“The head of the castle kitchens transformed into a teapot, Mrs. Potts takes a motherly attitude towards Belle.”
―Diamond Edition Website
Mrs. Potts is a supporting character in Disney's 1991 animated feature film Beauty and the Beast. She is the castle's head housekeeper who was transformed into an enchanted teapot once the Enchantress placed her curse.
Mrs. Potts was the head housekeeper of a spoiled prince's castle, and the mother of several children, the most notable being Chip, who is found by her side at almost every instant. When the prince encounters and insults a powerful enchantress, Mrs. Potts is transformed into a sentient object, a teapot, along with the rest of her colleagues, while the Prince is transformed into a monstrous beast.
Personality
Intelligent, level-headed, and self-righteous, Mrs. Potts is perhaps the most reliant member of the Beast's staff. Being a mother, she can be very gentle and nurturing, while also being stern and no-nonsense. Unlike Cogsworth and Lumiere, Mrs. Potts lacks troublesome quirks and acts as the voice of reason amongst her colleagues. Though she fears his violent outbursts, Mrs. Potts' tough demeanor also has a strong effect on the Beast, who appears to respect his head housekeeper the most out of all his servants—he has even been shown to occasionally snap out of his violent tantrums when she confronts him on his behavior. Furthermore, Mrs. Potts apparently fears the Beast the least, as she won't hesitate to disobey one of his strict orders if it means caring for someone in need, such as Belle; another example of her nurturing nature and selflessness.
As mentioned above, Mrs. Potts is very gentle, and often times, soft-spoken. With great patience, she treats the notion of "falling in love" as an extremely delicate and sensitive matter, unlike Lumiere, who initially believed Belle and the Beast could fall in love and break the spell in a mere few hours. Though the wilting of the rose was dire and unabating, Mrs. Potts saw it crucial that the relationship between Belle and the Beast was given proper development, specifically in terms of getting the latter to obtain greater control of his temper by establishing himself as a gentleman, despite his monstrous appearance. She was also highly sympathetic towards Belle; while Cogsworth was initially peeved by her reluctance to join the Beast for dinner (despite his rather ill attempt to ask politely), Mrs. Potts openly turned her frustration towards the Beast's explosive temper, feeling it was unfair to expect Belle to cooperate when the Beast allows his aggression to control his actions, on top of the fact that she had lost her father and freedom merely moments prior.
Mrs. Potts first appears after the curse has been put upon her and the castle servants. She first appears on her tea wagon with Chip to serve tea to the sick and weak Maurice, who was stranded in the woods. While she and the other objects are comforting Maurice over Cogsworth's objections, the master of the castle, the Beast, viciously storms in and takes Maurice to the dungeon. She is the first of the objects to greet Belle after she makes her sacrifice. She comforts Belle and assures her everything will turn out fine. She is the first to be bold against the Beast and with Lumiere tries to help him look like a gentleman which proves to be difficult. Later, in the kitchen, she puts Chip to sleep in the cupboard, and laments that it's been a long night for her and the rest of the servants. Cogsworth quips that Belle was only being stubborn, as the Beast did say "please" (albeit insincerely, with Belle still grudging him for his earlier mistreatment of her and Maurice, thus she was not being entirely unreasonable). Mrs. Potts, however, points out that it will not help unless he learns to control his temper.
Eventually, Belle eases up to the Beast, and they grow a strong friendship, which leads to love, but is interrupted when Belle finds that her father is lost in the woods trying to return to the castle alone to rescue Belle. The Beast astonishes Belle by releasing her from their deal as she rushes to her father. Although Mrs. Potts realizes that the Beast has proven he has learned to love (thus fulfilling his part of the requirement needed to break the spell), she knows that his love alone was not enough and unless Belle could prove she loves him in return, the spell would remain. With Belle's sudden departure, all hope seemed lost.
When an angry mob invades the castle, she tries to alert the Beast, yet in his heartbreak, he resigns himself to their invasion despite her pleas for help. With their master in repose, Lumiere and Cogsworth led Mrs. Potts and the rest of the servants to step up and come to the defense of the castle, with Mrs. Potts and her children pouring hot tea on one of the villagers.
Soon after, she witnesses the Beast's death in Belle's arms, after he was fatally stabbed by Belle's arch enemy, Gaston. She sheds tears over her master's demise as well as the fact that the spell seems to now be permanent, as she, Cogsworth, and Lumiere witness the last rose petal fall, just Belle tearfully proclaims her love at the last second. That is when the Beast miraculously revives as a human and she regains her true form, along with the other servants. Afterward, as she and Chip watch Belle and the Prince dance, she assures her son that they will live happily ever after and laughs with Maurice when Chip asks if he still has to sleep in the cupboard. She is also seen in the ending stained glass window.
After the events of the film and the abolition of the curse, Belle and the prince holds a Christmas party at the castle, during which the prince's former disdain towards Christmas was mentioned, but the journey to his change of heart seemed to have been forgotten. This leads Mrs. Potts to narrate the story of the time when Belle finally broke the prince's hatred for Christmas.
