Since I can remember, my favorite story has been Beauty and the Beast. Something about the wonder and beauty of the story just had me. This story has taught me so much about inner beauty. I enjoy this story for so many reasons; one being my aunt. She babysat me forever and watched Beauty and the Beast with me every single day for a few years. Pathetic, right? She didn’t care, because she loved me. Now that I’m older, I see the true meaning of inner beauty and I see it in her. She never cared about herself; she just wanted to take care of the one’s she loved. My aunt is dying and everyday she is losing more and more of herself, but you know what? Even though she hurts every single day, she still finds the time to call and make sure I’m alright. That’s the purest definition of love and beauty. Beauty and the Beast is not just a Disney tale, it is a living, breathing entity that invades the heart and makes us feel. Well, now that I’m done being deep and shit, I’ll continue on with the background of this story. It is a French fairytale that was first written in 1740. The first author was Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, but the most well-known adaptor of this story goes to Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. This story spread like wild fire around Europe. People were fascinated with the idea of magic castles and true love. The picture above is one of the early depictions. How different we see it today. Surprisingly, the version that we know today is based on the second version of the story.
We, as kids, are spoiled by Disney. There have been many revisions of this story throughout the years but nothing compares to the classic Disney fantasy. For instance, I just watched a movie called Beastly the other day. This film had the same premise of the original but it was taken in a high school setting and focused more on the “beast” than anything else. I have to give it props because even though it wasn’t the best movie, it showed even more so than the original the importance of love and inner beauty.
This has truly become a "tale as old as time."
I'm glad that the movie and the story behind it has touched you in such a way. This is my favorite children's story and it always inspired me to look for the beautiful things in people. When I researched this same story I found that in each retelling the transformations both belle and the beast go through always maintain the same level of emotional pain so that it could help the reader experience a catharsis but not taking away from the moral of the story.
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