According to critics, the live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (notably starring Emma Watson as Belle) is decent at best — you really can’t top the original animated classic from 1991.
Aside from CGI talking and dancing household objects, another huge talking point about the movie is the appearance of an actual gay character in a Disney movie (“GASP! Think about the kids!”, yell conservatives). Josh Gad (Olaf from Frozen) plays Le Fou — the sidekick to Belle’s hypermasculine suitor, Gaston — who happens to be into dudes.
A pretty bold and progressive move on Disney’s part, but it’s not exactly treading new ground. In Frozen, there was a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment in which the Trading Post and Sauna owner was implied to have a husband. On the Disney Channel, a couple of programs have aired openly gay relationships and same-sex kissing scenes.
But that was animated. Le Fou, however, is very much a real-life in-the-flesh character — and his inclusion in the film (no matter how vague his sexuality seems to be) has had some conservative Christians shouting for a boycott. American evangelist Franklin Graham said that the inclusion was part of an “LGBT agenda”. An online petition with over 120,000 signatures has been going around, calling for Disney to stop promoting “a harmful sexual political agenda”. At least one movie theatre has refused to screen Beauty and the Beast. Hell, check out the #boycottdisney movement on Twitter.
Over here, the sentiments are similar, though not as outwardly harsh. In a statement issued on the St Andrew’s Cathedral website, Bishop Rennis Ponniah wants his clergy and deaconesses to alert their congregation about the “homosexual content” in Beauty and the Beast, which opens this Thursday. The fact that the flick’s scheduled for screening during the March school holidays was not lost on the bishop as well.
Noting that “times are changing at a foundational level”, he asserts that Disney films for children are for “wholesome, mainstream values”.
“Parents are therefore strongly advised to provide guidance to their children about this re-make of ‘Beauty & the Beast‘, and indeed to their children’s entertainment choices in a rapidly changing age.”
Churches rarely go up against pop cultural happenings in Singapore, but when they do, they make their voices real public. Bishop Rennis Ponniah’s comments remind us of the time when Catholic Archbishop William Goh expressed grave concerns to the various ministries and statutory boards when Madonna came by for a concert.
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