Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was one of the biggest movies of 2017, grabbing well over $1 billion at the box office and earning the Mouse House a couple of Oscar nominations to boot. Someone who’s not a fan of it, though, is the screenwriter of the original 1992 animated movie.
THR spoke with writer Linda Woolverton and she revealed that had issues with the remake as she felt it changed the story she’d set out in the first film in ways that didn’t make sense or betrayed the characters. She also was naturally disgruntled that she wasn’t invited back to work on the production.
“I wasn’t totally thrilled with The Beauty and the Beast remake because I didn’t think it was exactly true to the mythology of the storytelling. And I’m not happy that I don’t get to participate. Who would be?”
Woolverton went on to clarify what the two alterations were that she really didn’t like about the new film. First off, she didn’t appreciate the revamp of LeFou’s character, as played by Josh Gad, turning him from a nasty henchman into a more likable fella who had feelings for Gaston.
“Was he in love with Gaston?” Woolverton said about the original movie. “No. He was just a toady and besotted with a person he could never be.”
Secondly, Woolverton didn’t agree with the new concept that the magic mirror can transport Belle and the Beast to and from the castle. “The castle is supposed to be impenetrable,” she says. “After that, the mythology didn’t work for me.”
Of course, Woolverton isn’t the first writer of a classic animated movie to express displeasure at Disney for remaking their work. Aladdin‘s Terry Rossio previously vented his frustration at the fact that, due to some outdated rules of the Writers Guild of America, animation writers don’t receive any sort of fee when their work is remade. In Rossio’s case, he said he would’ve been happy to accept a free pass to Disney World as payment but didn’t even get that.
Hopefully, the WGA will change its membership rules in future. Otherwise, there are a lot of screenwriters like Beauty and the Beast‘s Woolverton who are going to get pretty angry.
Published: Dec 6, 2018 09:29 pm