A Case Study on Theme: Beauty and the Beast (1991 vs. 2017)
Others have well criticized the live-action remakes of animated classics like Beauty and the Beast. Video essayists have raised many valid points, such as the awkward ways in which Disney seemed to be trying to pander to nit-picky, bad-faith criticism of the original story or the weird choices made in order to keep the remakes musicals.
Even so, I haven’t seen anyone address the specific point I want to look at here. In my opinion, the primary problem with this remake is the ways in which they broke the central theme of the original, which culminated in a godawful finale in the 2017 version.
So what was the original theme?
Obviously, any great work of fiction can have more than one theme, but there is usually one central theme that any other themes hang on; a trunk from which other themes can branch. The themes of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast deal with prejudice, freedom, love, and forgiveness. And the 2017 remake fumbles basically all of those. But none more egregiously than the “trunk” that made ‘91 so great.
It is uncontroversial to say that the central theme of Beauty and the Beast is “Who you are—not how you look—is what matters.” We see this in the character arcs of all the main players.
BEAST
Beast is cursed to appear as hideously on the outside as his inward self.
This happens because he judges the enchantress based on her appearances.
Beast assumes Belle wants nothing to do with him because of his appearance, not understanding that it’s his actions that communicate his monstrosity.
Beast learns to put others needs above his own, loving freely even when there is nothing to be gained.
BELLE
Belle chooses to sacrifice herself for her father even after seeing the magnitude of Beast’s… beastliness.
Belle begins to fall in love with Beast as soon as his inward self begins to transform.
Belle leaves Beast, despite admitting she is happy with him, to save her father, further highlighting her ability to love sacrificially.
Belle’s love of Beast reaches fulfillment only when his inward transformation is complete.
THE VILLAGERS
The villagers idolize Gaston (to the point of following him into danger) because he appears handsome, put together, and capable.
The villagers hate the beast because he looks hideous and ferocious.
MAURICE
Maurice gets himself into danger in the woods trying desperately to save his daughter when no one else believes him and is willing to help, showcasing his sacrificial love for his daughter and his firm belief that she could not be safe with a hideous beast.
GASTON
Gaston believes that Belle must love him because she’s the only woman as attractive as he is.
Gaston’s worldview doesn’t allow the possibility that something or someone ugly could be worthy of love.
Gaston’s downfall is his refusal (or inability?) to look past appearances to see the beauty within Beast.
In the animated feature, every creative choice in the movie supports this theme. No plot developments are random, pointless, or superfluous. The same cannot be said for the remake.
How did the 2017 Remake Miss the Mark?
In the remake, many of the plot beats remain the same, and thus support the same theme, but all the changes to the original classic repeatedly undermine the theme. Instead of changing the theme, they simply muddled it, making it nearly unrecognizable.
Again and again subtle changes are introduced that distort the central theme. Most of these are better explored in the Lindsey Ellis video linked above, but I’ll list them here, nonetheless.
BEAST
Beast’s crime is more than just being rude to an ugly old lady, but also taxing his kingdom too heavily to finance his prodigal lifestyle, which introduces greed as an additional vice and convolutes the theme (especially since this plot thread is never explored, and he is never shown giving back to the kingdom; when the curse is lifted, everyone remembers the prince but doesn’t seem to care that his politics were cruel, and he’s again throwing a big party… but I guess now some less conventionally attractive folks are invited, so… progress?)
Beast is given a tragic backstory complete with dead mother and abusive father, suggesting that, to some extent, his monstrosity isn’t his fault, which undermines the enchantress’ choice to teach him a lesson. Shouldn’t she have intervened in the father’s life to protect the child?
Beast makes little to no effort to begin changing for Belle, undermining the idea that she begins to love him for who he is.
Beast doesn’t invite Belle to make herself at home, and is angry that his servants gave her a room better than the tower cell.
Beast doesn’t give Belle the library as a self-motivated gesture of kindness, instead showing off for her in an effort to impress her with… appearances.
BELLE
Belle intends to escape from Beast’s castle as soon as possible, meaning her loving sacrifice to save her father was only a strategic bluff, which undercuts the inner beauty she displays to the Beast.
Belle offers up the idea of starving as a more desirable outcome than dining with Beast, an insult that lessens the impact of the Beast’s reaction to her refusal.
Belle tells the Beast she can never be happy with him as long as she’s a prisoner, which lessens the impact of Beast’s choice to release her, as he’s not sending away the one woman who might love him, but a woman who has basically said she would never love him until he freed her.
THE VILLAGERS
The villagers seem relatively indifferent to Gaston, needing to be bribed into singing his praises, which shows that his outward appearance as a handsome war hero isn’t enough to gain their loyalty.
The villagers are suspicious of Gaston based on Maurice’s (who they suspect might be insane) claims, again suggesting that they can look past appearances to judge others when needed.
