Gay beauty and the beast

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Gad emphasizes that it was supposed to be a "sweet and innocuous moment" but it ended up being"both too little and not enough". Now focused more on both title characters instead of just Belle, the film's depiction of their love story also reflected the LGBT+ experience. However, much of the controversy missed the LGBT+ messages of the original 1991 feature.

He’s confused about what he wants,” Condon told Attitude magazine at the time, before noting that the film concludes with “a nice, exclusively gay moment.”

After news of the subplot made headlines, “Beauty and the Beast” was banned in several countries and drew boycotts in the U.S.

Still, the film was a box office smash, raking in a reported $1.2 billion worldwide. The show was later made available on both of the Disney-owned streaming platforms.

The lifting of the curse through love is the "cure" for the stigma of AIDS. This is something that Gad, Condon, and all involved seem to agree on. But the second we pointed it out and seemingly congratulated ourselves, we had invited hell and fury,” he wrote.

“I for one certainly didn’t exactly feel like LeFou was who the queer community had been wistfully waiting for,” the actor wrote, as seen in an excerpt of the book published by Entertainment Weekly.

“I can’t quite imagine a Pride celebration in honor of the ‘cinematic watershed moment’ involving a quasi-villainous Disney sidekick dancing with a man for half a second.

A Tony Award nominee for “The Book of Mormon,” Gad continues to have a professional relationship with Disney, having endeared himself to a generation of viewers as the voice of Olaf in the “Frozen” films.

The discourse surrounding LeFou’s sexuality can be traced to director Bill Condon, who suggested in a 2017 interview that the character had more-than-platonic feelings for the film’s lead antagonist, Gaston (played by Luke Evans). A Tony Award nominee for The Book of Mormon, Gad continues to have a professional relationship with Disney, having endeared himself to a generation of viewers as the voice of Olaf in the Frozen films.

The coding is gone, and the original message disappears in the film's well-meaning attempt to be more inclusive.

Josh Gad addresses the full story of the gay LeFou controversy in Beauty and the Beast.

I mean, if I were gay, I'm sure I'd be pissed.

What This Means For Beauty And The Beast

Several Mistakes Were Made

Even though 2017's Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney's better live-action remakes, it is undoubtedly tainted by how the LeFou controversy was handled both in the movie and via publicity.

Bigots protested, but so did the LGBTQ+ community when the film was released and the moment was only a brief flirtation involving the comedic-relief character LeFou. If LeFou was going to be gay, the movie should have done far more to explore this and him being gay should not have been teased in the first place.

The coded aspects of the Beast's journey are largely dropped. Instead of conforming to heteronormative expectations, she longs for a life different from the one her small town has planned for her. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.