Tale as Old as Time…
The much anticipated new, live-action Beauty and The Beast finally premiered tonight. As always, Disney delivered an excellent show. They kept the heart of the original movie, while adding in a few twists to keep the audience guessing all while keeping the magic alive. There were a few unresolved questions the original Beauty and The Beast that this new version sought to answer, as well as incorporate more modern social views. Overall, the movie retained the beauty of the classic fairytale as they breathed new life into the story.
Warning there are small plot leaks in this article — nothing that hasn’t been reported in recent news articles — however, there is no information that gives away the movie (which I highly recommend).
One of the biggest problems the original movie created was the confusing timeline between the prince’s curse and when the spell was broken. Fortunately, the new movie clears the confusion by creating a vaguer spell that does not restrict the timeline of the enchantment. Another complication the classic caused was the unanswered question of what happened to Belle’s mother or if she ever had one. The new version answers this by having Belle question her father, as well as reveal the cause of her mother’s death in the movie. These simple questions created by the older version were elegantly weaved into the new movie without distracting from the main storyline.
The new movie also tried to address more current social ideas such as empowering women/women’s rights and gay rights. Emma Watson, the actress who plays Belle, wanted to enhance Belle’s character to make her more of a role model for girls. She did this by altering Belle’s wardrobe some — she refused to wear a corset under the infamous yellow dress, the everyday outfits Belle wore are less “frilly” — and Watson gives Belle a more independent mindset. When news of this broke, some critics were skeptical of the changes going too far from the storyline, but I assure you this is not the case. The changes were very subtle and did not interfere with the main story at all. In fact, I would argue that these alterations added to the movie, breathing a breath of fresh air into the plot.
Disney is striving to be more proactive in certain social issues and the character LeFou has raised a lot of controversy with the release of the new movie because he is Disney’s “first openly gay character.” Many critics are unhappy with this decision as it seems unnecessary in the story, and some places are refusing to show the movie. Being somewhat of a skeptic myself when I first heard of the news because I was unsure of how it would fit with the plot, I’m pleased to say there is nothing to argue about. For the critics who feared it would interfere with the plot too much, or those who are worried about the actual gay part, this too is also a very subtle part in the movie. In fact, without their being large press releases about this decision, LeFou’s updated character traits would be hard to distinguish. The change simply adds humor to the movie, while retaining the magic of the main love story.
This tale as old as time, is true as it can be to the original film. The beauty, the magic, the love is all retained and simply received a makeover. The animators did an excellent job of bringing the castle to life (literally), the actors and actresses portrayed the classic characters to life, and the director expertly wove new twists into the old story to captivate audiences. I highly recommend that everyone sees this movie and experiences the magic of this fairytale.
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