5 New Things We Learned from "Beauty and the Beast’s" Live-Action
When I first heard of Beauty and the Beast’s live-action remake of its 1991 animated movie, I was ecstatic. The struggle of watching it in the theater’s first two rows with my friends, keeping our heads up for 129 minutes? It’s worth it. If you haven’t watched the live-action, I’m sorry for the spoiler: the Little Prince is so CUTE!
And in this remake, we not only see our favorite Disney characters come to life, but there are also new surprising things for us to discover. Read on to find out the five new things we learned from Beauty and Beast’s live-action, but not from its animated version.
1. Disney’s first exclusively gay moment is … disappointing
In case you’re not following the news, movie director Bill Condon reveals that the live-action of Beauty and the Beast will feature Disney’s “first exclusively gay moment.” Le Fou, Gaston’s sidekick, explores his sexuality in the movie.
This created so much hype on the internet and stirred equally much controversy. For instance, some fans pointed out that people have a problem with the gay movie scene, but not human-buffalo romance.
Thumbs up to those critical thinking fans.
But what I find disappointing is that the much-anticipated gay scene lasts for a mere second. Seriously, one second. Or maybe half. Turns out, the “exclusively gay scene” showed Le Fou, Disney’s first openly gay character, dancing with a guy, while the rest of the ballroom dances with the opposite sex.
Well, Disney has never explicitly stated that it supports gay rights anyway. Still, Le Fou is considered a step forward for the company in supporting the LGBTQ community.
2. Modern-day women are more proactive
As a Global Ambassador for UN Women, Emma Watson is an iconic feminist. So when Watson starred as Belle, it’s no surprise the actress worked with the movie director to portray Belle as a more “proactive” princess. Yay!
For example, instead of being “terrified out of her mind” as Mrs. Potts anticipated, Belle tried to flee. She tied sheets together to create a rope, planning to escape Rapunzel-style through the window.
Plus, in the live-action, Watson and the movie director made Belle the inventor, instead of her father. She invented a washing machine so she can spend more time reading.
3. Belle had a wardrobe makeover
Speaking of modern-day women, the costume designers decided to ditch the corset of Belle’s dress because they felt it’s too “inhibiting.” Let’s take a moment to enjoy this picture of Watson in a stunning yellow dress, which took 238 hours to create!
4. The live-action revealed the reason behind the Beast’s cruelty
As children, we simply watched the 1991 animated version and didn’t really question why the Beast was cruel. He just is. But, as the saying goes, there’s a reason behind everything.
And the live-action finally revealed why: At a young age, the Prince lost his ill mother and was treated cruelly by his father. That’s why the Prince grew up to be cruel and short-tempered himself. Now we know his super sad backstory. #pullsatissue
5. Disney fixed a plot hole where the Enchantress is too harsh on a child
If you pay attention to the numbers in the animated version, the Enchantress cursed the Prince into a Beast when he was 11 years old, simply because he’s selfish. The Enchantress is too harsh on our Little Prince, don’t you think?
So in the live-action, Disney makes the movie more realistic by having the Prince cursed when he was an egoistic adult. Major plot hole finally fixed!