Continuity mistake: During the film's introduction, as the camera pans away from the castle during the storm, there is a crack of thunder and a lightning flash. As the lightning strikes you can see a black branch growing on the side of the castle/cliff disappears after the flash of lighting. The animators forgot to draw it, so it just vanishes. (00:02:25)
Continuity mistake: Outside Belle's house there is a wishing well situated on the grass directly in front of the window and cellar doors, plainly seen in the initial shot of Belle leaving her home to go to town. However in the scene where Chip gets Maurices woodcutter going, as it hurtles towards the cellar doors in a wideshot, the wishing well has vanished!! (00:02:45 - 01:11:55)
Other mistake: There are two gears on the top of Belle's roof, but both of them are spinning counter-clockwise. (00:02:45)
Continuity mistake: When Belle is taking her book back in a basket at the start of the film, its colour changes from red to blue, back to red, then purple in the book shop owner's hand, then finally red on the shelf. (00:03:00)
Continuity mistake: When Belle talks to the baker during the 'Provincial Life' song, the book in her hand flips between shots - watch the spine of the book - it swaps sides. (00:03:45)
Continuity mistake: When Belle climbs the ladder in the bookshop, at the top of the ladder there is a very large space with no rung in it. Seconds later, when Belle slides the ladder across, a rung has appeared in the space. (00:04:25)
Continuity mistake: When Belle jumps off the horse-drawn carriage and goes into the bookshop, the bookshop window consists of four glass panels alligned in vertical columns. However when Belle leaves the bookshop, the window has suddenly changed to consisting of three glass panels alligned in vertical columns. (00:04:25)
Continuity mistake: When Belle enters the bookshop, she pushes the lower part of the door open. When she leaves it is closed and she opens it again. (00:04:25)
Continuity mistake: During 'Belle', we see Belle sit beside the fountain in an overhead shot, and there is a woman washing a white sheet in the water, with nothing beside her. Then it cuts to a closer view of Belle and you can now see a blue basket of white sheets on the floor beside the washing woman. (00:05:00)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the Provincial Life song, Gaston is singing from among the crowd and he doesn't have his gun. He climbs up the side of the building without his gun, but when he pops out of the window onto the roof he has his gun. When he pops in front of Belle on the street, the gun is gone again. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: As Belle is walking through the bustling market whilst reading her book, and Gaston is following her, and we hear the lines "Good Day" "Bonjour" "You call this bacon" "What lovely grapes", Belle has no basket hanging from either arm, clearly visible in a behind shot of her walking. It then returns in the beautiful closeup, when the camera pans around with her and she sings, with outstreched arms, "There must be more than this provincial life." (00:07:30)
Continuity mistake: When Gaston tries to walk between the crowd, check the way the characters have been animated: they step forward and then backwards over and over again, as if it were a loop or a bug in a videogame. (00:07:31)
Continuity mistake: After Lefou is soaked he disappears in the very wide angle of Gaston walking behind Belle. (00:07:33)
Continuity mistake: When Gaston jumps from the rooftop in front of Belle and says "Hello Belle", he has four arrows in his quiver. However in all the previous and following shots, he only ever has three. (00:07:35)
Continuity mistake: When Gaston says he'll make Belle his wife a woman with a grey colored hair suddenly appears out of nowhere in the close-up. (00:07:58)
Continuity mistake: When Belle finally walks home, the road is in the shadows. In the white angle the street is bright and sunny. (00:08:05)
Continuity mistake: When Gaston stops Belle on her way home, the three blonde girls magically appear in the middle of the village sighing of love, then they disappear but reappear a shot later next to the last house in the village. (00:08:40)
Continuity mistake: When Maurice gets his woodcutter working in the cellar, the axe starts cutting a log which is in a wooden bench, which sits in front of the woodcutter. However when Belle entered the cellar earlier, through the clouds of dust, the area in front of the woodcutter was empty. (00:08:45 - 00:10:05)
Continuity mistake: When Maurices invention explodes, Belle runs to the house and into the cellar. As she enters, you can see the area in front and around the stove/fireplace is empty. However after talking for a while, Belle says "...oh Papa, he's not for me" and sits down on a wooden stool which has suddenly appeared in front of the stove/fireplace. (00:08:45 - 00:09:45)
Continuity mistake: When Belle's father is in the woods being attacked by bats, when he runs toward screen the bats suddenly disappear. (00:11:40)
Answer: The Rose started wilting at The Beast's 21st birthday and could have presumably started wilting years before the first time we saw a petal fall off. Given the fact that Lumiere stated that they were living with the curse for 10 years, prince Adam could be 23-24 years old at the time of the original movie,13-14 at the time of the curse, and the Rose could have been wilting for two to three years. This is my best guess given the approximate age of Prince Adam in the ripped up portrait before he was the Beast.