4. How did Chip, in Beauty and the Beast, get to be born?
In this story, once again, a member of the royal family pissed off a fairy — but at least this fairy was in disguise, so his attitude makes sense. Unlike the dummies inSleeping Beauty, he tries to make it up to her. Alas, he tries in vain. She curses him and his castle, gives him a magic rose, and tells him that if he hasn’t found love before the rose has completely withered, he will remain a beast forever. In comes the narration, saying, “As the years passed, he fell into despair and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a Beast?” I’m pretty sure a lot of people would be happy to love a beast with a giant magic castle who could eviscerate them if they didn’t love him enough. That’s not the question here. My question is — how many years pass, exactly? The Beast is clearly aging, so the rest of the castle was, too. The only child we see is Chip, the little tea cup son of Mrs Potts. He looks about … four? We see that the rest of the servants behave they would in their human forms. Lumiere, the horny candlestick, is always after Babette, the feather duster. (I don’t know why the Beast allows that. It’s a fire hazard.) Was Chip the son of an - I don’t even know what. Even if he wasn’t - what was he as a baby? A lump of clay? A doll cup? And, more sinisterly, how did he get that chip in his head? This whole question is very worrying.
