I Need To Talk About Disney’s Live-Action ‘Beauty And The Beast’…

This movie isn’t even out yet and I have SO MANY problems with it. And a lot of them aren’t even political – but we’ll get to that…

First off, according to this, the Malaysian government – a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim – asked Disney to edit out a gay scene from their new Beauty and the Beast that much has been made of in recent weeks. It’s a short scene that shouldn’t be a big deal for the studio to cut out. And if they do take the scene out, the government OK’d the movie to be shown in the country with their equivalent of a PG-13 rating –

The movie was approved by the Film Censorship Board after a minor gay scene was eliminated, according the board chairman, Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid. Scenes promoting homosexuality are forbidden, Hamid said, and the PG movie was given a PG-13 rating there instead.

‘We have approved it but there is a minor cut involving a gay moment. It is only one short scene but it is inappropriate because many children will be watching this movie,’ Hamid told the AP.

But the studio basically said – “Nah, we don’t need your money. Beating people over the head with our social justice message is more important.” So, rather than edit the film to make it more acceptable for their Malaysian audience, they pulled the movie out of the country ENTIRELY. It’s unclear how much money this move cost the studio, but it had to be substantial.

There are so many other problems I have with this gay scene to begin with – not the least of which is that this change is a betrayal of the original source material, which is the original Disney animated classic. But this is the Cult of Social Justice taking over EVERYTHING in the culture. To the point where LGBTQ characters are actually OVER-represented in movies and TV. I’ve talked about this before – the percentages of LGBTQ  characters shoehorned into fiction grossly overshadows the actual percentages of LGBTQ people in real life –

Let’s look at pop culture, just as an example – how many times have we talked about LGBTQ activists demanding that more gay and lesbian characters be “represented” in movies and TV? When, in fact, those characters actually are over-represented – roughly 15% in fiction, versus the 2%-5% in real life.

Hm. Looks like they have their “representation” in pop culture. Even more so than they really asked for. But that certainly won’t stop them from complaining about it! Which goes to show that, if you’re a content creator, just make your story the best you want it to be, without anyone telling you how to do it.

And the LGBTQ lobby wonders why the rest of us object to them shoving their lifestyles in our faces. It’s like – you have to celebrate this way of life or you’re a dirty rotten BIGOT. And it’s all wrapped up in a nice little package under the “Disney” banner.

Now, I’m not just refusing to see this film because they made LeFou gay. Nope. My distaste for this movie came waaaaaaay back at the beginning of production. I was wary of this thing when they very first cast Emma Watson as Belle. You know, that blithering feminist hack who only became a feminist hero because she half-heartedly played another famous female literary character, but basically played a perfect little Mary Sue version of her. It was like “Ugh – WHY?? Hasn’t she ruined enough beloved characters in one career?”

And then I found out how they allowed her to play Belle –

In the animated movie, it’s her father who is the inventor, and we actually co-opted that for Belle. I was like, ‘Well, there was never very much information or detail at the beginning of the story as to why Belle didn’t fit in, other than she liked books. Also what is she doing with her time?’ So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor.

EXCUSE ME??? Belle wasn’t interesting simply because she read books? You suddenly have to shove her into a STEM field, just to satisfy your idiotic feminist point of view? It’s not her caring and adventurous personality that interests you in the character, but what her career is??

WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY DID THEY LET THIS CHICK ANYWHERE NEAR THE SET OF THIS MOVIE???

I’m going to echo the sentiments of author L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright. She recently wrote about what the original movie meant to her and her husband, and why she won’t be seeing this movie. It’s all down to how they allowed Emma Watson and her feminist ideology to ruin Belle and her story –

But daily life aside, let’s return to Emma Watson and Belle. Since reading books couldn’t possibly make Belle so odd, and she had to fill her oodles of free time, Feminist Ambassador Watson decided to make Belle the inventor.

[…]

But that is not the story Disney told. And Disney’s story cannot become Inventor Belle’s story and still work.

Why? You say, Why not just watch the movie and see?

Well…think about it. Think about the structure of the story–a story I know so very well, having watched it so many times.

If Belle is an inventor, then books are not the sole bright spot in her dreary village life. So, why the song? Why does it matter that “she doesn’t know it’s him till Chapter Three?” Why does the bookseller give her a book she loves—if inventing is the center of her life?

If Belle is the strange beast, a female inventor in the Middle Ages, then that should be what stirs her heart. Making things, tinkering, bringing ideas to life should be what she sings about—what lights her inner candle.

Either Inventor Belle has no time for books, and they are just a side hobby and the song should be about inventing.

Or, Inventor Belle loves books, and inventing is a side hobby, in which case, it is a distraction and unneeded for the story.

True, Wright points are more about the story rather than politics – but that’s what’s going on here. This is a story that so many people grew up with and loved, and now you have politically-minded creators using it to push their own agendas. When, really, their only agenda should be to TELL A GOOD STORY.

Honestly, I don’t care what an actor’s or director’s personal politics are. If they’re giving me fun and entertaining stories without smacking me over the head with their ideologies, I’m fine with it (and yes, it can be annoying when a celebrity gets political on their own time. But I can deal with it). It’s when their stories become vehicles for preachy political screeds that I get turned off (and I’m not the only one).

Between Emma Watson turning this into her latest feminist crusade and everyone going nuts for a gay LeFou, I have no desire to see this movie. Even when it comes out on Netflix. And that’s even BEFORE I go on my tirade about how awful Watson looks as Belle. Her dress looks like a glorified prom dress from a discount store and her facial expressions make her look like she’s always constipated. And her singing is robotic and mechanical and has no heart behind it AT ALL.

I can’t tell you how much it hurts for me to say that, considering how much I ADORE the original animated film. But the fact that Emma Watson is going to be Belle for a new generation of little girls is painful.

The good news is that we’ll always have the original film to adore. I can happily ignore this live action atrocity.