‘Beauty and the Beast’, another clichéd fairy tale or truths ‘as old as time’?

Fairy tales always end with all the loose ends tied up and the good and kind characters living happily ever after – we expect that, we depend upon that and we’d be disappointed if we got anything other than that!  Some of the favourite and earliest classics such as Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty could be described as clichéd with their interpretation of ‘happily ever after’; the pretty girl waiting to be rescued by the handsome prince and evil witches and step-mothers getting their just deserts.

Whilst this formula seems to be what many fairy tales are made of, Disney has also moved with the times and we have seen some much stronger female characters, since Snow White animated her way onto our screens.  Characters such as Belle from Beauty and the Beast who actually came to the rescue of the Prince have an enduring quality and along with the Oscar winning score we are inevitably keen to re-visit the film time and again. So, news that Beauty and the Beast would be released as a live-action Disney movie caused quite a stir.  In fact, the excitement was so great, the trailer broke records with 127.6 million views in its first 24 hours online!

I have always been a big fan of the 1991 animation and I promise you that I’m not simply a Disney fanatic that lives life wishing for birds, animals and indeed cups, saucers and wardrobes to burst into song at any given moment.  I love the characters and I enjoyed the greater depth that was given to some of the principal parts in the new movie such as Belle as we were taken on a brief journey into her past.  Emma Watson was utterly convincing in her interpretation of the bookish and intellectual young girl who was not to be persuaded by the ‘celebrity’ status awarded to Gaston (played by Luke Evans), the good-looking, arrogant, narcissistic hunter that was not used to being refused or turned down.  This is one of the central relationship messages of the story; that real beauty is about character and what is inside a person rather than what is seen on the outside.

Gaston is driven by prestige and appearance hence he relies on the empty adoration of those around him and in his pursuit of Belle, it doesn’t even occur to him to seek a friendship with her before deciding he wants to have her for himself insisting that he’ll marry her. After all he says to his friend LeFou that she is “the most beautiful girl in the town, which makes her the best”. This kind of attitude and behaviour is simply not going to win the heart of courageous, genuine and intelligent Belle.

Let’s not forget that Gaston isn’t the only character that demonstrates a preoccupation with personal vanity and outward beauty; the film begins with the back-story to the curse that is on the Beast (played by Dan Stevens).  Before he was turned into a Beast, he was a handsome and self-indulgent prince that would not help and could not tolerate the haggard appearance of the old woman that comes to his castle seeking shelter. Little does he know that the old woman is an enchantress who promptly places a curse on him that can only be broken by true love.  And if things can’t get any worse, this is a time limited offer, a curse with a ‘use-by-date’ – an enchanted red rose is given to the prince and if true love has not been found before the last petal drops, he will stay a Beast forever!

Belle is the polar opposite of the shallow Gaston, evident in the selfless and sacrificial love that she shows towards her father by offering to take his place as prisoner in the Beast’s castle.  It is whilst she is held captive that the true, gentle and caring nature of the Prince is slowly encouraged to surface through Belle’s kind and generous heart.  This much we are all very familiar with but we don’t necessarily take the story any further into our own lives because let’s be honest, this is just a fairy tale; even the worst kind of date doesn’t have hooves for feet, a tail, horns coming out of their head and an overall Chewbacca like complexion!

However, we can so easily take these kinds of stories for granted rather than allowing them to actually show us something about real life.  Most of us I’m sure would say that we’d prefer to end up with a relationship like Belle and the Prince, to be with someone that likes us because of our personality and vice versa.  But their relationship didn’t happen overnight!  They didn’t even see the ‘in-love’ part of the relationship coming.  It began with Belle not standing for the Beast’s angry outbursts and not giving into him when he roared at her but being willing to forgive him rather than holding a grudge.  Belle was patient with him and their friendship came first, enjoying shared interests like reading and compromising to accommodate each other’s differences (I’m thinking of that scene when they drink from the soup bowls!).  Belle persevered with the Beast despite his scary appearance and when they spent time with each other, they looked past the exterior and looked into each other’s eyes – nicely emphasised with Dan Stevens’ blue eyes!  The phrase ‘eyes are the window to the soul’ seems quite apt here.

This might all sound rather one-sided as though it was all about an almost perfect Belle but the Beast had his part to play in a willingness to let someone else into his life, to make himself vulnerable despite how desperate he felt about himself and his decidedly depressing, dead-end circumstances.  Until now, he’d kept pushing people (or in his case furniture, crockery and candlesticks) away so this was a big deal for the Beast.  There is such a lot of pressure to maintain a façade and not let friends see the ‘real us’ and in our celebrity culture we can be quick to make judgments about others because they have a particular look.  Perhaps we also make judgement because others are different to the apparent norm in the way that Belle was judged negatively by the villagers because she was into her books!  (What kind of village did she live in?  That’s probably a topic for another blog!).

So what can we take away from this film apart from the magical, musical extravaganza of the ‘Be Our Guest’ scene, the brilliant performances by some incredible A-Lister actors and actresses and the awesome CGI used to create the Beast’s hair through to the enchanting ballroom sequence?  We can take away some of the fundamentals of good relationships and can begin to see those around us with new eyes, to not simply look at the outward appearance (this isn’t just a fairy tale cliché it’s a genuine truth) to understand that it takes time to get to know someone and therefore time to build trust, that beauty takes many forms and we must be willing to seek it out rather than give into pressure with the ‘Gaston-like’ characters and to avoid being that kind of person ourselves.

The Beauty and the Beast title song features that classic line ‘tale as old as time’ because it is pretty old, the origins of this fairy tale, according to researchers, apparently go back approximately 4000 years though the original Beauty and the Beast story was written by the French author, Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve in 1740; La Belle et La Bête.  Why has this old tale endured, why does it still speak to us in our social media, celebrity driven culture?  I believe that the truths and values of Beauty and the Beast are also as old as time and why it has generated a frenzy of Disney magic and excitement among millions of people.  If every person could genuinely begin to apply what might be argued as a cliché, that beauty is found within they would discover that this is a ‘truth as old as time’.

From the perspective of Explore more! there’s clearly a great deal to ‘explore’ regarding relationships but it’s also a spectacular Disney, with an imaginative storyline, exquisite CGI, compelling performances, an action-packed film with wide appeal and overall, great entertainment.  Should you go and see it?  Absolutely!