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?

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.