the Beast felt extremely ashamed of his actions and despised his deceased father for causing his pain; even tearing up a family portrait of himself and his father in revenge (though the portrait of his mother remains intact as the Beast couldn't bear himself to ruin it due to his genuine love for her). Even the servants felt depressed over their role in the event, as they are full of regret of letting the Beast becoming so arrogant due to the King's treatment. Eventually, a young village bookworm named Belle reached out to the Beast's heart after he saved her from a wolf pack. To that end, Belle negates the King's treatment by helping the Beast unleash his inner humanity before giving out her love for him. This effectively breaks the spell and turns the Beast and his servants back to normal, much to their delight.
Trivia
- In the West Wing, there is a portrait of the royal family: in it, the king is standing to the left of his son and wife.
- In real life, the Disney crew combined 2 real-life portraits, and made a third one in the similar style of another existing portraits.
- Prince Adam's posture is modelled off of Portrait of Louis XV as a Child by Hyacinthe Rigauld.
- The King is actually Portrait of Louis XIV in Coronation Robes by Hyacinthe Rigauld.
- and the Queen is actually Portrait of Marie Leszczyńska, Queen of France by Charles-André van Loo.