What did you guys think of it? I absolutely loved it. I can't even quite put across quite how much I loved it!

I had never seen the Disney original, so I was going in basically watching it for the first time, and I thought it was absolutely amazing!

I came home and bought the original film off Amazon, but I much preferred the new one!

Who has seen it? Did you love it, or hate it and why?

I liked it a lot. I've always loved the original animation (mostly for the music) and this was even better with the new songs. Plus I liked the bits of depth they tried to give the characters although the part about Beast's father felt forced (and the whole trip to Paris was just odd). I especially liked LeFou's character growth which is ironic considering the overblown controversy regarding his character.

Yes, wasn't it overblown! I thought he was so funny, I absolutely loved his character. The song he sang about Gaston was one of my favourite parts in the movie! People making such a deal out of it seemed really silly! Just shows how you simply cannot judge something until you've looked into it yourself.

I have not seen it myself, but I am a little cautious about dismissing anything as harmless. If you watch TV or movies (other than overtly Christian films) try to find a negative portrayal of a homosexual or a positive portrayal of a Pastor or someone with strong traditional Christian values. We live in an era of TV stereotypes when witches are all 'good' and priests and Christians are all villains.

So I have no doubt they did a wonderful job of providing a positive portrayal of Disney's first gay sidekick, but I am reluctant to warmly embrace it as something that is really 'nothing'.

I remind you that in History, Pocohontas converted to Christianity, but in Disney, the audience learned the beauty and truth of animism (nature worship). There is an old story about boiling a frog. If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will instantly jump out and escape with only injuries. If you place the frog in cool water and slowly apply heat, it will sit there and allow itself to be boiled to death. Christianity is being slowly boiled to death one 'harmless' portrayal at a time.

I haven't been able to go see it yet. The original is my favorite classic Disney film.

The problem with the LeFou controversy is that it was planted to sell. Disney may have had an agenda, but I honestly doubt it was a significant one--the main agenda was to make money, for which we really cannot fault them. That "leak" about LeFou was deliberately planted to sell tickets, because Disney knew that the controversy would spread--largely by people who hadn't even seen the movie yet--promoting the film further. On my FB, I saw ads for the film, but I didn't see any of my friends talking about it until the controversy blew up. More people went to see the film BECAUSE of the controversy than decided to boycott it.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be cautious of any actual content that's in the film. But it is worth noting that the people of this world are very shrewd, and we need to be equally shrewd about our analysis and response.

This.

While I was very aware the movie was coming (It is my favorite Disney - I've been looking forward to it since the day they announced Emma Watson was cast as Belle.) the amount of coverage I saw online was minimal until the LeFou thing happened. And then the typical mass-hysteria swept in, giving Disney 10 times the exposure at half the effort.

It happened with those 2 animals on the Lion king. With the cover artwork for the Little Mermaid. With countless other movies and companies and products. (AFA has been around a long time.) Some of these do indeed deserve attention. But, imo, there are so many situations that aren't any different than all the other outrages that have become a ridiculously normal part of today's culture. Masses jumping at any chance to judge anyone or anything, often knowing little about the subject but running with whatever out-of-context thing they may have heard. In my experience, the more outrageous something is, the more likely it's overblown or untrue (especially on Facebook) so my first instinct is to not contribute to the hysteria.

Everyone has their own line. We're all getting desensitized to one thing or another, I suppose. Personally, I'm less worried about an implied gay character than I am about graphic violence or sneaky theological missteps. Those are things I am much more likely to take an active stance against.

I'm with atpollard on this. Those of us old enough to have seen the change over generations have a different reference point. Lady Sparks said "Everyone has their own line.", which is true. It's also sad, isn't it, that we shade sin based on what we're comfortable with? Lt General Hansen said "The problem with the LeFou controversy is that it was planted to sell." This is also true. However, "to sell" is the human facade The Enemy hides behind. Remember, we contend in a spiritual realm, and those not serving God serve Satan.

Strip away the layers and look at the roots. Satan chooses to minimize sin so it is normalized and we don't see it as "that bad". He chooses to publicize things Our Father abhors so Christians who push back are in the minority. Are "odd" or "too religious". Are anything Satan can convince a non-Christian is undesirable and thus keep our friends and family enslaved.

There's a lot of sexual innuendo in Disney, and they make lots of money and are seen by lots of kids. There's lots of many bad things on television and people pay for the privilege of poisoning their minds. Yet this isn't new; Satan has influenced his slaves over the centuries to harm God's people and to weaken our faith. The fight isn't about Disney's bank accounts but people's relationship with Our Father. Each sin we don't struggle against, outwardly or inwardly, is one more hurt in our love for God.

I totally agree with the spiritual implications of what you're saying (both of you). My only addition is: You mentioned worldly warfare. I would hazard to suggest that the way most Christians responded to this controversy was with worldly weapons, not spiritual, and therefore ended up advancing Satan's agenda and driving people away from the Christian POV.

That said, this is a good conversation, and one that is more than welcome on Holy Worlds. However, I do want to keep this topic largely about B&TB specifically, and I don't want to discourage people who did like the movie from talking about the story itself, or other elements of the marketing. So if you have more comments about LeFou specifically--by all means, it can go in this topic. But if you want to keep talking about Disney and marketing in general (which I totally encourage you to do so), go ahead and start another topic.

I will likely watch the movie at some point in time. When I was a kid my mom would read the book to me. Never saw myself as the Beauty, so...