Talk:Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)/@comment-1672596-20140807173331/@comment-1672596-20141020015059

"It isn't going to stay close to the outdated original fairy tale. It's going to be an adaptation of the Broadway show. At least, that's what I heard."

Okay, that's the next best thing, since they at least gave Belle more internally beautiful aspects.

"Also, I have to ask, why is it important that we see Belle being able to recognize and discern good literature from bad literature? What point does that serve the story?"

Well, if the story takes place during the prelude to the French Revolution as Glen Keane indicated (in other words, some time between 1770 and 1789), it would dissuade any potential (not to mention disastrous) implications that she'll either join the Jacobins or otherwise meet the same fate as Marie Antoinette in a betrayal of trust (remember, Antoinette was herself a fangirl of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and she was killed by what amounts to her fanclub, the Jacobins). Certainly, it would regain my trust in Belle if she did discern good literature from bad literature, especially considering how a crappy college education, not to mention extensive self-study of the French Revolution and its persecution on us Christians leading up to the 21st Century, basically destroyed my trust in her. And the reason that directly relates to the French Revolution is because the Jacobins were huge book lovers as well, and in fact did all of their horrific actions specifically to emulate, heck, create even, the kind of world Jean-Jacques Rousseau envisioned, and there was even some evidence that Marquis de Sade's works had also been involved (and unlike Rousseau, Sade actually lived during the Revolution). Some discernment of books' natures would actually work to dissuade from doing evil.

"And another thing, the Bimbettes were brainless blonde stereotypes that existed for comic relief purposes. They were not foils for Belle, and they were not stand-ins to the wicked sisters from the original tale. They were absent during most of the movie because they were essentially extras."

Maybe, but the problem is that the triplets overall behavior (especially when Belle does a lot of morally and intellectually questionable things in the film, far too many instances to actually make her internally beautiful, brains or not), heck, their physical appearance even (especially when, with their bods, they'd easily fit in with something like Team Ninja's Dead or Alive series, and in fact one of the characters, Helena Douglas, actually did resemble them), basically outclassed Belle regarding both spectrums of beauty, who was explicitly referred to as beauty unparalleled, which as a result unintentionally cheapened the entire moral (since the main protagonist, which Belle is, is supposed to either be the embodiment of the story's moral or otherwise learn said moral, which she does neither). And since they are pretty much the only girls in the village who get any consistent focus, and it was pretty clear they were meant to be unlike Belle in every way save for possibly moral alignment, hence, they were at least foils, even if not standins for the wicked sisters (though let's be honest, they were the closest thing to standins, and they didn't get that right). Heck, Vanessa, compared to Ariel in The Little Mermaid, actually was shown to be internally ugly as intended and thus made exceptionally good use of her screentime, and not only was she essentially an extra, she wasn't even her own character, comic relief or otherwise, she was a disguise for the main villain, and that was with a film that doesn't even use true beauty comes from within as a moral. I don't even like the triplets, and I actually like Belle more than them, yet even I am forced to concede they fit internal beauty more than Belle did from the limited actions we do see from them.

Not that it matters, though, the musical at least improved on that by making them garish in comparison to Belle in terms of physical appearances (they actually look like the prostitutes from Pirates of the Caribbean in that version), not to mention given several hints at being impure, like actually being shown mocking Maurice (unlike in the film, where they most likely didn't even know Maurice had entered the tavern), explicitly gossiping against Belle, not to mention being implied to have frequently slept with Gaston as well as fighting amongst themselves. And since the film's likely to be based on the musical, that will be a good consolation prize.