View Full Version : Beauty and the Beast movie
Has anyone else seen it? I heard that there was lots of controversy but with the media, controversy happens with the most innocuous things. Probably the controversy was good for promotion anyway.
I found it over the top in effects that probably didn't add much to it but made it larger than life.
I saw a play a few years ago that was far superior and we actually watched the beast transform on the stage into a young man. DD1 and I could not figure out how it was done though. That play was probably the most visually beautiful play ever but elegant in everything. The movie isn't. I am glad I went to see it tonight though.
iris lilies
3-19-17, 10:17pm
I wouldnt see this, the animated version, or any Disney version, really. And the theme song is insipid.
I think people forget that Beauty and the Beast is a French folktale from hundreds of years ago. Uncle Walt didnt invent it, and frankly, didnt add that much to it.
Emma Watson is very pretty and likeable, but she cant act. She was sadly mis cast in Ballet Shoes, a film based on a well loved British children book. Made me cringe.
I won't see it until it is on DVD or TV but I like Disney movies. The Frozen song is fantastic IMO. I can't image never watching any Disney movies at all. I grew up watching the old movies that were on on Sunday nights.
Emma Watson - wasn't she in the Harry Potter movies? Seemed like an excellent actress to me.
Ultralight
3-20-17, 7:54am
In college I remember being told by someone -- maybe a peer or an instructor -- that Beauty and The Beast was some apologetics for domestic violence...
In college I remember being told by someone -- maybe a peer or an instructor -- that Beauty and The Beast was some apologetics for domestic violence...
Geez.. I guess anyone could interpret anything any way they want. I always thought of Beauty and the Beast as being more about acceptance. True, you could almost say that Beauty developed Stockholm Syndrome, haha, but I never saw it that way.
I'm probably not going to see the movie, at least until it's available on TV. I have too many other movies I'd want to see first.
Ultralight
3-20-17, 8:19am
I was talking to a woman about this movie last night. I asked her: "Could the roles be reversed?"
She said: "What? Like 'Handsome and The Hag?'"
I was talking to a woman about this movie last night. I asked her: "Could the roles be reversed?"
She said: "What? Like 'Handsome and The Hag?'"
No, the ending of that fairy tale would be Handsome escaping and making money off of a tell-all book of his years with a witch while the hag's palace gets condemned and she becomes homeless. Nothing good comes from stories about unattractive women.
iris lilies
3-20-17, 8:36am
In college I remember being told by someone -- maybe a peer or an instructor -- that Beauty and The Beast was some apologetics for domestic violence...
That wouldnt surprise me. Its certainly would resonate at that level.
These old folktales exist to illustrate and explain human truths.
Red Riding Hood is about children beng abused, possibly raped, and getting back their mojo by beheading the wolf.
The French fairy tales are quite gruesome. I did a course in college on French fairy tales, many were taken by the Grimm brothers and cleaned up a bit for their books. The oral traditions go back as long as people do in some way or another, and do indeed teach about human nature. Not so good human nature! But it all makes me feel better for loving shows like Criminal Minds.
I may see this one since a group is going, I liked it as a play. My son did the music for musicals for junior high and high school and this was one he did music for. The transformation parts as a play are really interesting to see how they do that.
I took my daughter to see it on Saturday. She enjoyed it. We didn't try deconstructing it at all except for when she asked me why a French girl would have a British accent.
IshbelRobertson
3-20-17, 9:03am
As opposed to an American accent?! :D
As opposed to an American accent?! :D
Absolutely. Under accepted Hollywood convention, heroes should have American accents while villains may sound British, German or Russian, depending on the category of villain.
Absolutely. Under accepted Hollywood convention, heroes should have American accents while villains may sound British, German or Russian, depending on the category of villain.
Exception: James Bond MUST have a British accent.
Can you imagine Bond saying "Howdy, Ma'am! Name's Bond. Nice t'meet y'all."
IshbelRobertson
3-20-17, 9:27am
I thought Hollywood had ditched the German and Russian baddies in favour of only English baddies?
And of course, it is a given, that ALL heroes are Americans!
I thought Hollywood had ditched the German and Russian baddies in favour of only English baddies?
And of course, it is a given, that ALL heroes are Americans!
German can still work, if played by British actors, such as Alan Richman in Die Hard or Olivier's Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. I will grant that there are fewer of them than there were some years ago, as more people become about as familiar with the Second World War as they are with the War of the Pragmatic Sanction.
Russian is a popular accent for promiscuously violent gangster types, but not really for top-shelf villains.
True villainy seems to require a sort of upper class received pronunciation speech. It may be because we expect a certain level of intelligence and arrogance in our villains. It may be because British actors are better trained and therefore more suitable for the more technically demanding villain roles. It may be that American movie stars shy away from roles that may make them viewed negatively in focus groups. It may be that Hollywood types simply feel inferior culturally, and take the opportunity for a bit of spiteful casting. But today, if you need to cast a psychotic Roman emperor, renegade billionaire or general galactic threat, British upper class seems like the accent of choice.
As a corollary, films with no American characters, such as the Harry Potter series, pit posh-talking villains against working stiff good guys.
IshbelRobertson
3-20-17, 12:34pm
Where are the Scotsn Welsh, Norn Irish and Irish on this spectrum, I wonder?
Exception: James Bond MUST have a British accent.
Can you imagine Bond saying "Howdy, Ma'am! Name's Bond. Nice t'meet y'all."
Depending on your age, James Bond just doesn't sound right unless tinged with a bit of Scottish accent.
Where are the Scotsn Welsh, Norn Irish and Irish on this spectrum, I wonder?
They're not villains..they're just rascals. :)
No, the ending of that fairy tale would be Handsome escaping and making money off of a tell-all book of his years with a witch while the hag's palace gets condemned and she becomes homeless. Nothing good comes from stories about unattractive women.
Dorothy: Oh, but I've already told you, I'm not a witch at all! Witches are old and ugly. [The Munchkins giggle from concealment] What was that?
Glinda: The Munchkins. They're laughing because I am a witch. I'm Glinda, the Witch of the North.
Dorothy: You are?! Oh, I beg your pardon! But I've never heard of a beautiful witch before.
Glinda: Only bad witches are ugly.
Exception: James Bond MUST have a British accent.
Can you imagine Bond saying "Howdy, Ma'am! Name's Bond. Nice t'meet y'all."
Yes. I present to you: Jimmy Bond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lL7PEKUxPA
Where are the Scotsn Welsh, Norn Irish and Irish on this spectrum, I wonder?
Supporting cast and comic relief.
IshbelRobertson
3-20-17, 2:25pm
Ahhhhh.... We know our place (if I Was male, I'd tug my forelock, as it is, I'll just curtsey!)
Ahhhhh.... We know our place (if I Was male, I'd tug my forelock, as it is, I'll just curtsey!)
I don't make the rules, I just explain them. We are the people who put Matt Damon on the Great Wall of China and cast John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Don't come looking to us for sensitivity and cosmopolitanism. There's no money in that.
IshbelRobertson
3-20-17, 3:17pm
Priceless!
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