#twstrsaheadcanons

It looks like an attempt at a draped overskirt by someone who doesn't quite get how draped overskirts historically worked?

(Late 1860s gown. Sold by Augusta Auctions. The drapey bit is all one piece, and as you say, it connects in the back. They could be entirely separate garments or sewn to the underskirt waistband.)

(Mantua, late 17th century. Met Museum collection. A slightly closer look to what you've shown, but it still connects and drapes in "tails" at the back. Not certain what the actual construction of this might have been, to be honest.)

I'm sure the dress with fully separated hip-caps like that exists out there somewhere, because there are no absolutes in history. but I've never seen one, and draped overskirts are the closest thing I can think of to that style. Of course, both dresses are pure fantasy- the look of that Cinderella movie is maaaaaybe 1950s-does-1867 if it's anything, based on the images of Cinderella as a child and the ball gowns she and her stepsisters wear? But none of it is actually historical, so I'm absolutely not holding it to any Accuracy StandardTM.

oh that IS strange!

I don't believe so. Mostly because he died before it was written.

Beauty and the Beast isn't a folktale per se- it started as a novella published in 1740 (by one Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villenueve). Because it's so old and the original has been mostly forgotten in favor of Disney's adaptation or picture-book versions, most people think of it as a traditional fairy story like the ones Perrault or the Grimms compiled.

Not sure I have much of an opinion on it to be honest.

It was a funny enough gag in Tik-Tok of Oz. In The Lost Princess of Oz where Toto had dialogue it irritated me because I felt it was out of character, but that went away quickly.