Beauty And The Beast: Plumette – 10 Interesting Facts About The Featherduster

Plumette was one of the few household objects in the original Beauty and the Beast Disney animated feature film to be voiced by an actress. Plumette, Mrs. Potts, and the wardrobe are really the main three and yet, Plumette and the wardrobe in particular had far less screen time than their male counterparts, Cogsworth, Chip, and Lumiere.

When asking less well-versed fans to name characters, Mrs. Potts is usually the only one to make the cut. Yet, Plumette has a long history of appearances, both on-screen as well as on stage. Here are a few fun tidbits to add to your trivia knowledge about the famous feather-duster.

10 Her Name Is Different In The Cartoon

Plumette is only the most recent name given to the feather-duster. In the original Disney animated film, released in 1991, the feather-duster was actually known and credited as Fifi.

Her name is never uttered in the entire film but, despite that small oversight, she had a name nonetheless. Her name would change as different interpretations of the character made their way out into the world, but originally she was and will forever have been credited as Fifi.

9 French Accent

From the opening song’s repetition of, “Bonjour,” to Lumiere’s statement, “After all miss, this is France,” in “Be Our Guest,” it’s clear to all that the story of Beauty and the Beast as Disney has portrayed it is set in France.

However, it is only Lumiere himself and Fifi, the feather-duster, who speak with French accents in the film. Every other character either has an American or British tilt to their voice. Strange but true in a tale set so specifically in a real and defined country. Perhaps that’s why Lumiere and the feather-duster are so drawn to one another, because they find something familiar in one another’s accents.

8 A Disney Veteran

In the original animated feature film, Fifi is given her voice and French accent by actress Kimmy Robertson. Fifi was not the only character that Robertson is remembered for voicing in Disney’s classic, and much adored, animated features.

Robertson also took on the role of one of King Triton’s other daughters (so one of the older siblings to the red-headed Ariel) in The Little Mermaid. To be more specific she voiced the dark-haired sister, Alana. She went on to voice other cartoon characters on television as well.

7 Plumette is One of Many

Plumette (or Fifi), unlike many of the characters around her, is hardly one of a kind. In Beauty and the Beast, all of the castle’s maids were transformed into feather-dusters when the castle was cursed.

While we only ever see one clock (Cogsworth) and one teapot (Mrs. Potts), but there are a group of feather-dusters in the montage dance sequence for “Be Our Guest”. Only Chip, and his cupboard full of other teacups, seems to have been transformed as a group rather than as an individual.

6 Is Very Dramatic

The feather-duster makes an appearance not only in the original Beauty and the Beast, but also in the film’s sequel, Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Magical World. She does quite a bit more damage in the sequel (which is really also a bit of a prequel, flashing back to Belle’s time at the castle while Beast and company are still under their enchantment).

In Belle’s Magical World, the feather-duster almost gets her paramour, Lumiere killed, due to her own jealousy. In the film, Plumette/Fifi is convinced that Lumiere is getting together with Belle behind her back.

5 Another Name

In the Disney stage musical of Beauty and the Beast, the feather-duster on Broadway is called Babette (rather than Plumette or Fifi). Her character is slightly different, as in the stage version, all the household staff are in the process of transforming into household objects and are not yet fully candlesticks, teacups, or feather-dusters.

On stage, this helps to explain why all the characters are the same size as Belle, rather than the size of the object they take on in the film version.

4 Plumette in 2017

In the 2017 live-action Disney film of Beauty and the Beast, Plumette is in fact called Plumette and is both voiced and acted by actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Mbatha-Raw once also played a character named “Belle” in the film Belle, a historical drama, released in 2013.

She starred in another Disney feature alongside Oprah Winfrey in 2018. She played Mrs. Murray in the sci-fi fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time, before being cast in the Apple TV+ program, The Morning Show, released this past year.

3 Another New Name

Just to keep track, the feather-duster in Beauty and the Beast was originally named Fifi in the animated feature film. She was later known as Babette in the Broadway stage adaption of the animated musical, and was finally dubbed Plumette in the most recent live-action Disney feature interpretation of the story.

However, the feather duster was also known by one other name. In the New Adventures of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast comic mini-series, she was called Marie.

2 Relationship With Lumiere

In the original Beauty and the Beast animated film, along with its sequel, Belle’s Magical World, and even the Broadway stage version of the show, the feather duster’s relationship with Lumiere is a bit combative and slightly on again off again throughout.

They are usually arguing at the very least, and Lumiere is a bit more of a womanizer. In the 2017 live-action Disney feature, Plumette and Lumiere (voiced and played by Ewan McGregor) are very devoted to one another. They don’t fight, but search for one another and get along very well.

1 A New Look

Unlike the traditional feather-duster look of the animated feature films and television programs, and even the outfit in the Broadway show, with dark feathers at the base of a wooden handle, Plumette in the 2017 live-action Disney movie gets a full makeover.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s character is designed to look like a stylized white peacock rather than a more traditional or user-friendly design. Her beauty from human to household object is much clearer to the audience from the very start.

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