Lindsay Ellis on That Time Disney Remade Beauty and the Beast

[ellaellaeheheh]

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In her new video, Lindsay Ellis takes on the live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, exploring the changes Disney made to the plot and why she hates it. Ellis also talks about the reasons for Disney's incorporation of live action remakes in their brand and the influence of internet nitpicking on film scripts.

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Comments

[revertigo]

I hated the film because I had thought that it was too much like its animated counterpart frame for frame but just didn’t translate well into live action and on a surface level that’s still true...however, she’s absolutely right. The characterizations and motivations were off, the backstories were unnecessary and didn’t serve the plot. In the end, they were too self conscious and actually put Belle in a one-sided abusive relationship (I love ellis’ vid where she addresses Belle’s supposed Stockholm syndrome) by making Beast a jerk with not many redeemable qualities.

[ellaellaeheheh]

someone send this video to me, he mentions beauty and the beast as abduction as romance. how do you feel about it?

[revertigo]

Ooh, I love it and have to say I agree with 99% of it. As a stand-alone film, the animated Disney Beauty and the Beast film is the least problematic and gives the Beast’s character an actual arc where he had to grow and earn his love and humanity back. They don’t try to justify his abusive behavior by giving him a redemption arc where everything is fine or had always been fine because he saves her. And like Lindsay puts out, he doesn’t spend 90% of the story being abusive-he had to bring himself up to her level and give into her demands as she persistently reclaims her agency.

that said, culturally, Beauty and the Beast does contribute to an toxic fantasy the patriarchy wants to uphold. The animated film was my favorite, but it’s a narrative that holds too much power in our current culture to be enjoyed uncritically or unchallenged

[meadowphoenix]

I mean, it felt like one of those videos where the person likes the material, and the composer, too much to adequately address the criticism. Belle is still a prisoner, in both her and the Beast's perspective, when she asks to leave to see her dad, so ALL of their previous interaction is colored by that, and he and all of the servants are lying about the intentions of the nice stuff he does, again while she literally cannot leave the dynamic of captor/captive. There's literally no reason to believe Beast has his temper shit under control and there's plenty of reason to believe Belle would find her town hostile to the point that living with a temperamental Beast with a library is significantly better which is the key circumstance that makes for that type of traumatic bonding. There's no denying that, lmao, and yet.

[onlytheycreate]

ia

[meadowphoenix]

it's particularly weird that people dismiss that fact that belle thinks the townspeople going after beast is her fault ( ...because she admits the beast exists....to save her father from institutionalization....which is Gaston's fault AND a direct result of the Beast's actions against Maurice), like that, and the fact that she brushes aside that fact that the beast did actual harm to her dad that he never atoned for and expects her dad to get on board with the saving, is a clear negative psychological consequence of the relationship.

[onlytheycreate]

ia. i like lindsay but whenever she talks about b&tb, twilight recently, or the shape of water video where she talks about the anime she watched with a similar (and worse/not of age) hostage dynamic, even kylo and rey... she's just not objective. focusing on whether or not b&tb specifically qualifies for stockholm syndrome on a technical meritderails the point of the entire premise.

[meadowphoenix]

exactly, I love batb, I'm just aware that the relationship was built on some unstable psychological ground. I'm not asking to throw the whole relationship away, I'm just asking that we don't see a captor setting his captive free as some gift (because the consequence is that he dies) and not the very least he can do.

[meadowphoenix]

I mean, it does actually fit the technical points of stockholm syndrome, but yeah, not agreeing with that doesn't mean you should ignore the actual dynamic shown on film.

[onlytheycreate]

agreed on both counts.

[mingemonster]

Yeah, Ellis' video where she argues against the idea that BatB is about Stockholm Syndrome is really weak. A big part of her argument is that Belle is there voluntarily, since she suggested herself as a hostage instead of her father. Which... No.

[wintourseason]

Wrong.

http://theconversation.com/beauty-and-the-beast-was-originally-a-feminist-fable-disguised-as-marriage-guidance-74561

The ORIGINAL version had the Beast visually horrific but his behavior was gentlemanly. That was the contrast -> ugly dude, but he's aight. I don't know when that changed into he's ugly & also a huge fucking asshole with no redeeming qualities aside from his non-ugly face.

[meadowphoenix]

I mean, there's no version of "man demands woman become prisoner and never see family again and she manages to wife man into humanity" where the dynamic isn't abusive, like even in Beaumont's story, you've exchanged Jerk!Beast for NiceGuy!Beast (complete with suicide threats and accusations of ungratefulness!), and I'm not seeing a different in the main problem.