During Belle's captivity in the castle, she spent the holiday season getting the Beast in a good mood. On one particular day, Mrs. Potts and the others gather to form another plan to strengthen the bond between Belle and the master, and during which she nearly mentions Christmas, only to have her mind distracted from the holiday by Mrs. Potts and others (as the holiday is the Beast's most hated day, as it marks the anniversary of the day the curse was put upon him and the castle inhabitants). Eventually, both Mrs. Potts and Lumiere decide to rebel against the Beast and celebrate Christmas anyway. With the support of the other servants of the household, the holiday is secretly put into effect. By the end of the film, after overcoming various trials and tribulations, most of which threaten the very relationship between Belle and the Beast, the latter becomes joyful with Christmas, and peace to the holiday is restored.
After the story, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and the other servants conclude that Belle was ultimately responsible for reinvigorating the spirit of Christmas within the castle.
In the short "The Perfect Word", Mrs. Potts was the first to know about Webster, Crane, and Le Plume's plan to write a fake apology letter to Belle. When Belle gets the letter, Mrs. Potts claims she doesn't know who the letter is from. After Belle and Beast make amends, Mrs. Potts is seen hearing the story Belle is reading to the Beast. When Cogsworth tells Beast about the apology letter Mrs. Potts sees Webster, Crane, and Le Plume flee and goes after them. When she finds them, she tells them that she knew of their plan from the start and suggests that they confess what they did to the Beast.
She is later seen with Belle looking for the three in the library, telling them that they know they are in the library. She's later seen in the kitchen feeling guilty about Webster, Crane, Le Plume's banishment from the castle, knowing they cannot survive in the woods. Mrs. Potts then tells Belle that she should apologize because she knew about the forgery, but she wanted Belle and Beast to forgive each other. Later after Belle brings in Webster, Crane, and Le Plume back into the castle after she found them outside the front castle door, Mrs. Potts helps Belle keep them warm by the fire. After the Beast comes into the room and apologizes to Belle and she, Webster, Crane, and Le Plume are happy that they forgave the Beast. Mrs. Potts then tells Lumiere that it is not too late to forgive Chandeleria. She then is seen telling Chandeleria that Webster, Crane, and Le Plume are going to tell them about their adventure in the forest. When she hears their story, she sneezes, unintentionally scaring Webster, Crane, and Le Plume.
Towards the end of the short, Mrs. Potts tells Belle and Beast for every problem, there's a solution, one that's often expressed in just a single word (forgiveness); she and the other servants then leave to give Belle and Beast privacy.
In the short "Mrs. Potts' Party", Mrs. Potts is feeling depressed, and Belle, who has come to look at her as a mother figure, decides to cheer her up by throwing a surprise party for her, all the while without waking the sleeping Beast (who spent the entire previous night fixing a leak in the roof).
However, the rivalry between Cogsworth and Lumiere gets in the way, in fields such as composing music, Mrs. Potts' favorite flowers (which they have to hide in the Beast's room every time she sees them), and the cake's flavors. Eventually, Lumiere and Cogsworth's attempts to sabotage one another's decisions comes to a point where the baking cake explodes and makes a complete mess in the kitchen. After being criticized by Belle, Cogsworth and Lumiere decide to put their rivalry behind them for good and work together to make a small surprise for Mrs. Potts. The plan goes well, and she is cured of her depression.
In "Thanks to Minnie", she witnessed Minnie run off in tears after feeling unappreciated.
In "The Three Caballeros", she and Chip were interviewed about the episode's titular characters.
In "Donald's Lamp Trade", Mrs. Potts appeared as an onstage musical guest at the club, but her performance was interrupted by Donald Duck flying from below the stage on Carpet.
In "Mickey & Minnie's Big Vacation", she sat with both Cogsworth and the Mad Hatter, where the steam coming out of her created the Pink Elephants from Dumbo.
In the Disney film Hocus Pocus, one of the kids who go trick-or-treating is dressed up as Mrs. Potts.
Mrs. Potts makes a small cameo as a lifeless teapot at Jane Porter's camp in Tarzan. Alongside her is a lifeless teacup resembling Chip.
In An Extremely Goofy Movie, when Goofy is making breakfast, a teapot resembling Mrs. Potts can be seen on the table.
A silhouette of Mrs. Potts was seen on top of the Beast's head during the finale of The Lion King 1½.
In Meet the Robinsons, a topiary resembling Mrs. Potts can be seen in the Robinsons' garden.
Originally, Mrs. Potts was to appear in the first installment of the now-discontinued Disney Princess Enchanted Tales franchise. In the chapter "Kingdom of Kindness", she was to sing a song with Belle called "You'll Never Lose This Love" to calm Chip after he broke some of the Beast's items.
Mrs. Potts also appears in the Beauty and the Beast entry of the As Told by Emoji short series.
