Voiced by American actor and singer Richard White, Gaston is an arrogant and ruthless hunter whose unrequited feelings for the intellectual Belle drive him to murder his adversary, the Beast, once he realizes she cares for him instead.

Imagined by screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who based the character on the ex-boyfriends she dated in her past,[citation needed] Gaston was developed specifically for Disney's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast because the studio felt that the film could benefit from a strong villain, who is lacking in the original story.

[12] With its handsome villain and liberated heroine,[13] both of whom had been developed into fully realized, multi-dimensional characters,[14] finally established, Beauty and the Beast's storyline began to solidify.

[15] In addition to eliminating Belle's sisters, screenwriter and creator Linda Woolverton introduced Gaston as a "blockheaded suitor" for the heroine,[16] basing the character on boyfriends she had dated in the past.

[17] Several darker elements originally conceived for the film were ultimately written out of the final version, among them the idea of Gaston himself first visiting the insane asylum in which he plans on imprisoning Belle's father Maurice.

[22] Among the actors who auditioned for the role was Rupert Everett,[7] who Disney decided not to cast because the filmmakers felt that he did not sound arrogant enough to voice such a proud character;[23] Everett would ultimately go on to voice Prince Charming, a similar character who appears in the Shrek film series, using the critique of not sounding arrogant enough to play Gaston to secure the role, although Charming's motives and vindictive traits were more in resemblance to that of Jafar's (as he only wanted Princess Fiona for the throne and seized it in the same manner).

[13] Deja initially struggled with the idea of designing a "supremely handsome" villain, a specific instruction administered to him by Katzenberg, but he eventually grew to understand the concept upon studying the film's underlying themes of not judging a book by its cover and "deceptive appearances".

[13] Deja incorporated physical attributes of several of Disney's "classic" villains into Gaston's design, specifically the wide chest and square jawline of Captain Hook from Peter Pan (1953).

"[31] Deja recalled that he was constantly "walking a fine line by drawing and animating Gaston in subtle ways, yet he also had to be able to articulate emotions like arrogance, anger and evil.

[33] According to Den of Geek's Simon Brew, Gaston is "animated really carefully, as it would have been easy to slip, and allow us to see the less jovial, more sinister side of his character earlier.

[34] Colors were used to indicate characters' emotions and affiliations in the film; while Gaston is dressed in red to represent evil, Belle and the Beast wear blue to depict goodness.

[43] Simon Brew of Den of Geek attributes Gaston's increasing villainy to "his raging jealousy and insecurity" that ultimately "transforms him into the story's antagonist" after he finally succumbs to "circumstance[s] of his life.

[20] Further distinguishing Gaston from the villains in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Sleeping Beauty (1959), respectively, the character does not undergo a hideous physical transformation before he dies.

[1] Mania.com's Rob Vaux observed that Gaston is "small-minded" in comparison to other Disney villains because his ideas tend to resemble those of school bullies, particularly one whose ego has been inflated "by the people around him," as opposed to "grand schemes;"[32] the character has no known desire to conquer the world, lacking ambitions beyond simply marrying the woman he is attracted to.

"[32] A visual reference to the Beast's "half-man, half-animal" appearance, Gaston's body is temporarily attached to a pig's head when he falls into a large mud puddle upon having his marriage proposal rejected by Belle.

[20] Frus elaborated, "few viewers predict that" Gaston "will finish the film snarling like an animal ... before falling to his death", concluding that the character "does not need to magically turn into a beast at the end because, as a male, he is already 'beastly'.

[32] Representing "everything that can go wrong in the heterosexual male" according to The Meanings of "Beauty and the Beast": A Handbook author Jerry Griswold,[49] Gaston is essentially a caricature of hypermasculinity; he proudly hunts, drinks, fights, spits, bullies and lies in addition to being shallow and ignorant, exuding what are considered to be some of the worst masculine traits.

[63] Opposed to the idea of women reading, Gaston believes that he'll be able to "cure" Belle of her thirst for intellect after marrying her,[64] although at the same time these same passions appear to heighten his interest in her.

[69] The Beast gifting Belle a library further emphasizes the differences between the two male characters because Gaston frowns upon reading, accusing the activity of giving women ideas and allowing them to think for themselves as opposed to solely bearing children.

When the headmaster and Clothilde catch Belle teaching a girl how to read, they rouse some of the villagers into destroying the laundry invention she made which LeFou informs Gaston about.

[80] Notable actors who have played the role on the West End and the UK tour include Burke Moses, Stephen Matthews, Tom Senior, and Earl Carpenter.

[citation needed] He also appears in an expanded role in Serena Valentino's 2014 book The Beast Within: A Tale Of Beauty's Prince, which takes place prior to the start of the original film.

This time, however, he simply tries to convince the villagers the castle was evil and of dark magic, and thus needed to be destroyed, and to that end tried to abduct Mrs. Potts, Chip, Cogsworth, and Lumiere to act as proof.

"[88] Writing for IndieWire, Drew Taylor felt the fact that Gaston is "a strapping cad" as opposed to a witch or hideous creature contributes to making the film "a wholly unique experience".

[89] Reviewing the film 25 years after its original theatrical release, Creative Loafing's Matt Brunson admitted that he "never grow[s] tired of watching the boorish Gaston".

[66] While dubbing Gaston's characterization "one of the movie's cleverest touches", at the same time Stephen Hunter of The Baltimore Sun felt that the character lacks the charisma of some of Disney's earlier female villains, namely the Evil Queen and Cruella de Vil from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1964), respectively.

"[67] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post felt that Gaston was "overbearing" because "everything about him is comically exaggerated and satirized to the point that you feel as if the cleft in his chin might swallow you whole.

"[92][93] In her book From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture, author Elizabeth Bell reviewed Gaston as a "Chauvinist Pig, the kind that would turn the women of any primetime talkshow audience into beasts themselves.

'," with Gaston being easier to relate to than other Disney villains due to him lacking "magic power or political influence" and being "just your everyday alpha-male trying to mansplain to you when you're just trying to live your life".

Movies included Gaston at number 11 on their ranking of "the 12 most famous Disney villains from worst to best", awarding him "points for not only being a huge jerk, but for also trying to blackmail Belle into marrying him ... and for leading a mob to kill Beast.