Disney Princess Review: Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

The success of Little Mermaid left people with  a lot of faith in Disney again, so much so that it had an almost immediate follow up: Beauty and the Beast. The music, characters, animation, story, this film to me had it all and really showed the Disney Renaissance as being more than just more princesses. Beauty and the Beast is one of the greatest gems in Disney history, and while not having the same success as the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast is the film that I think paved the way for it. One thing I liked about the film was that it really got both sides of the love interests involved; while the character trying to accomplish something is the Beast we also get a good amount of time with Belle. It doesn’t even make the romance the actual focus, for Belle it just kind of happens whereas Beast seems to want her to love him but ends up loving her enough to let her go. It’s good story telling as opposed to The Little Mermaid where the romance was very one sided and Eric like his predecessors were very removed from the story. The "midquels" tried to be as good but really only reinforced the movie as opposed to enhancing or continuing it.

The film plays with the time frame very well, Belle arrives at the castle in late fall and she confesses her love in late winter so we’re looking at maybe three months. Gaston really took the cake as the villain being like an evil Brom Bones from Ichabod and Mr. Toad. A character looking like him would normally be just like Brom, a bit of a jerk but still an ok guy, he’s strong and the town loves him. As the movie progresses he becomes the villain and it’s pretty interesting. I wish he had been a Kingdom Hearts villain like Clayton or at least been in the sequel. I always wondered how he planned to win Belle over when at one point he had her father thrown out of a bar into the snow alone after saying she was kidnapped. Speaking of Belles father, Maurice really is a cool dad, he does not have the kind of status other Disney dads had, he is that super dad in a real Disney Dads body. He was actually going to storm the castle by himself in the dead of winter, fully aware that there were wolves and THE BEAST! I also liked how the music numbers ranged from big and catchy to small and romantic.

One thing that really helps this film stand out is that it is not centered around the “princess”, and you get a lot of interaction from the male and other characters; a product of the Disney Renaissance. A personal issue I had with the film which was something I realized, as I got older was that if you go by the clues in the story, Adam (Beast) was eleven when the curse was placed on him. So an eleven-year-old boy was cursed for not letting a stranger in the house? I mean he may have been a bit of a spoiled kid but I think he had the right idea. I also wonder where his parents are? It was Christmas when the whole incident happened! She was an old woman, about five feet in height, standing perfectly fine in six feet of snow holding a glowing rose!  I would not have let her in! I also love the design of the Beast and the Castle. The Beast just looks so cool, like he kind of moves between Hulking out and casual Beast from X-men while the castle always looked so big while being dark and beautiful when it needed to be.

Now to the subject of Belle, my personal favorite princess. Belle comes off as very different from her predecessors, and it is reflected even in the movie. She would rather read her books than really care about what other people think about her. She is basically the town’s social pariah, she comes off as polite and she is but despite that people view her as weird and they aren’t afraid to talk about her behind her back and I think it comes down to her being hard to approach. Her time is really only open to people who she knows like the baker, the book keeper, and her father and she herself admits she has no one she can really talk to. Like Ariel, she is a dreamer but she never really states what it is she wants, she says adventure but ultimately she says she wants more then what is expected of a normal life. Belle is a more interesting dreamer than the other princesses, she wants the world she seems to only find in books. She is very polite and easy to like but I think that for people that do not know her she may come off as a bit of a snob. The film shows that she is responsible, smart, obviously well read, and she also takes the time to listen to people. When she finds out her father is missing she goes looking for him and offers to take his place, and even leaves her new happy life to go find him again. She also does not have a lesson to learn herself. The film is more of her getting the adventure she has wanted and getting more than she bargained for.

Now there is a big argument that Belle has Stockholm syndrome and to quote Jack Sparrow “Utterly deceptive twaddle speak says I.” Stockholm syndrome is when a victim develops feelings for their captor, usually sympathizing with them. The problem is that Belle is never much of a captive or a hostage. She is for the most part completely in control of her situation. She doesn’t care about anything Beast tells her, she won’t eat with him and when he says she can’t eat at all, she goes down to eat. Belle really only opens up to Beast after he saves her and even then she stands up to him, yells at him and outright refuses to do what he tells her. She only starts to like him later on, when he treats her more like a guest and isn’t a jerk.

 Ultimately, Belle is a fun character, she really does not send any messages good or bad but is just a great person. I have heard some arguments that she is too perfect and not real but I have met girls like this myself or at least some that share some of these traits. If she were real I see her spending most of her time in the library, staying out of most usual activities and looking out for her friends and supporting them. I am going to be ballsy here and give her an A as her highest and B as her lowest.