A wave of nostalgia hit me as I saw Emma Watson as Belle casually strolling into her provincial town and delicately tucking away a stray piece of hair while swinging her basket around.I had been excitedly waiting to see the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast, not only because of its excellent cast, but also because Belle had always exceeded the expectations of what a Disney Princess should be.
I remember getting my grimy, kindergarten hands on a brand new VCR copy. I watched, rewinded, and replayed–so many times that it broke in three months. To me, Belle was intelligent. She was adventurous, clever, and even a bit quirky. She was compassionate, loyal, but incredibly stubborn. And despite the, albeit, obvious fact that she fell in love with the same man that held her captive (another point for another day), she was a feminist to me before I even knew what the definition of a feminist was. See, Belle never changed. She was the one to have changed the Beast, and that was also what drew me to her.
However, when I watched the remake of the film, I was more than surprised. I was taken aback at the lengths at which Disney took to recreate a whole new kind of Belle. In short, the new rendition stirred so much complexity to a beloved character that I thought, in my lunchbox days, was already perfect as is. While Belle embodied the qualities of someone whom I aspired to be, there was always a stigma attached to it in the original version. Yes, in the animated version, Belle is smart and she can read. But the new Belle isn’t just the inventor’s daughter, she is an inventor herself.
Her hair is still neatly tucked and twisted into the kind of hairstyle you can only imagine a Disney princess could ever have. She’s still wearing the iconic blue apron dress. And yet, it’s made quite clear that she’s wearing pants underneath a seemingly feminine dress, and to top it all off, opts for a pair of trusty combat boots.
In the original version, Belle throws herself across her bed, apparently in disgust and anger about her new home. Watson’s Belle also defiantly fights back at the Beast, knowing full well what she got herself into. But instead of weeping at the corner of her bed, she decides that she’s going to attempt to break out. The audience can see her creative mind at work, finding a way to escape. These slight shifts may not be visible to the common eye, but to me, it was commendably noticeable.
The princess of my childhood is quite different from the Belle that little girls are seeing today. And I am perfectly all right with that. They will see a woman who is not afraid to sacrifice herself for what she believes in. They will see a ferocious fighter with a heart of gold and a kind of courage that is fueled by her own spitfire. I am hardly one to say that this live action was absolute perfection in comparison to that of the original. But perhaps it was an improvement, providing the audience with a hopeful heroine who is so much more than the provincial town she resides in.
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