For those of you unfamiliar with the plot of the movie, here's the gist. A young prince fails to show hospitality to a woman who ends up having the power to curse he, his castle and all who dwell there. The curse causes the rich young ruler to become a beast rather than a human. It also causes his servants to become objects rather than human and the castle becomes increasingly deteriorated. The young prince and his castle are doomed unless the curse can be reversed.
In the 2017 version of the film they do an excellent job of showing the curse's progression. As the curse continues it progresses; the castle groans and crumbles a bit more, the servants become more like stiff clocks, wardrobes or candelabras than human beings.
The only way the curse in both versions of the film can be reversed is if the beastly, rich young man can give up his selfishness and earn the love of a young woman.
Of course (and if this is a spoiler alert you need to get to a movie at least once every several decades) Belle, the beauty, wins over the Beast and eventually the two fall in love and the curse is broken, and I'm sure they live happily ever after.
The 2017 version does a tremendous job of showing the unending progression of the corruption of the curse. It also shows the reversal of the curse in a beautiful way. The castle walls that once groaned and crumbled become bright and strong. The people who had been dehumanized kept their identifiable characteristics while transforming at once into their original human design. The Beast is changed from an animal to a man that the Beauty could marry.
I couldn't help but notice as I watched the climax of the live action version of Beauty and the Beast how much this story and so many good stories take their lead from the greatest story ever told.
See, when the curse came humans lost so much of what the original design of humanity was. We became too often objectified and animalistic. The dwelling place of man began to crumble, to be more dingy and to groan. But when Beauty wins the Beast and the curse is fully reversed we will see the dwelling place of man as it was designed to be, we will see our perfected bodies as they were originally planned to be, we will see each other not as objects or animals but as beautiful people. And the best part, Beauty will come live with the former Beast made truly man. God Himself will make His dwelling place with man on the New Heaven and New Earth.
Pray for the curse to be reversed. And if you do go to see Beauty in the Beast try not to miss the Gospel, whether it was meant to be included or not, today.
Hmm, I was waiting to hear your analysis on the homosexuality pushed by Disney into the innocent minds of children.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the movie I thought that I would have never thought that the character was gay if not for the director and actor saying he was. It seemed to me to be a publicity stunt to generate buzz for the movie. As for homosexuality being "pushed" in media I believe that the constant sexualization of everything is overboard. I never watched a kids movie and wondered about the sexuality of a character before, it's really unnecessary to the plot of this movie in particular.
ReplyDeleteAs Christians I think we need to make decisions about what we want to show our children. This post was not prescriptive but descriptive. That being said, I don't think a kid would ever notice the half-second clip of the character dancing with another man. It really was overblown by many and unnecessary to the movie.