What we really need is an adaptation of the original 1740 The Beauty and the Beast

So were you aware that the The Beauty and the Beast story we all know is a heavily abridged and rewritten version of a much longer novella by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve?  And that a lot of the plot holes existing in the current versions exist because the 1756 rewrite cut out the second half of the novella, which consisted entirely of the elaborate backstory that explains all the weird shit that happened before?  And that the elaborate backstory is presented in a way that’s kind of boring because the novel had only just been invented in 1740 and no one knew how they worked yet, but contains a bazillion awesome ideas that beg for a modern retelling?  And that you are probably not aware that the modern world needs this story like air but the modern world absolutely needs this story like air?  Allow me to explain:

The totally awesome elaborate backstory that explains Beauty and the Beast

Keep reading

Eu fiz essas ilustrações durante o Dia dos Namorados de 2022, eu amo demais esse projeto! "Uma moça inteligente e determinada, que para salvar seu pai de uma dívida, vai trabalhar na mansão de um jovem veterano da Segunda Guerra, recluso e amargurado pelas cicatrizes em seu rosto devido ao campo de batalha." >>> I made these during brazilian's Valentine's Day 2022, and I love it so much! "An intelligent and determined lady, to save her father from a debt, decides to work on a manor of a young, World War II vet, recluse and bitter due to the scars in his face caused by the battlefield."

don’t know if this is as ~deep~ as i think it is, but by all of gaston’s own personal standards of identity/values, the beast is a better man than he is: brawnier, bigger, fightier, & of course every last inch of him’s covered in hair

ohmigod, it’s true though!  the beast was basically gaston, and the ticked off fairy turned him into the purest manifestation of his toxic ideals to make him learn to be less of an ass

…..now I really wanna see the version of the movie where instead of dying, the curse passes from the beast to gaston!

except gaston doesn’t have a swag ass castle to sulk in, so he’s out running around the countryside, hiding in forests and stuff, alternately terrorizing the populace and being hunted. it’s a turnabout of his “peerless hunter” backstory– he is now both the monster and the prey.

untillllll he, idk, meets some humble woodcutter(?) that takes him in when he’s wounded or offers him shelter in a storm? and etc, etc, LIFE LESSONS, toxic masculinity slowly vanquished.  (ooh, or maybe it should be like–a flower seller or herbalist or some feminine-coded profession he would have devalued to really set up a foil.)

also the gaston-beast needs antlers.  terrifying claw-hooked sprawling antlers.  antlers for all of his decorating.

BRUH

What we really need is an adaptation of the original 1740 The Beauty and the Beast

So were you aware that the The Beauty and the Beast story we all know is a heavily abridged and rewritten version of a much longer novella by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve?  And that a lot of the plot holes existing in the current versions exist because the 1756 rewrite cut out the second half of the novella, which consisted entirely of the elaborate backstory that explains all the weird shit that happened before?  And that the elaborate backstory is presented in a way that’s kind of boring because the novel had only just been invented in 1740 and no one knew how they worked yet, but contains a bazillion awesome ideas that beg for a modern retelling?  And that you are probably not aware that the modern world needs this story like air but the modern world absolutely needs this story like air?  Allow me to explain:

The totally awesome elaborate backstory that explains Beauty and the Beast

Keep reading

okayb ut beauty and the beast inspired aus 

like bucky’s the beast, an amalgamation of ghost and metal and flesh somehow, and one night a traveller breaks in. upon being discovered, he asks to stay for the night; there’s a nasty storm brewing. bucky lurks in the shadows in the hall, most of him unseen. he takes a moment before granting permission.

he then slinks away back to his wing. bucky doesn’t check on the traveller until morning, but when he does it’s to discover that he’s taken ill, sleeping fitfully in one of the many bedrooms. bucky groans before heading to the kitchens. a bowl of soup and a pitcher of water are placed on the traveller’s nightstand. 

the storm keeps going on, and bucky keeps making more soup. sometimes sam is awake, sometimes he isn’t. the first time, bucky had barely managed to reach the hall before being seen. but he was asked to wait, so he did, his back to the bedroom. sam introduced himself and offered thanks for the soup. bucky made a noise of assent before leaving. 

