There was an interview with Emma Watson (who played the Beauty in the live-action movie) in which she said:

“Aslan, in Narnia? I found the lion quite hot,” she said during an interview with Yahoo. “Is that wrong? Is that okay? Probably not…No… It’s not okay… It’s not okay… I’m getting shaking heads. It happens. Sometimes animals in films are hot. I don’t know what to say. That’s where we’re at.”

And re: the Beast specifically:

“There’s something a bit sad about when he transforms,” she said. “You’re like a bit…oh…okay you were quite nice before. He is hot. The Beast is hot.”