When I saw Beauty and the Beast a few months ago it was the first time I'd been to the theater in 3 years. It was totally worth it. Most movies I'm willing to wait until they come out on Netflix but this was worth the effort to get out. (With three littles it is an effort.)
Honestly, I wasn't initially planning on going to see Beauty and the Beast, but the response from people was just been so overwhelmingly positive, that I thought perhaps I should give it a shot, and I should check it out. In preparation for it and in excitement for it, I looked for my old Beauty and the Beast CD, and I didn't find it. I found all the other old Disney ones, but I couldn't find Beauty and the Beast. So I bought the new one, which is great because it has all the new songs on it from the new movie.
was getting excited as I was listening to the soundtrack, and a friend of mine and I head to the movies, we stopped for 7-Eleven for snacks, we drove to the movie theater. We got in our seats and we're ready to watch it. We're both really excited, and then the first scene, or maybe perhaps the second scene, Belle comes on the screen. Then, it was like it came crashing back to me, why I loved Belle so very much.
started thinking back to the other Disney princess, Disney movies. They were all princesses, right? So, Snow White was a princess, Cinderella was not that relatable, even though she wasn't really a princess. I never watched Sleeping Beauty, but I know that she was a princess. I guess Anastasia was sort of a princess. I didn't find Pocahontas to be overly relatable, and Princess Jasmine was a princess. Ariel was a princess, and also a mermaid, doesn't make her overly relatable.
ut, whilst out on the street, in Beauty and the Beast, out walks Belle, and Belle is wearing blue, my favorite color. She has brown hair. I have brown hair. She loves books, and I love books. And I remember that feeling, when I first saw her, and I was 10, looking at Belle and thinking "oh look, that's like me." She's a brunette, and she doesn't dress up, and she loves books. I don't think I expected to have just this emotional reminder, as to how much I loved her.
ow that I have three boys, I'm not overly concerned about one of them thinking they can grow up to be a princess, although I suppose they could. But I am aware and concerned of the messages that Disney sells them. This is coming from a pretty big fan of Disney. I still feel it is necessary to have all these disclaimers when I read them Sleeping Beauty, like "just so you know, you can't do that. You're not allowed to kiss a woman she's sleeping."
o, with that being said, I was watching Beauty and the Beast, and I thought this movie requires no disclaimer. This is a young woman, who is dissatisfied with where she lives. She's fiercely loyal to her family. She has this desire to try new things, and invent and imagine, and she does it unapologetically. She's not willing to compromise simply because there's a status quo that everyone would like to maintain. That's before she even meets the vicious beast. You learn all about that, you learn all of that about her.
hen, of course there's the love story. The first thing that the beast is attracted to in Belle, or one of the things that he likes about her, is that she tells him what she thinks. She uses her mind, and one of the first things that makes Belle even look at the Beast as something other than a Beast, of course, is the fact that he can quote Shakespeare. It's their love of books and the academic and their respect for each other that brings them close together. If he were too tough to quote Shakespeare to her, or if she was too mild mannered to speak back to him, their love story would never happen.
s opposed to many Disney movies where you get the feeling that once they get married, it's sort of over, at the end of Beauty and the Beast, you get the feeling that when they get married, it's really just beginning. That their love for each other will just continue, and they all of these happy, wonderful people around them, and that they will truly appreciate each other.
nd looking at Belle, and looking at a young girl, or a young woman, you might look at Belle and look up to Belle. She is quite a character, and I can't wait to watch the movie again, with my boys, so they can see another example of a fearless, strong-willed, educated, imaginative, inventive woman, who is no less female and no less beautiful.
o, thank you Disney for Beauty and the Beast.
Who is your favorite Disney princess?
xoxo,
Tovah