bucky starts lingering after bringing sam soup. sam is up and moving, the books on his nightstand a testament to a trip to the manor’s library, but he’s always in his room at the times bucky brings the food around. bucky awkwardly asks after sam’s life before coming here, listening as sam describes his work as a mechanic, his overaffectionate dog that never stops asking for rubs, his boyfriend that sam so obviously loves. bucky can paint the imagery in his mind, the words sam says rolling over him. sam asks about the ingredients in the soup, the architecture of the halls, bucky’s name. 

bucky always shakes his head when sam presses for more personal information, for bucky to come into the room with him, for bucky to lower the hood over his head. sam’s lips will purse, but bucky can’t. he won’t; his time with sam is limited as it is, sam’s health almost restored and the storm calming. he won’t cut it short by revealing he’s not even completely human anymore.

when it comes time for sam to leave, bucky goes into the garden and plucks out a rose. allowing himself to get as close to sam as he’s ever, bucky curls his hand and the rose around sam’s. with the garden walls positioned the way they are, bucky’s features shouldn’t be too terrifying under his hood, masked with shadow. sam looks at him and laughs, tells him that he’s being overdramatic about this goodbye, too mournful. never does his gaze take a horrified turn or look away. he takes the rose and tells bucky he’ll be back before the flower even dies. 

bucky smiles sadly as sam’s figure gets smaller in the distance. he resigns himself to being by himself again, learning to not guess what book’s missing from its shelf, to cook only for one, to hear nothing but the sounds of the manor itself. why would sam actually come back when bucky didn’t meet sam’s forthcoming nature halfway?

when the manor’s breached once again, bucky storms towards the sounds of the intruder. upon seeing sam and the man sam’s described with so much love standing together, shedding their coats in the hall, bucky’s breath hitches. 

sam came back.

i’ve been reading for most of the day now about howard ashman, the lyricist for the little mermaid & beauty and the beast. he was one of the biggest creative forces behind both films, helping to shape their characters, narrative arcs, and themes as well as their music; he was also a gay man who was diagnosed with aids during the production of the little mermaid and died shortly after beauty and the beast was finished. alan menken, the composer who collaborated with him on both movies, said that beauty and the beast is heavily influenced by ashman’s experiences and perspective.

and i can’t stop thinking about it. i’ve always considered beauty and the beast to be one of the darkest films in the disney canon, as well as its most beautiful. it’s entirely about monsters, about the ways that people are determined to be wrong and dangerous: there’s the beast alone in his castle in the forest, and belle mocked and sneered at by her village, and even maurice carted off to an asylum. 

and that it was written and conceived of in part by a gay man who, according to his sister, trained himself out of “effeminate” physical mannerisms when he was young because he was bullied for them, and who as he wrote it was dying of an incredibly stigmatized illness— like, god. 

i mean when you just listen to those songs he wrote, the mob song (“the beast is] set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite / he’ll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free”), belle (“it’s a pity and a sin / she doesn’t quite fit in”)— and there was a cut song, human again, where the castle servants looked forward to rejoining the world.

like it’s obviously queer, but more than that, it’s the self-identification and self-validation of a man who knew this was this work was probably his last. at the end of the film, the beast is so sad, has succumbed entirely to despair and death. his society is coming to destroy him, and he can’t even be angry, because he doesn’t have anything left. but then he does. and he is still precious, and his life is still meaningful. he’s a person, and he can be loved. he can find happiness.

in the original beauty and the beast, the beast proposes marriage to belle every night and it’s her acquiescence that breaks the spell. in the disney movie, the beast only waits for belle to love him, because he cannot love himself. it’s such an unexpected blessing for both belle and the beast that they can find acceptance in each other, after both are so othered and dehumanized by their communities. their vulnerable joy in each other and themselves is so important, and their love song so wonderingly sweet. at the end, it is only when someone loves and accepts you that you stop being a monster. 

john musker, one of the directors of beauty and the beast, told this story about how ashman cried at disneyland when the little mermaid’s music was integrated into a parade and said that he was glad to know that his music would outlive him. beauty and the beast was my favorite movie when i was young and trying not to be queer, when i felt very wrong and very alone. it has been unbelievably important in my life. and so i am also glad— and so grateful— that howard ashman’s music outlived him, and that he lived at all. 

This is strangely one of the coolest gender bends ever 

This makes me so happy look at how cute this is

I can’t stop drawing parts of this Beau and the Beast fairytale adaptation set in the American South that I am never going to actually make.