Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is one of the greatest films of all time, but it severely distorts the fairy tale on which it is based. The film Beauty and the Beast has perverted the original story’s folk wisdom and its connection to reality. When I first went to see Beauty and the Beast, it was with the original folk tale in mind. The musically stunning opening number featured a young woman singing that she wanted so much more than “this provincial life” and I knew what was coming next . . . or thought I did.
The ancient Beauty and the Beast is the story of a family with several daughters. One daughter is humble and knows her place, but the other daughters are vain and desire more than they have. When their father loses his wealth, the wicked daughters are unhappy, but the godly daughter is content. The father regains his riches and the bad sisters demand costly gifts while the pious younger daughter demands nothing but a single red rose. In the end, the patience and humility of the justly named Belle, whose form matches her soul, are rewarded. Beauty’s Christian, sacrificial, love transforms even a Beast and she is revealed as fit to rule.
In the Disney film this message is turned on its head. The common folk are crude in the style of their animation and in their characters. Small town, provincial values and folk wisdom, are shown ridiculous and stifling. Belle is rewarded for being discontent with her lot and recognizing her own superiority. In the end, the only people she loves, her father and the Beast, are aided because she loves them and she is a superior creature. The townspeople are annihilated and Belle is left to rule in a castle with her prince. It is her love of self that motivates her love of others. Because she is self-confident, she can love those wise enough to see her true value. She demands more of life than she has and she gets it.
It is not the fairy tales that lie. It is the modern telling of them, close enough to still resonate, but subtly changed that fail. Beauty and the Beast is a lovely film, but full of falsehoods. It has value as a work of art, but little value as a reflection of reality.
November 8th, 2009 | 10:59 am | #1
I think I’m starting to worry about you, JMR. There’s no question that the Disney version of the fable is not hardly the same as the traditional tale. But your interpretation of the movie seems a little, um, lopsided.
Is Belle “discontent”? In some sense I think so, but she escapes by reading books and clinging to her father, doesn’t she? And what she’s rejecting is epitomized by the self-important Gaston — who really is vain and self-serving, and who I think we would both agree is completely worthy of rejection.
And the problem of the Beast — isn’t his curse due to his own vanity and his own lack of humility and kindness? And doesn’t his curse consume his whole household, showing the consequences of both his sin and thereafter his redemption?
And isn’t the last act — in which Belle realizes there’s plenty live for here and now, and in which the Beast finds his redemption in self-sacrifice — a pretty significantly-better turn than most romantic comedies?
It’s certainly not Shakespeare, but from the company that brought us Miley Cyrus (the girl who lies to get the best of both worlds) and the Wizards of Waverly Place (where do you start?), Beauty & the Beast is a much better message overall.
I think it’s also important to context this as a movie that came out in 1991 — a time well before the Narnia movies came out, and a time when Christian cultural influence was really at an all-time low in spite of the resurgence of cultural conservatism.
November 8th, 2009 | 1:16 pm | #2
Where the movie retains elements of the fairy tale, the message is awesome. However, Belle (to give her a name) in the story is rewarded for her piety and submission to God . . . in addition to her other (more acceptable to moderns) qualities.
I love the film . . . and you are certainly right that the message of B and the B is better than most of what is produced, but that is actually damning it with too fate praise. My twelve year old has written better stories than appear on most of afternoon Disney.
As for worrying about me: join a long, long list of folk beginning with my mother who would say what could truly be said about my intellectual equivalent Jethro Bodain, “What are we going to do with that boy?
November 8th, 2009 | 9:49 pm | #3
[...] ago, when I saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, I had heard John Mark’s thoughts on the Disney story (and agreed), so I was pleasantly surprised when a song came out of [...]
November 11th, 2009 | 4:10 pm | #4
I was a young father (of 2 at the time – now grown to six) when the Disney “Beauty and the Beast” came out and my daughter was 2 years old. I picked up the differences immediately, and pointed out to my wife that the blowhard and male chauvinist pig, Gaston wanted to have many children with Belle !?! This was a generation that thought Bill Clinton was the perfect husband.
November 13th, 2009 | 8:11 am | #5
Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairy tales. Disney has a unique way of perverting all of the fairy tales, but the industry has left it to them to produce movies based on “children’s” stories. (They arenot for children alone anyway; in most cases they are parodies). About thirty years ago Hallmark produced a made for tv movies starring George C Scott and his wife. That movie, even though quality, is not available. How sad!!
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