While everyone flocks to theaters to witness the live-action Disney remake of their own 1991 animated hit Beauty and the Beast, this time starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, and gads more actors, it seems like a nice opportunity to take a look at how a timeless tale of a bookish girl falling in love with a creepy monster transcends any one interpretation. Since the French fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve was first published in 1740, then edited into a more popular version that proliferated at the end of the 1800s, La Belle et la Bête has been a fertile source for film and television adaptations.
So here’s a quick glimpse of nine other versions -- and before you ask, no, we won’t even bother with the ’91 Disney movie, nor will we deal with the larger world of thematic adaptations (everything from the various versions of King Kong to something like Edward Scissorhands). Let’s look at some other interesting permutations, with an admittedly perfunctory rating of the relative “beastliness” of the Beast in each version…
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So here’s a quick glimpse of nine other versions -- and before you ask, no, we won’t even bother with the ’91 Disney movie, nor will we deal with the larger world of thematic adaptations (everything from the various versions of King Kong to something like Edward Scissorhands). Let’s look at some other interesting permutations, with an admittedly perfunctory rating of the relative “beastliness” of the Beast in each version…
Continue reading…
Continue reading...