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

[sarafina126]

She was too kind not to mention the terrible singing, bland acting, and how none of the original songs had any life to them except for maybe "Gaston."

[sarafina126]

Tbf I think she just wanted to focus on the criticisms of the film being too meta on previous complaints and poor characterizations, but if Lindsay won't mention those things I will! 😂

[revertigo]

Yep all the magic and fun that could’ve taken place in a fucking enchanted castle was doom and gloom in the live action... like why. 🤦🏻‍♀️ How can a film do too much yet end up be so fucking lazy at the same time.

[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.

[little_vienna]

I love her videos! I can't wait to watch this later tonight.

Princess & the Scrivener did a 7-part series on the film that goes fairly in-depth about writing and pacing and musical issues:

[dinkerd]

Ooh thank you for posting this, will definitely watch

[patty_hewes]

ooh thank you, this looks interesting.

i love when people take down bad movies i haven't see lol

[littlelistmaker]

oooh thanks

[dumpweeds]

the part where she gets nailed in the face with the snowball made me laugh at least

[alienjiive]

Lol ia

[artemislives]

I have nothing positive to say about this adaptation except that Kevin Kline deserved better than having Emma Watson as a daughter tbh

[margerydaw_s2]

mte