So thankful that I saw Beauty & The Beast in 3-D at the local theater. I've been watching that since I was two! At the time, I had a stick-horse named Phillipe and would act out scenes like the library-reveal. I'd sing all of the songs and had a themed birthday party, which was spectacular.
This early love of Beauty & The Beast turned into a love of the fairytale itself. Any adaptation became an instant favorite. I loved the CBS television series, the Jean Cocteau film, and at one point I read the entire anthology of multicultural Beauty and the Beast stories, about women and men who took on the appearance of animal bridegrooms for one reason or another. I was appalled whenever someone suggested Beauty and the Beast taught children bestiality, because Beauty never, in any version, marries a Beast. She always marries the man. And besides, how twisted do you get to say something like that?
I don't think it's a coincidence that CW has announced it's plans to re-boot the CBS BATB series with "a new twist." Guillermo Del Toro has also announced an adaptation with Emma Watson starring as his Beauty. ABC will have its own Beauty and the Beast series but it will be specifically focused on adapting the fairy-tale. I'm thinking that the entertainment industry is hoping re-telling Beauty and the Beast will mark a renaissance as it did for Disney.
Truly, I enjoy any homage to the story and films. I've begun writing a rough-draft of my own adaptation and am spending a lot of time trying to envision what's different about my version. But far from caring about the differences, I really swoon for the similarities and conventional details that makes the story so universal and appreciated across the entire world.
Beauty and the Beast is inside the human subconscious. Like any fairy-tale, it's told again and again to impart the wisdom of its code. Women are mistresses of their households. They have the power to transform anything with love. And more importantly, love sees with the heart and not with the eyes.
