Now, first of all, let me start this off by saying that I love Beauty and the Beast. It’s always been one of my favourite Disney movies, and is probably going to remain one for a good long time. The characters are lovely, the music (both songs and background variety) is amazing and vibrant, the Beast’s animation team and Robby Benson do an astounding job of making him a truly compelling character. I even like the annoying kid character, and they usually drive me nuts.
But.
Well, I was watching Paw’s review of it the other day, and that inspired me to watch the movie again for the first time in years, and I noticed something that’s just completely shaken my entire concept of the Disney classic. It happens early on, and so fortunately doesn’t require me to summarize the entire film in order to get there. For the benefit of those of you who either have managed to live your entire lives without seeing the movie or, more likely, just don’t remember the specifics of a movie you haven’t seen since you were kids, I’ll let Wikipedia cover the necessary basics:
An enchantress disguised as an old beggar woman offers a young prince a rose in exchange for a night’s shelter. When he turns her away, she punishes him by transforming him into an uglyBeast and turning his servants into furniture and other household items. She gives him a magic mirror that will enable him to view faraway events, and she gives him the rose, which will bloom until his twenty-first birthday. He must love and be loved in return before all the rose’s petals have fallen off, or he will remain a Beast forever.
Ten years later, a young, beautiful woman known as Belle comes along …
And the story continues, la la la. Poor inventor’s father gets in trouble, Belle rescues him, Stockholm Syndrome sets in and is in turn replaced by the afore-required true love. We have conflict, and pouffy gold dresses, and the Mob Song which remains one of my favourite Disney songs of all time, and we all go home happy.
There’s just one little problem, and it mostly has to do with math. (more…)
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