MAURICE
Goes looking for Belle with Gaston, and only gets into trouble when Gaston attacks him and ties him up, leaving him for dead… which is almost immediately undone when he’s rescued by Agatha.
However, all the issues pale in comparison to how the 2017 film butchered Gaston, ruining his arc and fully proving that the makers either did not know what made the ‘91 film so powerful (or worse, did not care).
GASTON
Gaston is more bloodthirsty and violent, which undermines the idea that his fatal flaw is his shallowness and concern with outward appearances.
Gaston’s bloodthirst and violence are tied to some kind of possible PTSD from time in “the war” which again suggests his monstrosity isn’t his fault.
This also removes the impact of his transformation in the finale, as it isn’t the love of Belle and Beast, a worldview shattering fact he cannot comprehend, that turns him from overbearing jock into full on villain. It’s who he was all along.
This of course brings us to the most egregious change in the entire movie: how they ruined the finale.
The Finale
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
In case you haven’t seen it for a while, let me recap. In the animated classic, the finale starts with the villagers enthusiastically following Gaston into danger, convinced that only a handsome hero can protect them from a hideous beast.
Soon enough, the villagers are trounced by the enchanted servants, but Gaston isn’t giving up so easily. He is somehow convinced that killing the beast will further his goal of marrying Belle, a woman he is infatuated with, but has no real love for.
Gaston ruthlessly attacks and taunts Beast, who refuses to fight back; without Belle, he has no will to live. But then, Belle appears! Suddenly, Beast is a terrifying foe.
Nonetheless, Gaston is undeterred. “Did you honestly think she’d want you when she had someone like me?!” To Gaston, Belle is still an object to be claimed as soon as the rival claimant is dead.
But Beast embraces his appearance and hides among the misshapen gargoyles. He is animalistic and ferocious, and he grabs Gaston by the throat, holding him over a ledge, threatening to kill him.
In that moment, Gaston begins to plead for his life. Beast, overcoming the hideous inner self once and for all, spares Gaston and shows him mercy. “Get out,” he growls. This act of undeserved kindness shown to an enemy proves that Beast’s inward transformation is complete. His love for Belle has made him better than he was.
In a moment of triumph, Belle arrives on the balcony and calls to Beast, who climbs to her, shocked and thrilled that she has returned. “You came back,” he whispers, in awe; it’s almost a question.
But Gaston still isn’t finished. In his mind, he cannot lose. Beautiful people don’t lose. He scales the roof after Beast and stabs him in the back, an action that is intimately treacherous. Beast, startled by the sudden pain, rears back. This reaction knocks Gaston off balance, sending him to his death.
Then Beast transforms, happily ever after, etc. etc. the end.
In this movie, the villain dies because of his own arrogance and inability to be changed by love or see past appearances.
Who you are—not how you look—is what matters.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
The remake’s finale is, again, quite similar, with changes that seem minor, but ruin the entire thesis of the film. Strap in, because this finale is a mess.
Gaston, now armed with a pistol, shoots the Beast, who falls from the balcony. Belle, who is already in the castle at the window, confronts Gaston. She breaks his crossbow bolts and then demands to know where Beast is. Gaston insists they will wed and that Beast’s head will be among his antler-themed interior design choices.
Belle tries to snag his pistol, and the castle begins to crumble.
(Note: this is a plot thread that is hinted at earlier but they never even try to explain it; as the rose wilts, the castle falls apart… Fall in love by the time the rose wilts or stay a beast forever… and your servants lose their humanity… and your castle collapses around you? Is that really part of the curse? And why?! Why condemn Beast to an eternity of hideousness if part of the curse is that his home will come falling down on him? Is that some kind of mercy clause?!? And believe me, I’m not just nit-picking; this creative choice has serious narrative consequences, which we will get to.)
Gaston falls to a lower level and drops his pistol. He begins to go after it (or maybe he’s chasing Beast? It’s not super clear) and Belle pursues him.
Meanwhile, Beast is leapfrogging from tower to tower… I guess to get away from Gaston? Again, it’s not super clear. There isn’t much in the way of clear establishing shots to show where the characters are in relation to one another.
Eventually, Belle sees Beast (dumb luck I guess? Or maybe she was looking for him all along?) They share a less intimate moment where, from a few dozen yards apart, Beast shouts “You came back!” He’s shocked and pleased, but has yet to have his moment of true transformation. They are like fifty feet apart and he’s yet to show mercy to an enemy, so this moment falls very flat.
He begins leaping to Belle, but is soon intercepted by falling rocks from his castle (which, again, is falling apart because that’s an unspoken part of the curse). Oh wait, it’s also Gaston. Did he knock the rocks onto Beast, or was it just unlucky that they fell there as he was jumping down? The movie doesn’t show us, so it’s not clear.
