Sunday, April 2, 2017

Plenty of Beast... No Beauty

I saw Beauty and the Beast last night. I'll do a review soon, but for now I want to talk about the leftism within this film. The film was fine. It was good. It was ok. If it had come before the cartoon, there would be no phenomena... no little girls excited to meet Belle. It didn't suck though. But the film was packed with rather interesting stupidity.

Racism: The left loves racism. It loves to think it's being anti-racist, but it isn't. Get this. The opening of the film begins with Hermoine in the village. The village is about 30% black. Keep in mind that this is ancient France, so the presence of these people is odd. And being in such numbers is so obviously a statement that it screams "We are trying to make blacks seem relevant!" How insulting. And why are there no Indians, no other Indians, no Asians, no Hispanics? Is Disney really singling out blacks for being the only race that needs their hands held?

Then it gets worse. When the villagers turn into a mob, all the blacks mysteriously disappear. Either they were raptured or Disney is saying, "blacks are too overly sensitive to be included in this scene... we don't want them whining about being portrayed poorly on screen." Again, how insulting.

There are two interracial romances in the film too. Both involve white men and black women. As I pointed out before, that's by far the statistically least likely paring. What's wrong with black men and white women anyways, Disney? Are Asian women beneath being put into Disney films? Does Disney not believe anyone will accept someone loving an Indian?

Feminism? Ha!: So the whole film has a wicked anti-princess vibe. You stupid little girls need to learn that you don't need no stinking man to save you. Yep. Rip off your princess dresses, get down to your underwear and go fight little girl... hmmm, yeah. Sounds creepy, huh? Well, feminist (and womyn who posed with her shirt off) Emma Watson rips off her dress as she races back to the final battle. Why? Who knows? It has no meaning to the plot. So what does she wear into "battle" then? Her underwear. Yep. This is the period piece version of every "strong woman" role Hollywood has put out in decades -- hot chicks stripped to their underwear blasting away at bad guys. The only thing missing was the five-inch heels and the leather whip. So much for dignity.

Oh, and I must say that Watson's version of Belle sucked. She came across as an unpleasant elitist rather than a charming dreamer. She was nasty about the simps in town, telling us "I am not simple!" (Uh, Emma, "simple folk" means people who live good lives without drama and machinations, not people who are stupid and uneducated.) She insulted the Beast to the point I would have ripped her face off. She was a royal bitch to Gaston to the point that it made no sense he would keep chasing her. So feminism means you're a bitch... and you fight in your underwear. How noble.

Oh, and her acting sucked. She didn't get this role for her skill, I'll tell you that. I'd say she traded on her looks. Surprise!

Don't Blink, Gay Boy: If you weren't told that Gaston's buddy was gay, you might have missed it. It was clear that while Disney wanted credit for including a gay character, they didn't want it being apparent on screen. Out... but not so proud.

And then they did something kind of lousy. The wardrobe dressed three of the attackers in drag and one liked it. Oh my, he's a cross-dresser! Big whoop. Only, Disney then made him gay at the end of the film. Hmm. Having taken psychology courses, I can tell you that few gays cross-dress and cross-dressers as a group are rarely gay. But apparently, if you aren't straight and narrow, Disney thinks you're gay. Way to label people, Mouse House.

Damn Christians: Throughout the movie, Disney slammed small-minded Islam. They made us hate them when they tried to stop a young Belle from teaching another girl to read. They locked up Belle for witchcraft (which happened to be true this time). They screamed "Infidel!" as they did. They denounced science and disassembled Bella's washing machine, which was clearly the product of Satan. Yep. Islam sucks. The only problem... they pinned all of this on Christians. There was no suggestion of Islam in the film. Infidel? Really?

So if we can just shift the sins of anyone onto someone else for convenience, then I think tomorrow I shall start blaming homosexuals for the crimes of poachers... why not?

Gun Control: Gaston used a gun to try to kill the beast rather than an arrow, but Emma broke Gaston's arrows. Talk about a mixed political statement. But at the same time, the piano fired keys at the mob as if it were a machine gun. So are guns good or bad, Disney?