A bootleg version of Mrs. Pott makes a cameo on a DVD cover cover "Beauty and the Cursed Dog Man" in Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers, her bootleg form resembles more to a tea jug than a teapot, her eyes are round-shaped with smaller pupils but no visible eyelashes, and only has two visible front teeth.
The novel As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale depicts an alternate chain of events from the moment that Belle makes contact with the rose. This includes the revelation that, when he was a child, the Beast's favorite servant was Alaric Potts—the stable master and Mrs. Potts' husband, who was old friends with Maurice and Frederic before Alaric was killed by Frederic when the former was discovered smuggling magic-users out of the kingdom in response to the current persecution by the Beast's parents. After Belle and the Beast discover Alaric's body in the stables, they bury him in the graveyard for royalty, with Mrs. Potts expressing gratitude for the knowledge of what happened to her husband while wondering what he would have become if he was alive when the curse was cast (Musing that he wouldn't have become a whip or riding-crop as he disliked hurting the horses, so speculating that he might have been a saddle or horseshoe). At the story's conclusion, the Beast sacrifices a chance to return to his human form so that his servants can be restored, Belle speculating that Lumière and Cogsworth could act as the 'official' rulers while the Beast is on his travels, with Mrs. Potts acting as the real power behind the throne.
Mrs. Potts is a minor character in the series, where most of her appearances take place in her homeworld, Beast's Castle. Before Kingdom Hearts, her world was destroyed, and so she can be seen on Belle's station during the Dive to the Heart asleep due to the world's destruction. In Tarzan's world, she makes a cameo appearance like in the original Tarzan film. She makes her first physical appearance in the Kingdom Hearts franchise in Kingdom Hearts II, usually serving as an informant and guide in the Beast's Castle.
She remains the most optimistic about the relationship between Belle and the Beast throughout the visits. Prior to Sora's arrival at the Beast's Castle, Beast was being taunted by Organization XIII member Xaldin and in his rage, the Beast locked up his servants (including Mrs. Potts) in the castle dungeon. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived at the Beast's Castle, they were sent to rescue the servants at Belle's request. After being rescued by the trio, Mrs. Potts and Chip, along with Cogsworth and Lumiere guided Sora, Donald, and Goofy through the dungeons.
At the end of the arc, Mrs. Potts watches Belle and the Beast make amends and made the observation that Belle was unique in that she's "always ready for a little adventure". In the credits for Kingdom Hearts II, it is shown that the Beast had been restored to his human form, implying that Mrs. Potts had also become human again.
Mrs. Potts again plays the same role as she did in the film, only here she is depicted as a woman turning into a teapot instead of being one that can walk and talk. It is left ambiguous in the original staging whether she pairs with Maurice or not as in the Disney on Ice version, as she comes in dancing with him at the beginning of the finale, but in the final tableaux, they are standing apart, with her posing with Chip.
Mrs. Potts also appears in Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage at Disney's Hollywood Studios, serving the same role as she did in the film. In Fantasmic!, a clip of Mrs. Potts briefly appears in Disney's Hollywood Studios' version of the show, during the bubble montage sequence. Also in the park, Mrs. Potts was referenced in a mocking manner by the villainous Oogie Boogie in the 2014 show Oogie Boogie's Freaky Funhouse.
During the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, she has her own topiary.
Mrs. Potts also serves as the narrator to the show Once Upon a Time in Tokyo Disneyland, telling Chip various bedtime stories that take the form of various Disney sequences.
In Shanghai, Mrs. Potts appears as part of Belle and Beast's display in Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, where she is seen sprouting water. She is also featured as part of Belle's wall carving display inside of Enchanted Storybook Castle.
In the Disney Dream cruise show Believe, she assists Lumiere in his job to help Dr. Greenway believe in dreams. She also appears as an animatronic in Disney Dreams – An Enchanted Classic.
Julie Andrews was considered for the voice of Mrs. Potts, but she declined as she did not want to be typecast.[citation needed]
According to Angela Lansbury, when she first saw the initial sketches for the character, she was instantly reminded of a type of "little cockney lady" that she had known while growing up in London and found Mrs. Potts' voice in those memories.[citation needed]
Mrs. Potts' husband has never been revealed in animated canon.
In the 2017 live-action adaptation, she has a husband Jean, who is a major character.
In the novel As Old as Time (A Twisted Tale), her husband is identified as Alaric Potts, the former stable-master and an old friend of Maurice. Alaric was killed by his anti-magic friend Frederique before the curse was cast, when Frederique learned that he had been smuggling suspected magic users out of the Kingdom.
A teapot resembling Mrs. Potts is seen in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time episode "Skin Deep". The episode itself also stars many characters from the film.
The only time her lid was removed intentionally was in The Enchanted Christmas.
Mrs. Potts appears too old to have children as young as Chip. However, traditionally, one member of the castle staff would look after the others' children, so it is likely that she adopted the children-turned-teapots.
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