Mrs. Potts: The Villain Behind the Voice
I know, friend. My overanalyzation borders on an unhealthy obsession with the amount of time I spend dissecting things in Disney movies. We have previously discussed how perception can have everything to do with how characters get incorrectly labeled. And while it is a travesty to incorrectly slap a villain label onto someone undeserving of the slander, it is even more terrifying to let someone fly under the radar, like the devious Mrs. Potts.
These are the things that keep me up at night. It is basically like A Beautiful Mind, except without any of the redeeming and world changing theories that came before the crazy set in. But when sharing my feelings about Mrs. Potts with a select few, a light in the dark emerged. My mental stability was rescued when my completely not made up friend Adrienne saw what I saw as well and developed the Fatal Attraction theory in addition.
To me, they all seem real though.
You couldn’t keep it hidden forever, Mrs. Potts.
The Crossroads Demon
We are first introduced to Mrs. Potts when Maurice stumbles in after losing his way in the woods. Cogsworth was hesitant to cater to this new stranger, but Lumiere was more than happy to settle him into the castle. Mrs. Potts ignores Cogsworth’s concerns as well and takes her place with the rest of the greeting party that had assembled. She even poured him a spot of tea into her son Chip, which once and for all proves that family assisted body shots can be portrayed tastefully.
You’re welcome for the visual, Britain.
Mrs. Potts immediately exemplifies herself to be the embodiment of sincere kindness with her focus on compassion and family, so that by the time Belle enters the story we have no reason not to buy into her having Belle’s best interest in mind. Mrs. Potts is the first one that goes to visit Belle when she is down about her entrapment. Belle is told that the Beast is not all that bad and that she might even warm up to him.
Upon further examination, this sounds like the advice of someone who has been a captive before. She arrives promptly into Belle’s room once Belle sacrificed herself for her father and plants the seed with, “Cheer up, child. It’ll turn out all right in the end. You’ll see.” Mrs. Potts seems to have quite a bit of experience in convincing someone that their abusive captor is not all that bad. It makes one wonder where she got her firsthand knowledge and how exactly Chip got his nickname.
Probably just walked into a door.
When delving deeper than any sane person should into the details, it becomes abundantly clear that Mr. Potts is no longer in the picture. A physically scarred kid and a wife that consistently justifies inexcusable actions? There is no doubt that if Mr. Potts is anywhere still in the castle, that he is the abusive decanter that has finally been hidden in a cupboard to liberate the rest of the Potts family.
Mrs. Potts escapes her torture, but gets caught in a spell that turns her into china because yet another dickish man in her life has let her down. She knows that to become human once more she must break the spell and lure some girl into the snare that is the Beast. Mrs. Potts knows full well what it means to live the life of a battered wife, but if she has learned anything from it, it was to look out for herself first. It is in this moment that she decided to sell her soul.
And whatever of Chip’s that isn’t nailed down.
To get her life back, Mrs. Potts sacrifices Belle. Mrs. Potts convinces Belle that the Beast is different than his first impression gave off. Then she scurries off to spend the rest of her time shaping up the Beast in order to complete her manipulative plan. Knowing full well what a life of indentured servitude to a dick husband would mean to Belle, Mrs. Potts sees everything through to fruition so that she and Chip can be whole again. In regaining her humanity, she forfeits the last shred of it she had left.
Yeah. Philosophical as shit.
Which leads to…
Fatal Attraction
Dear, sweet, innocent Mrs. Potts is the epitome of wholesomeness and a caring motherly figure to look up to, who holds the mansion together as housekeeper. But once the darkness overcame the mansion and turned all servants and staff into household objects, little did everyone know that darkness also overcame the inherent evil lurking in one of mansion’s most trusted employees.
As we all know, Mrs. Potts took on the matronly teapot figure in the story. Teapot. Starts with T, ends with T, and is full of T. What’s T stand for? Why, terror of course! If you look closely, Mrs. Potts is actually the Talia al Ghul of the Beauty & the Beast world. Ever wonder where Mr. Potts was? Ever wonder why Chip was always her focus, when there were quite a number of brother and sister teacups he had to climb into the cupboard with at bedtime? Also, how/why did she have all those young teacup children at her age?
You saucy minx, you.
There must be something there you didn’t see before. Until now. Little did we know, there was a Mr. Potts. Locked up in the depths of the cupboard we’d find a bruised, beaten Mr. Potts. Not even the other servants realize he’s back there as he’s carefully covered by a tea cozy. Only being used for Mrs. Potts dastardly child-bearing purposes, he never had a chance.
If you remember during the dinner show when Mrs. Potts exclaims “For Heaven sakes, is that a spot?!” Where did that “spot” come from? Why, Mr. Potts of course. That Mr. Potts still has a fighting edge to him, he still has his handy strainer within that catches all those “loose bits” that Mrs. Potts seems to be missing. Now we know what she really means when she asks, “one lump or two, dear?”
The fun usually kicks in at two.
And it’s too bad for him, because Mr. Potts won’t make it through to the night when the curse is broken. We all know that. Did any of you see him at the end of the movie? Of course not. Mrs. Potts had her eyes set on Maurice with the adorable human Chip in arms.
Try and find a wedding ring. I dare you.
And why Chip? Out of all of those other teacups in the cupboard, why was Chip the favorite? Being the runt of the tea set family; he was obviously the doe-eyed, vulnerable one that could melt any heart in his ceramic path. Absolutely ideal for Mrs. Potts’ devious schemes, he was the perfect accessory. Think about it, how did Chip get into Belle’s bag when she went to go save her father? Why, it was Mrs. Potts of course! Stick her angelic child in with the magic mirror and you’ve got the perfect accomplice to hash out your plan for war. That plan brought Gaston right to the Beast and we all know that what ensued was battle and death.
Hopefully you’ve come to realize that Mrs. Potts is the Alexander Marcus of Beauty & the Beast, the Admiral of Teafleet. And where would she get such a fleet? By popping out all those teacup children of course! This is why Mr. Potts is trapped like R. Kelly in an unsuspecting woman’s closet. It’s starting to come full circle for you now isn’t it? No? Fine.
Let’s try just a touch more batshittery.
Where do you think Mrs. Potts developed such a dishonorable interior? Why, the library of course! Even Belle admitted she’s never seen so many books in all her life. Mrs. Potts picked up the worst of the worst in what should have been considered the restricted section of the library. And because learning up on decades of wicked ways and refining such a mentality takes time, it’s no wonder she’s at such a mature age by the time she’s started her task force. Obviously, it’s never too late. At least, that’s what OurTime.com tells us.
Tale as old as time? Nope. In Mrs. Potts china painted eyes, it’s a tale as told on OurTime.com.
There truly is something there that wasn’t there before, after all.
We are onto you, Potts.
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Adrienne Lopez can be found besting a shotski in my About Me section, as well as doing her patented happy Asian claps at http://readmealittle.wordpress.com/
Musings of the Certifiable 