Ornament Review: Disney's Beauty and the Beast Storybook Ornament Set

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Good sculpts look like the movie characters

Cons: Scale makes some too small, Beast and Maurice very heavy

The Bottom Line:

Characters look great

But some are really too small

Some are too heavy

Seven Ornaments of Your Favorite Beauty and the Beast Characters

Several years ago, Disney released some storybook ornament sets at their theme parks.  Being a Disney and a Christmas freak, I drooled over them, but didn't actually buy any.  This year, I changed my mind and bought several off of eBay.  One of the first I got was the Beauty and the Beast set.  As much as I love the movie, these ornaments left a little to be desired.

There are seven ornaments here, each of a different character.  Not surprising, you get Belle in her village blue dress holding a basket and a book.  Beast is decked out in a purple cape.  Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and Cogsworth are also present and accounted for.  The last two ornaments in the set are a bit of a surprise to me.  We've got Gaston, who I kind of expected, and Maurice, Belle's father.  Gaston is flexing his muscles while Maurice has a puzzled look on his face as he scratches his head.

And that's the first strike against the set.  No Chip?  I love that little cup.  Not to have him included here is a surprise to me since I thought he was pretty popular.

The sculpts of the ornaments are pretty good.  They look just like the characters from the Disney movie.  There are bits and pieces of paint that aren't in the right spot, but for the most part, these ornaments are pretty good looking.

They also tried somewhat to make the characters to scale.  Beast is the biggest ornament, but I think he's a little too big, especially next to Belle, so seems a bit small, even compared to Gaston and Maurice.  It's the enchanted objects where this really becomes a problem.  Lumiere and Cogsworth are very small.  They're about the right size to be in scale to the humans, but that makes them almost too small.  Then there's Mrs. Potts.  For some reason, she's bigger than the other two.  Actually, she isn't any taller, but she is much bigger around, so she appears to be significantly bigger looking and throws the entire scale out of proportion.

All the ornaments are fairly solid, but 5 of them are light weight.  Maurice is surprisingly heavy, but he's nothing compared to Beast.  You will need to put him on a low, strong branch because he will weigh down any branch he is put on by quite a bit.

All of the ornaments feature a gold string coming out of the hook intended to hang the ornament from.  The all hang straight, although the cord does seem to be turned easily, so you'll have to keep playing with the ornaments until you can finally get them facing out.

This is a hard set to make a recommendation on.  I really wish it included Chip.  And Lumiere and Cogsworth are so small, it is easy to lose them in the tree.  Then there's Beast that is just so heavy.  My best recommendation is get this Beauty and the Beast set if you really want Maurice and Gaston, but find other ways to get the rest of the characters.