Today I must turn in my nerd hat and rip up my nerd card, because I have failed not just my own people, but myself. Despite an entire lifetime of being a Disney dork and a Potterhead, I somehow missed the blatant Harry Potter reference in the Beauty and the Beast clip of the opening song that was released a few days ago. My shame is eternal. Not even Fawkes' tears or glass-encased shrubbery can bring me back from this.
So if you missed the reference too, just know that you're not alone — and thankfully, people on Twitter are doing the good work and making sure everyone is aware. See, the 57 second clip that Disney released was at first making headlines because of all the imagery that harked back to the animated original, sending people into a screenshot comparison frenzy — but in that madness a lot of people glossed over a new line added at the 26 second mark that most definitely is a call back to one of your fave characters in the OG Potter crew. Here's the clip below — see if you can catch the line on your second (or, you know, thousandth) view.
In the scene, Belle stops to talk to Monsieur Jean and asks, "Have you lost something?"
To which Monsieur Jean replies: "I'm afraid I have; the problem is, I can't remember what!"
I SEE YOU, DISNEY. I SEE YOU.
Because as any Potter fan will recall, that just happens to be, word-for-word, the same iconic line that Neville Longbottom delivers in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after he tries to decipher why the Remembrall his Gran just sent him is changing colors.
And yes, it took us way too long to collectively realize as a fandom that it was, in fact, Neville's robes that he'd forgotten — but at least we were able to spot the Harry Potter Easter egg in the Beauty and the Beast clip a lot faster than that. With age comes wisdom, I guess (or at least a whole lot more dorkery).
Perhaps Monsieur Jean forgot his coat as well? Or maybe his appreciation for Shakespeare, because he called the two lovers in fair Verona "boring" (how very dare he). I'm sure it will be revealed in the rest of the song in some comic way, but for now I'm just going with the head canon that Monsieur Jean is actually an ancestor to the Longbottom clan, and everyone's just going to have to deal with it.
Seeing as this is the second time Emma Watson has played an iconic, beloved, and strong-willed bookworm, this is surely far from the first Harry Potter comparison fans will make. I'm sure we can all Expecto Patronum a ton more. (I'm not sorry and I never will be, don't @ me.)
