Review Assignment: Different From the Rest of Us

I would agree with Jeffords' assessment.  Beauty and the Beast represents a step forward in the progression of Disney films towards a greater awareness of contemporary sexual politics – a giant step in comparison with Cinderella and a smaller step in comparison with The Little Mermaid, which already shows considerable awareness.  Both Belle and Ariel want to escape the monotony of their present lives, Belle because of her superior intelligence and Ariel because of her curiosity; both are equally valid role models in this respect.  Ariel is rescued from Ursula's curse by the kiss of a prince, although her dependence upon a man is not her fault – it was imposed upon her by Ursula's condition for the termination of the curse and her father's initial stubbornness.  In contrast, Belle rescues the Beast from his curse, a clear turnabout from the traditional plot in which it's the man who rescues the woman from a curse.  Prince Eric is a good bloke and Ariel made the right call in falling in love with him, and she does rescue him from drowning, a clear turnabout from the traditional plot of a man rescuing a damsel in distress, but he is a dashing hero, whereas the Beast shows his vulnerability but Belle nevertheless falls in love with him once he comes to his senses.  This is an important point, one which Emma Watson made in her famous "heforshe" speech: men too are victims of sexual stereotyping because it does not allow them to show their vulnerability.  Ariel does reject her father's patriarchal insistence on her following his dream rather than her own, but the reason for his attitude has nothing to do with sexual stereotyping.  Belle rejects Gaston, a handsome man but a parodic male chauvinist pig.  Further progress is made in more recent Disney films, in particular Frozen (more on that movie in lesson 8).  Gaston is such an extreme case of male chauvinism that it isn't difficult for the beast to be an improvement over him once he comes to his senses.  Also, Belle, like all her predecessors, sets an impossibly high standard of female beauty, whereas in some of Disney's later films the strong female characters look more like real women.  This is why, in my opinion, Beauty and the Beast represents a step forward, but not the last step.

Review Assignment: Tune as Old as Song

It was very hard for me to choose my favourite song among those to which Howard Ashman wrote the lyrics.  He wrote over 20 songs for four films: "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin" and "The Little Shop of Horrors"; the music was composed by Alan Menken.  Two of his songs won Grammy awards: "Under the Sea" and "Beauty and the Beast".  Trusting the judgment of those who award the Grammies, I listened to those two songs, as well as "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid".  The one that packed the most emotional punch was "Beauty and the Beast", a beautiful song in which one of the Beast's servants, enchanted to be a teapot, sings in a contralto voice to Belle and the Beast to encourage them to love each other.  The accompaniment added greatly to the emotional appeal of the song.  It brought tears to my eyes.  A close second in that department was "Part of Your World", in which Ariel sings in a soprano voice about her longing to be part of the human world and to live on land.  Ariel sings the syllable "ing" as "in", and I wonder whether that was Howard Ashman's intention.  The cleverest of these songs is "Under the Sea", in which Sebastien the crab sings in a tenor voice to Ariel, extolling the virtues of the underwater world and trying to persuade her to remain there.  It was difficult for me to choose between the songs that appeal to the emotion and the one that appeals to the intellect, but in the end I chose "Under the Sea" as my favourite.  It was the allusions to music that put this song over the top for me.  I especially liked the basso profundo voice of the fish who said that a fish in a bowl belonging to a human would soon end up on the human's plate.  I used to be able to sing that low and I wish I still could!  Of course, Sebastien's claim that fish in the sea don't have to worry about being eaten is unrealistic – they get eaten by bigger fish – but why let the facts get in the way of a good song?