{"id":6821,"date":"2017-03-18T10:42:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T04:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=6821"},"modified":"2017-03-18T10:42:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T04:57:05","slug":"the-beauty-and-the-beast-remake-is-a-long-series-of-wasted-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/the-beauty-and-the-beast-remake-is-a-long-series-of-wasted-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty and the Beast remake is a long series of wasted opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tasha Robinson\/Pahichan – There\u2019s been a fair bit of controversy over Bill Condon\u2019s live-action remake of Disney\u2019s animated 1991 classic Beauty <\/em>a<\/em>nd <\/em>t<\/em>he Beast<\/em>, mostly centered over Condon\u2019s proclamation that he\u2019s given Disney its first canonically, openly gay character.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Attitude<\/em><\/a>, Condon described that character, the villain\u2019s sycophantic sidekick LeFou, as if his sexuality was a significant, foregrounded part of the plot, and as if it ultimately arrived at some major moment of truth:<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s confused about what he wants. It\u2019s somebody who\u2019s just realising that he has these feelings. And [actor Josh Gad] makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that\u2019s what has its payoff at the end, which I don\u2019t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But when it arrives, that \u201cnice, exclusively gay\u201d moment is a one-second shot of LeFou in a fancy ballroom-dance finale, accidentally shoved into the arms of a nameless man who\u2019s wearing drag because of an earlier sight gag. It isn\u2019t an \u201cexclusively gay moment,\u201d it\u2019s about a dozen vaguely campy frames. Much like Finding Dory<\/em><\/a>\u2019s controversial, much-ballyhooed \u201clesbian couple\u201d<\/a> \u2014 two women who appeared in a extremely brief, silent reaction shot in the film \u2014 LeFou is all PR blitz and no actual payoff. But the tepidness of this built-up moment hasn\u2019t stopped the predictable backlash, from online complaints to an Alabama theater noisily pulling the film<\/a> from its lineup (proving the bigoted old chestnut \u201cwhy are they pushing their views on us\u201d is still alive and well in the world) to Malaysia banning the film. To Disney\u2019s credit, the company has refused to recut the film<\/a> to appease Malaysian censors, which is an admirably principled stand to take over a single second of footage.<\/p>\n

\"<\/span>Walt Disney Pictures<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n

The LeFou imbroglio is an immense wasted opportunity. Promoting Beauty <\/em>a<\/em>nd <\/em>t<\/em>he Beast <\/em>by touting its daring inclusivity (or, grotesquely, its \u201ctribute\u201d to lyricist Howard Ashman<\/a>), makes for a lot of attention-grabbing articles. But the actual execution is dull \u2014 or mildly offensive, given that Disney\u2019s first \u201cofficial\u201d gay character (ignoring its coded ones and fan-canon ones<\/a>) is a catty, clingy, regressive, \u201cconfused\u201d stereotype. Beauty <\/em>a<\/em>nd <\/em>t<\/em>he Beast<\/em> isn\u2019t necessarily the right forum to explore the nuances of the gay experience. But given how much virtual ink the character has gotten, it\u2019s baffling how little there is to him, not just as a gay man, but as a developed figure of any kind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0IT\u2019S LARGELY A FRUSTRATING CLONE OF THE ORIGINAL MOVIE<\/div>\n

And he isn\u2019t the only wasted opportunity in Condon\u2019s remake. It\u2019s largely a frustrating clone of the original movie \u2014 same songs, same script, often even the exact same shot choices \u2014 but it replaces every moment of authentic or moving emotion with bombast and hyperbolic overemphasis. It slows down the flow of the familiar music by jamming in extra phrases, and builds up the energy by jamming nonstop, busy action onto the screen. It\u2019s a garish, strident film, as well as a profoundly unnecessary one. And wherever its creators come up with fresh subplots or new character details, they tend to be poorly integrated, slapped erratically over the existing narrative like a half-assed coat of paint. Among the other things the film throws out and instantly discards:<\/p>\n

\"<\/span>Walt Disney Pictures<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n

