Beauty and the Beast (franchise) song "A Change in Me" was kept in the production after being written for Toni Braxton during her stint as Belle. The Beauty and the Beast universe encompasses two main locations: a French village and a castle, which are linked by woods. As the three spin-off films all take place within the time period of the original film, the plot of the "Beauty and the Beast" franchise is encompassed in the original 1991 film, which the other films serving to give added insight to certain parts of the story that were skimmed over (such as when Belle is living in
Beauty and the Beast (Disney song) "TV Guide" compared "Beauty and the Beast" to "Shall We Dance?" from the musical "The King and I". R.L. Shaffer of IGN identified "Beauty and the Beast" as a "tear-jerking poetic ballad." "Film Genre 2000: New Critical Essays" author Wheeler W. Dixon believes that the song's lyrics are about the couple's "implicit promise of regeneration through love." 29 lines in length, all of which are exactly five syllables, "Beauty and the Beast" is a love song about a couple's transformation from friends into "something more". The film's theme song, its lyrics "capture the essence of the film" by describing the