COGSWORTH

When working on the character of Cogsworth, Will Finn faced a design issue. Although he had no problems with the face or feet, the actual body was very complicated to draw at first (from what I hear, this lasted about six months). Eventually he managed to find the solution - making the body a box shape with glass. From then onwards, his personality was established.

Here are three scenes with animation by Tony Bancroft that have been confirmed by both himself, and Will Finn.


After Maurice enters the castle, the household objects give him some much needed hospitality, much to Cogsworth’s chargin. But then, the Beast storms into the room to seek out the old man. Cogsworth immediately blames Lumiere for the whole situation, setting up their humourous rivalry: “Master, I’d like to take this moment to say . . . I was against this from the start! It was all his fault, I tried to stop him. Would they listen to me? No, no, no!”


During the “Be Our Guest” song, Lumiere attempts  to perform with Cogsworth, but the little clock pulls away. This culminates with him shooting through the air and landing in some jello. The food substance causes his head to look much larger than normal in a goofy but believable way.


When Gaston and the townsfolk storm the castle to kill the Beast, the household objects all fight back. At one point, LeFou has Lumiere cornered with intent to melt him with fire. Suddenly Cogsworth appears out of nowhere, brandishing scissors and pistol, and wearing a large Napoleon hat. This is a scene that defies our expectations of his character, and was in fact suggested so by Will Finn, who goes with the logic that it’s just a cartoon and crazy stuff can happen.

I hope you enjoyed these scenes and learning about an assistant’s contributions. For the next post, we’ll be looking at another Finn/Bancroft character with even more zaniness ....