Beauty and the Beast

Growing up, “Beauty and the Beast” was my absolute favorite movie. I was Beauty for at least three years of Halloween during my childhood and have some hysterical home videos of me singing “Be Our Guest” into one of those fake-echoing microphones. To me, I associate that movie with fond memories of dancing with my dad and watching the movie with my brother. In fact, my dad and I also dance to “Beauty and the Beast” at special occasions and claim that it is one of our songs. The lyrics go: “Tale as old as time, tune as old as song, bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong,” and to me, it reminds me of how much I love my dad.

However, I haven’t watched the movie in years, and have an extremely fantasized version of it in my head it in my head. I think that is a huge aspect of why people were extremely surprised in class about the underlying messages in Disney movies, because the way we remember it from our childhood is much different than the way we may view it now. Often, these movies are not something we continue to watch as we grow older, and Disney as a franchise is associated with fond childhood memories. So last night, I watched Beauty and the Beast again (and forced my roommate to watch it with me), and I now completely understand Giroux’s concerns about the messages being portrayed in these types of movies. The real events of the movie are quite alarming: how Belle was thought of as strange because she was always reading, how the Beast essentially kidnapped her, how she “civilized” him by teaching him how to control his temper, eat properly, and dance. I always just remembered Belle helping the Beast, and thought it was a powerful love story. The whole kidnapping and Belle being deemed strange because she was smart must have gone right over my head at this young age.

Realistically, in the beginning when Belle is running around town with the book, the part I always enjoyed, the townspeople are commenting on the fact that Belle is beautiful, but claiming that it is a pity she is strange because she reads. “A most peculiar mad’moislle/It’s a pity and a sin/She doesn’t quite fit in/Cause she really is a funny girl/A beauty but a funny girl.” Belle’s father is an idiot, Gaston is determined to get Belle to be his wife, the Beast is ordered to be killed because he is different, and the candlesticks and plates are thrilled to have a guest because “life is so unnerving for a server who’s not serving” and they are excited to feel useful again to serve someone. All of this is ridiculous.

Still, the songs and movement are just as captivating, and I think as a child, that is where the entertainment value comes into play and Disney movies are successfully entertaining. I do not know just how many of these messages a young child can pick up, even if Disney is putting them out there. Still, I think it’s important to realize how inappropriate these underlying messages are, and revisit these movies in order to appropriately evaluate them. There are many people who have an image of the Disney franchise in their head as a pure and innocent part of childhood, but realistically, it is so much more than that. However, with all of the companies Disney owns and their power to put these messages out to youth culture, how can society force them to be more socially responsible with their choices of plotlines, and shed light on the unrealistic assumption that Disney is an icon of American goodness?