Dissertations not needed for Beauty and the Beast

Last Thursday night I went to the Lynn Theater to watch Beauty and the Beast. I figured I'd grab a bite to eat first then walk on over a few minutes ahead of time to grab a good seat.

As I walked to the box office I noticed the line. Now I’m hoping I can grab any seat.

The experience itself was wonderful and, funny enough, an accurate description my life so far in Gonzales. A theater filled with kids, parents and me. Kind of like my job at the paper where I cover kids playing games with parents around yelling. A lot less yelling on Thursday night, thankfully.

In the interest of honesty, I walked into the theater wearing two different hats. One was the hat of a life-long Disney fan, looking to spark that nostalgic feeling of being a kid again watching a Disney movie. The other was the hat of a writer hoping to find a good story to write of the experience.

I watched, I laughed, I enjoyed the changes of the remake but by the end of the credits I sat there with no column idea other than “that movie was cool.” Fortunately, I don’t get paid to write movie reviews.

But then through social media I saw various reviews being shared of the movie. One came from theringer.com by K. Austin Collins whose column titled “‘Beauty and the Beast’ is plain boring” with the subhead “The live-action remake of the 1991 Disney classic hits all the right nostalgic notes — if only it dared to take a few more risks.”

That put a damper on my high spirits.

I saw another review, this coming from the Guardian’s Wendy Ide who called the “recasting of the Disney classic” “ornate to the point of desperation.”

I know how the game works. We live in an age where publications are constantly finding ways to produce content. But can we agree that sometimes, it’s not worth hitting that send button for certain column ideas. This may be more a commentary of the business of movie reviews but do we really have to go out of our way to write a think piece on this Disney remake?

I’m not just talking about the negative reviews either. I have seen critics praise Disney for their courage in adding that gay scene in the film. As funny as that moment was — plenty of laughs at the Lynn where I watched — I didn’t think too much of it. It shouldn’t be a big deal in 2017, though I understand the current struggles of the LGBTQ community. However, calling LeFou (Gaston’s sidekick) a celebration of diversity is pushing it.

I’ve had this argument with friends of mine in reference to bad movies. It is all about expectations. For instance, when I went to watch one of the many Transformers movies that Michael Bay directed, I knew I was coming in to just watch a bunch of explosions and robots doing cool stuff. After watching the spectacle that was a Michael Bay movie, I knew a dissertation wasn’t needed.

The other week I watched Finding Dory, another movie that though it has that message of turning your faults into strengths, I don’t think we need psychologists weighing in for movie reviews.

The academic in me is yelling, telling me that everything must be analyzed, but that’s not a way to live, at least that’s what the simpler side of me is saying it’s OK to just enjoy a movie for what it is, pure entertainment.

If you know the story of Beauty and the Beast, you’re going to enjoy this live-action remake. Boring, as Collins called it, seems kind of harsh. But again, it’s a Disney movie. If you’re looking for the complexities of a theatrical masterpiece, then you’ve come to the wrong place. At least, that’s not why I spent my Thursday night with a bunch of kids and parents again.