BELLE AS INVENTOR AND OUTCAST<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The prerelease hype around LeFou was mirrored by the prerelease hype around Belle, with Emma Watson, who plays her in the film, telling EW<\/em><\/a> that Belle is now the talented inventor, rather than her father Maurice. The idea was to give Belle more of a background, and more of a purpose in life than wandering around singing about how her community disappoints her. In practice, though, her big background development consists entirely of a scene where she uses a barrel and a donkey to do her laundry so she has more time to read. She doesn\u2019t actually use her newfound inventing skills to any meaningful narrative purpose. When she needs to escape a cage, Beast\u2019s servants help her; when she needs to pick a lock, Maurice handles it. Any ambitions she has as an inventor are never verbalized, and her theoretical skills never become useful. Past the brief laundry sequence, inventing never comes up again. It\u2019s not part of the story, it\u2019s a random, unattached moment.<\/p>\n

In the same way, there\u2019s a quick shot of Belle teaching a young girl to read, and angering the local peasants, who quickly stop her. Apparently female literacy is anathema in a fantasy villa where only the boys are seen going to school. This is meant to explain why the entire town is so obsessed with Belle being, as the opening song says, \u201cvery different from the rest of us\u201d and \u201ca beauty but a funny girl.\u201d The idea of Belle trying to overcome institutionalized sexism in a provincial town is a pretty heady one. But again, the film does nothing with it, apart from a single line from Belle, late in the film, complaining about how she doesn\u2019t fit in with the locals.<\/p>\n

\"<\/span>Walt Disney Pictures<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n

GASTON AS A TROUBLED WAR VETERAN<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Less hyped, but still strangely underlined in the new movie, is the idea that the villainous blowhard Gaston (Luke Evans) is such a jerk because he\u2019s a professional soldier with no battles left to fight, and he longs to return to a simpler, more purposeful time in his life. He and LeFou know each other from \u201cthe war,\u201d where they were comrades in arms. It\u2019s a potentially meaningful relationship that explains why Gaston blankly tolerates LeFou\u2019s creepy handsiness, and why LeFou sticks with a loudmouthed bully. It\u2019s mildly implied that Gaston\u2019s temper and inability to control his rage comes from his past, and that LeFou is an actual friend who shares Gaston\u2019s history and honestly respects and understands him. That\u2019s another potentially powerful development, but it mostly surfaces via a couple of throwaway lines, and one joke about LeFou\u2019s Gaston-whispering talents.<\/p>\n

\u00a0LEFOU\u2019S REHABILITATION<\/strong><\/div>\n

The heel-face turn is a great tradition in stories about villains, and it\u2019s given American pop culture some of its most memorable story endings \u2014 in Return <\/em>o<\/em>f <\/em>t<\/em>he Jedi<\/em>, in Dr. Seuss\u2019 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!<\/em>, even most recently in Moana<\/em><\/a>. So the idea that LeFou might not play out entirely as a villain is potentially intriguing \u2014 and certainly in keeping with Condon\u2019s larger intentions for the character. Bad enough for Disney\u2019s first supposed openly gay character to be swishy, obsessive, and annoying without him also being an irredeemable villain. If only the character\u2019s development had any meaningful roots in the earlier parts of the story. There are tiny hints at him having a personality past \u201csidekick\u201d in his emotional support of Gaston, but as character development goes, it\u2019s a thin soup. At most, he gets a couple of lines to support the idea that he has his own morals and goals \u2014 the best one is a new addition in \u201cThe Mob Song,\u201d as Gaston whips the villagers into a fury against the Beast. His \u201cMeh, I\u2019ve decided to switch sides!\u201d line is particularly offhanded and silly.<\/p>\n

\"<\/span>Walt Disney Pictures<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n

BEAST\u2019S BACKSTORY AND THE SERVANTS\u2019 MOTIVES<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the minor problems viewers grumbled over in the original Beauty <\/em>a<\/em>nd <\/em>t<\/em>he Beast <\/em>was the question of why Beast\u2019s servants \u2014 Lumi\u00e8re, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, et al \u2014 stand by him and seem to care so much about him, when he brought a magical curse down on them by being a selfish brat, and has subsequently turned into a temperamental, dangerous tyrant. That isn\u2019t actually much of a plot hole. Of course they stand by him and serve him \u2014 he\u2019s their only chance at getting the curse lifted. Their \u201caffection\u201d for him is largely crisis management and mollification. And where can an anthropomorphic candlestick, clock, and teapot expect to go if they leave the enchanted castle?<\/p>\n

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