Psychological Problems: Finally, the film was packed with bizarre little changes that seemed to make no sense. They did make sense though when you understood that the left can't process subtlety. In the cartoon, Gaston is a jerk and a blow hard. He dies when he engages in an act of malicious cowardice - he wants to show off to Belle so he decides to kill the Beast. He tries to do so cowardly and he dies. Very Greek tragic. That's not enough for the left though because they don't accept that evil can be small. So this time, he tried to kill Belle's dad first so we know to hate him. The left simply cannot accept the idea that evil is anything less that total and obvious. No wonder they can't spot it.

Like I said above, the film was ok. But the politics of this film were noxious. Disney really should be ashamed.

Thoughts?

19 comments:

Patriot said...

Andrew..based on this recap, while I had no desire to go to a theater to see this movie, I doubt I'll even see it when it's on Amazon. Thanks for the comments.

Ghostwriter said...

So, to please feminazi Emma Watson, Disney did to this story what they did to Sleeping Beauty to please Angelina Jolie?
Can't say I'm surprised. Thank God Walt's not around to see it.

I don't keep up on Disney stuff too much these days. I wonder what those Disney fans, Kit and Rustbelt, might have to say about this turd crapfest.

AndrewPrice said...

Patriot, You won't miss anything special if you pass on this one. If there had never been the cartoon, this would have been a decent but forgettable film 6 out of 10 on first showing, 4 of 10 on repeat viewings. I doubt it would be more than a minor hit, if that.

AndrewPrice said...

Ghostwriter, Sadly, they didn't do this to please angry Mz. Watson. Disney studios are fellow travelers of Mz. Watson. They are pushing an anti-princess, anti-male, anti-Western agenda. I suspect Walt would have fired them all.

AndrewPrice said...

Interesting related aside.

There is an article in the Guardian discussing Marvel (link). Their VP of sales stupidly spoke truth to the intolerant. He said that their sales of minority and female superhero comics are crashing and the reason they are hearing is that their readers are tired of their push for diversity.

Of course, this brought out the long knives, so he backtracked and had to say he didn't think what he just said was true and that they heard from some people who love the new characters. Then he swore at the alter that they would stick with these characters no matter what.

It will be interesting to see if Marvel really does ride these losers to the death to make a point, or if they try to save themselves by a return to more their more classic heroes. Interesting.

ArgentGale said...

Honestly, this is exactly what I expected once they manufactured the gay character and Vanity Fair photoshoot controversies. It's a shame they decided to politicize the story, but it's hardly unusual at this point. For whatever reason most people I know loved the movie, though. Good find on the Marvel article, too. I'm not surprised that the fans are getting tired of it all but I expect Marvel to take the path of media appeasement and virtue signaling myself. After all, what's money compared to letting the world know you're not a bigoted fascist, right?

- Daniel

Anthony said...

Interesting take. My daughters aren't big fan of live action remakes of cartoons so they have expressed no interest in Beauty and the Beast but the film is making dumptruck loads of money over an extended period of time, so it seems to be connecting with its target audience.

One of my favorite lines from the Untouchables is 'It isn't made to be good, its made to be bought'. There is a lot of megabudget pulp floating around, but when that megabudget stuff is making megabucks... I'm not saying a movie has to be stupid to be profitable, but quite a few movies choose to be stupid in order to maximize their chances of being profitable.

On a related note I think comics books are kind of laboratories where crazy risks are taken nowadays because they are so incredibly niche nowadays. The primary importance of modern comics is as incubators for movie, tv and even game scripts/characters. In some of the modern comic books Spider-Man may be a mixed race tranny, but in the (bigger budget, safer) cinematic universe he is a young white guy. That is notable because if it wasn't for games, tv shows and movies 99% of people under 40 would not be able to pick Batman or Superman out of a line-up.

BevfromNYC said...

Disney shoulda' stopped at the fairytale story to animated version to Broadway Musical point. It's tedious beyond that. There are a million fairytales to put to music. They don't need to keep rehashing this one.

AndrewPrice said...

