Landan Land The Personal Blog of Landan Crosslin

Analyzing Beauty and the Beast

This past Sunday I was eating lunch with some friends from church and the topic of Disney movies came up. I think it branched off from your typical gender superiority discussion (you know, who's the better sex). Anyways, the conversation inevitably ended up with three women trying to psychoanalyze Disney movies. They talked about the tendency for Disney protagonists to have no mother. Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderalla, Lilo, etc.

My favorite Disney fairytale is probably Beauty in the Beast. It's a really great movie, the only animated film to be nominated for a best picture Academy Award. Everything about the film is top notch; the voice acting, the animation, the pacing, and the musical numbers. It also has the most interesting premise of all the Disney fairy tales, the idea that love transcends beauty. Ancient philosophers used to believe that outward beauty was a sign of inner beauty. This is our natural inclination as well. Studies have shown that physically attractive people are paid more, get more breaks, and have more successful partners (that one specifically is kind of a no brainer).

Shakespeare fell into the camp of people who put all the emphasis in love on physical appearances.  If you read his sonnets, a great many of them are extremely unromantic. In several of them, he describes the beauty of the beloved disappearing with age and pleads with her to have children to pass her beauty on to the next generation.

Beauty and the Beast however, suggests the idea that beauty or the lack thereof does not get in the way of love. This is a really idealistic view of love, but I've met a small number of people who I would say exemplify this.

In addition to the Disney version of the film, there's a famous french film, La Belle et la Bête (1946), that's adapted from the same fairytale. The differences between the two versions are quite interesting. Other than topical differences such as animated vs. filmed and musical vs. drama, there are some interesting differences in plot and character. Belle in the Disney film is independent and intelligent. She's tired of her life as a lower middle class inventor's daughter. She "wants more than this provincial life". The Belle from La Belle on the other hand is self-sacrificing. She's offered marriage by a seemly young man, who she later admits she's attracted to, but refuses because she wishes to stay at home with her sickly father.

The Disney Beast is abusive and short tempered, but is slowly brought around by the caring nature of Belle. She completely brings about a change in character through the power of her love and reforms him into a considerate, loving, gentleman (it works in real life too...right?). The Beast of La Belle on the other hand is not abusive at all. His antagonistic side comes from being bound to the laws of the spells placed on him, which is why Belle must come stay with him. Probably the worst side of his character comes at a moment when he literally starts to steam with jealousy.

I think it's pretty obvious what these differences between the two interpretations reveal about the cultural views from which they come. Two stories with the exact same basic plot can say entirely different things. I find that interesting.