Either way, Gaston begins attacking Beast, who gets knocked about a bit before remembering that he is much larger and stronger than Gaston (at least, that’s how it feels; he knows Belle is there and can hear her shouting for Gaston to stop attacking, so the “no will to fight” explanation doesn’t fit). He overcomes Gaston and holds him, by the throat, over the edge of the parapet.
Here the 2017 script does one thing I kind of like. While pleading for his life, Gaston says “Don’t hurt me, Beast.” Beast’s countenance changes. His anger dissipates. He pulls Gaston back in. “I am not… a beast.”
Kudos. Credit where it’s due, that was a good line. A little cliche, but it works for me. Unfortunately, pounding the theme drum this late in the game, right before the biggest screw up of them all… doesn’t help that much.
Beast spares Gaston and tells him to get out. Gaston begins to run away, and Beast makes one last leap across a gap (one which seems smaller than the other massive leaps he’s already made without much difficulty, though Belle shouts “Don’t! It’s too far!”)
Beast stands there awkwardly smiling at Belle (no tender embrace, no gentle caress of the face, no holding hands) before we hear a shot ring out. Beast stumbles to his knees, revealing Gaston, who managed to find the pistol he dropped earlier and climb back to the bridge he’d just been on but ran away from (to get the pistol off screen I guess? Again, it’s not super clear where anything is in relation to anything else).
Belle shouts “Please!” (at least, that’s what it sounds like, and the subtitles confirm it). It’s possible she’s shouting to Gaston, as in “Please don’t finish reloading and shoot again!” (which, to be fair Gaston is doing that), but she’s not looking towards Gaston at all, and he’s got to be about 30 feet away, and the whole castle is crumbling, so it’s hard to imagine she can see or hear what he’s doing.
But Gaston does shoot again (Belle incidentally, watches him take aim and has ample time to prove her love by trying to like… block the shot with her body, and does not do so) and then the bridge collapses beneath him, sending him to his death.
*Beast transforms, happily ever after, yadda yadda, the end.
Oof. What a mess.
Not only did they remove the intensity and symbolic significance of Gaston stabbing Beast in the back (a huge mistake), they also made it so Gaston’s final choice had no impact on the story.
He died because the castle was poorly constructed. (or magically falling apart… seriously, can you tell how confusing, tacked on, and pointless the crumbling of the castle feels to me?)
Think about the implications for a second. In a narrative, the choices of characters should always have consequences that matter. If two wildly different choices lead to the same outcome, then there’s no reason to even write the choice into the narrative.
Let’s say that Gaston, after having been shown mercy, had a change of heart. What if his arc was meant to be redemptive. Imagine that Beast spares his life, and Gaston, moved to tears, decides to sit down and contemplate the mistakes and life choices that led him to this point.
The castle was still crumbling, and so he still would have died. His death wasn’t the result of his wicked, merciless, underhanded choice to climb into a precarious place and stab a powerful creature in the back. It was dumb luck. His death no longer serves the hammering home of the theme. With one last pathetic whimper, the makers of this movie have gutted one of the most powerful villain deaths.
So what?
The lesson here is not “Disney is bad!” nor is it “Soulless, cash-grab remakes that prey on nostalgia are bad.” Though I do think that second idea is true.
The lesson here is that when you write, you need to make sure that your characters are all serving the theme. Don’t add in plot threads that go nowhere. Don’t rob choices of value by writing disconnected consequences. Don’t try to make your villain cartoonishly evil if it interferes with his ability to be a foil to the hero.
I recently saw a tweet that I love by Kate Allen Fox. She said “Write until you find the heart of the story. Revise until everything else in the story supports that heart.”
If you do that, you can be quite sure your story will be a 1991, not a 2017.
*Though it wasn’t pertinent to the point I was making, and it was starting to feel like I was just piling on to an already awful finale, I did want to mention that before the Beast transforms in 2017, we get a few agonizing minutes in which the runtime is padded by some truly bizarre creative choices. The movie goes out of the way to show that the last petal falls before Belle confesses her love, which is exactly opposite of what happens in ‘91. The servants all turn into 100% inanimate objects. As this is happening, Chip falls in from… somewhere? For some reason? But is immediately caught, placed gently on a tea cart, and then turned into a tea-cup. Then Agatha/the enchantress waltzes into the room where Beast’s body and Belle are. Belle says “I love you” and Agatha looks up like “Aw… crap, really!?” It gives the whole scene a hilarious tone. Like Belle’s love wasn’t enough to break the curse, she had to say she loved Beast; and it was technically too late, but Agatha felt bad about the curse’s limitations being too vague, so she just reverses death and lifts the curse. What would have happened if Agatha hadn’t heard Belle say that?! And why was she there in the first place? Was she just reclaiming her now-wilted magic rose? But then Agatha looks super confused the whole time Beast is re-humanizing… did she not know what would happen? Was she trying to raise a zom-Beast?! WHAT IS THIS MOVIE AND WHY DID ANYONE LIKE IT GAAAAAH!
Liked that? Then you’ll want to read this.