Daniel, To be clear, they didn't politicize the story so much as they injected these stupid leftist ideas. Or said differently, they didn't fundamentally change the story, they just added these tedious leftist moments. You can actually over look them and still enjoy the movie for what it is.

That said, it is annoying. And it does rob the movie of some of its coherence because it changes motivations and takes away some of the beauty and character.

I'll be really curious to see what Marvel does. One interesting comment I saw was that the problem "isn't diversity", it's that they crap on the existing characters when creating the diversity. Frankly, I think that person misses the fact that it's all being done for the same principle. Diversity is as much about subtraction as it is addition the way it's practices.

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony, Marvel is making a ton of money with movies right now, but I wonder if that won't follow. If people are upset about the treatment of their favorites, they will stop going to movies too as it creeps up. And if they aren't interested in the next crop, they won't go to those either. Be interesting to see what happens.

On Beauty and the Beast, this one was going to make a fortune no matter how bad it was. Every young mother who grew up addicted to the cartoon was salivating for months to see it. And honestly, they aren't too picky when it comes to films -- especially when the herd tells them how great it is on Face-stagram. So this works for them.

I think the real test will be if any kids want to see it again in a decade or if these same mothers still like it a decade from now. I think the answer to both is no. It just wasn't magical.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, This was about money... pure and simple. Disney is raping their catalog right now to fill their bottom line. Nothing more, nothing less.

tryanmax said...

I was never particularly enthralled with Beauty and the Beast as an animated feature, so...

Emma Watson is one of the very small handful of actors that would keep me from seeing a movie. Not because of her politics, but because I find her acting stiff and disengaged. If it were up to me, Anna Kendrick would have the role of Belle.

tryanmax said...

As for Disney raping their own catalog, Here's Every Upcoming Live-Action Disney Movie Scheduled For Release, Including 'Mulan', 'Aladdin' And 'The Lion King.'

Kill me now.

Anthony said...

Andrew,

I think the comic book audience is a puddle and comic book movies are an ocean. One sees gender or race swaps in movies only at the margins the mainstream doesn't know about (black Nick Fury, female Ancient One).

I wouldn't die of shock if superhero movies eventually fall off though. There are seemingly hundreds of immortal, near omnipotent villains with the capacity to crush the world if they had an attack of competence ;) .

Anthony said...

Creatively I think Disney is in good shape. They rehash old movies more than I would like, but what is really important is that they offer a stream of quality original content (Zootopia, Inside Out, Tangled, The Frog Princess, Frozen, Wreck it Ralph and Moana spring to mind).

ArgentGale said...

Got it, Andrew, and the Face-stagram herd? LOL! That's exactly what I saw on Facebook myself, actually, right down to the demographic in question. The commenter you mentioned is spot on when it comes to Marvel, too... Changing the ethnicity of an existing character or making one gay, particularly when the character in question has had nothing but opposite sex relationships up until that point, just reeks of cheap cynicism and publicity seeking. But hey at least they can count on the perpetually offended to scold the people who object for their isms and phobias, right? Although to be fair, Anthony is right about the comic readers being a niche compared to the moviegoers and gamers... I remember several articles by Furious D on the subject where he noted that instead of grabbing comics from the grocery store for cheap, which we could do as late as the mid-90s, these days you have to seek out comic shops and pay a fair bit of money from them. Good call on the immortal, near omnipotent villains who always screw themselves, too!

- Daniel

Anthony said...

OT but anyone looking for a good laugh should google Mass Effect Andromeda. It's by most accounts a solid game but the writing, character models and animations are hilariously awful. The video below is NSFW due to language.

https://youtu.be/YJARrs0hrZQ

ArgentGale said...

Anthony, that vid sums up everything I've heard about Andromeda pretty accurately. The previews and BioWare's statements that made it sound like they learned their lessons from Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II and Inquisition interested me enough to where I ended up preordering the Deluxe version. I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but those glitches, animations, and that dialogue (...especially...Sara...pausing...so...much...) haven't left me in any hurry to pick it up. With Persona 5 in the mail I think I can live without playing it a while longer!

- Daniel

Koshcat said...

Andrew,

You had me at Watson and underwear. Plot? Who cares!

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