Source: Facebook
"Beauty and the Beast" is probably the most heterosexual film I've seen in a while - everybody got a pair, pair is good, love is everywhere, singing, dancing and discovering what it is to be in a committed relationship.
Oh, right, you probably don't know...
For those who don't know, there's been a large debate and a conflicting report about... gay propaganda in the film, and the concern was raised by one of the MPs. Where, you might ask? Russia. The country of traditional values and empowering beliefs, the Protector of the Old Way, the True and Only.
Well, I'm not a big fan of anything forced. I mean, I would be against forcing - I *am* against forcing - the topic of homosexuality into every film, forcing the diversification of races just to fill the quota, turning every single man into a chauvinistic pig or every single woman into a capable on her own lead (for those who are getting aroused to start criticising, I repeat again - if it's done in a FORCING WAY TO FILL THE QUOTA, because nowadays we HAVE TO, not because it makes sense or because one wants it for his creative reasons).
But having said all that, and after having watched 'Beauty and the Beast', I find it hard to find any grounds for ANY accusations that were raised in Russia (the film got a 16+ rating in the country; a fairy tale that praises a marriage, love, kindness and commitment is not suitable for children below 16 years old). A gay character? Yes, we, the adults, might suspect and understand it, because we know the world, know the life, but kids? They just see a more or less nice guy who is friends with a baddie, and then turns good. A man being dresses as a woman by a singing wardrobe? Yes, we, the adults, get the point about getting out of one's closet. Kids? They laugh, because it's goofy and silly - a baddie being dressed up in an old-fashioned way and smiling about it. An innocent clownesque moment, which works well for the light comedy effort.
Two guys accidentally hitting hands in a dance during the final ball scene and looking at each other? Yes, we, the adults... you get the point.
But the film actually lost its licence to be shown in the cinemas of Kazakhstan because of this 'gay issue'. After that it's hard NOT to think that people who tirelessly fight against all this 'West influence' with its LGBT-rights and such read too much into the stuff, because they... well, they sit in a closet themselves.
Adding these elements into the film serves two points - adds some comedic moments for the grown-up audience and relax us into the idea that they homosexual people do exist and they might not be as bad as the 'traditional values' want to portray them. I would argue that adding this wasn't completely necessary, but living in this xenophobic-filled world of nowadays probably prompts some reminder.
The film itself was... a shot-by-shot remake of the original animated feature, it was nice and warm, kind and epic, but doesn't really merit to stand on its own, without one of the greatest work by Disney.