Beauty and the beast 2017

[Elton John]

Reviews are in. Common complaints include

-The added plot segments were unnecessary
-The new songs are dull, old songs inferior to the original.
-Emma Watson miscast as Belle
-The movie is dull and lifeless.

Sigh. I'll give it a rent eventually.

[TheLionPrince]

The Internet is in flames following reports in which director Bill Condon confirmed that Gaston's sidekick LeFou will be the first openly gay in a Disney film. While I am not heavily a supporter of LGQT rights, a character's sexuality should have no place in a family film.

A drive-in theater in Henegar, Alabama announced they will not screen the movie in theaters, and even Russia is considering whether to allow the film to be shown if the officials deem it violated a measure of having "elements of propaganda of homosexuality" in children's films.

Hundreds of people have posted on social media that they or their families were planning on seeing the film, but following the revelation, they are boycotting the movie. Those who are against the backlash are claiming the film supports bestiality which is actually false. The Beast was originally human and was enchanted to become a beast as a reflection of his arrogant, selfish personality. You can read one Facebook conversation posted on the article about the backlash for yourself.

As for me, personally, the controversy is probably overblown and even a negative review from Indiewire claims the gay undertones is not as blatant as they are reported to be. I do remember hoopla thrown over Gobbler's throw-away line over not getting married that director Dean DeBlois confirmed as him coming out in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Ellen DeGeneres claiming there was a transsexual stingray in Finding Dory which sparked some pre-release outrage, but turned out to be a joke after the film's release.

[PridelandsPhantom]

It's really sad that Disney decided to be so in your face with it. I have nothing against those who identify as gay and some have said "well so and so is gay" in the past without there being anything officially said about it. There are plenty of role models for gays in the media that are positive, why do just to do it? I won't go into more personal convictions as I'm not really happy for flame wars, but personally it's getting out of hand. Can we just leave political and such statements out of movies? Beauty and the Beast never endorsed there being be*stality, because as someone pointed out Adam (or the beast) is a human underneath it. That's kind of like someone saying the same things about one of my other favorite novels, Tiger's Curse. The prince is human underneath the curse. Emma Watson is a great actress, but I don't see her as the naive, yet innocent Belle.

[UncoordinatedPisces]

[quote="Elton John"]Reviews are in. Common complaints include

-The added plot segments were unnecessary
-The new songs are dull, old songs inferior to the original.
-Emma Watson miscast as Belle
-The movie is dull and lifeless.

Sigh. I'll give it a rent eventually.[/quote]

I'm posting a video review on Youtube soon, my view on the movie is a bit more positive than that but pretty close to my thoughts. I enjoyed going to see it regardless though.

[TheLionPrince]

[Squeely]

[quote="TheLionPrince"]While I am not heavily a supporter of LGQT rights, a character's sexuality should have no place in a family film.[/quote]
Gotta disagree with you there. I see nothing wrong with same-sex characters or couples being in family films. We've had heterosexuality flaunted in films for nearly a century, so I see no reason why gay characters can't also share some time in the spotlight. Let's take Beauty and the Beast as an example: nearly the entire thing is a heterosexual romance! I see nothing wrong with children seeing a homosexual couple do everything Belle and Beast do, and dare I say, such representation helps bigtime in normalizing LGBT couples and erasing homophobia as a whole. And that normalization is incredibly important when LGBT people are still treated as lesser than cishet-normative people to this day.

And to further clarify, obviously anything explicit, whether hetero- or homo-, would be bad to show to children. But just a dance, or holding hands, or a kiss, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Onto what I thought of the remake:
I thought it was well-done, and the film is beautiful. I especially liked the new song Beast sings, and how they patched up a lot of the plotholes. As for Emma Watson, I wouldn't say her performance was all that bad. While not anywhere near "Best Actress" or anything, I found her easily passable, and did enjoy her performance here and there. I also liked that Maurice got a lot more characterization, and that Le Fou went from seeming mostly-brainless to delivering clever quips and overall being a more engaging character. Josh Gad's performance was a lot of fun. All in all, I'd give Beauty and the Beast a solid 9/10.