MISC. MANGA, *Disney Mirrorverse: Belle

Disney's Mirrorverse game takes place in a shared multiverse where the majority of Disney franchises are connected similar to Kingdom Hearts but in an alternate "What If?" timeline. In the realities that these stories happen in there was a divergence the set the plot on a darker path from the original. In so far, the only manga-styled graphic novel connected to the game, this one-shot graphic novel shows a much grimmer adaptation of Beauty And The Beast. The Belle special acts as a retelling of the original story, as well as a prequel to the video game. This was an OEL manga, having never run in Japan prior to this publication.

Once upon a time, instead of the nosy Enchantress cursing the Prince and everyone in his castle, the spell spreads to the surrounding forest and village. The Enchantress realizes her lifeforce is slipping away as the spell is sucking her dry and a wandering girl from the village named Belle finds her just before she vanishes. Belle is given a magic rose from the Enchantress and becomes the official guardian of the woods. A year passes and most of the villagers have turned into plants, animals, or creatures, including D'Aurque who ran the asylum who is now a creeping abomination. One of the few villagers to remain unchained was Gaston who is now the official royal huntsman. Gaston continues to act all alpha male around Belle, but she manages to talk him into taking him to the castle where the Prince is still in power and in his human form along with the rest of his staff. Belle discovers another rose similar to hers along with the Prince's magic mirror and that they are tied to the Enchantress' still-active spell. What proceeds from here is a long drawn-out philosophical debate about who is really to blame for this whole mess, until the corrupted D'Aurque enters and reveals that Gaston was in league with him all along. Belle uses the power of the roses to reset the spell to its intended effect where the Prince is now a Beast with all the surviving castle staff changed into common living objects. Mickey Mouse then shows up and tries to have Belle and Beast join his Mirrorverse version of The Avengers which leads into plot of the video game.

The Belle manga isn't bad, but much of the charm of the original Beauty And The Beast movie is completely lost in this void of entropy. Writer Alex Singer is suited for constructing this alternate timeline even though she was obligated into steer the plot in this direction to help sell the game. The actual graphic novel was withheld from release for half of a year, so it missed the window for promoting the game which came out two years prior. There is a prose novel prequel that also covers Snow White's intro into the Mirrorverse that came out at the same time the Belle manga was supposed to, which is why there hasn't been any big pull by fans towards that game. Disney continuously creates video game platforms combining all their characters into single narrative, so any media spinoff to them that isn't from the heyday of Kingdom Hearts just isn't going to catch the same lightning in a bottle.