Can 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Song of the South' be updated for today?
When Disney classic animated films are updated as live action movies, they generally make a token effort to shake up old ways of thinking, in order to meet contemporary audiences where they are, even including confronting White Nationalism. This is something all corporations have to do.
The most recent Snow White, for example, generated controversy because its star, Rachel Zegler, is of mixed Colombian and Polish descent and she publicly supported a "free Palestine." The Little Mermaid generated controversy because of the casting of a Black American actress as Ariel. Before that, Beauty and the Beast (live action) was criticized because of its "gay moment," when LeFou dances briefly with another man at the end of the film, and Lightyear has a lesbian kiss. I don't think masterpieces can be remade successfully, but they can be updated.
In France, the original home of Beauty and the Beast, artist Julien "Jul" Berjeaut was commissioned to illustrate a modernized version comic book intended for 10- and 11-year-olds. But, and this is in 2025, the French Education Ministry canceled it precisely because it had been modernized - it has young characters using social media, Belle’s father is depicted as drunk and committing fraud, and there are police dogs sniffing for drugs. The Minister said she objected to it showing "complex social realities" and that it was more suitable for teens. "Perhaps in a setting with teachers, we can explain this irony. But it's a book that's meant to be read on holiday, with the family." Oh, you think?
However, Algerian born Jul, argued that it was really because Belle was drawn with “brown skin and black curly hair” and that the government was doing it to curry favor with the far-right. "Has the presence of curly-haired, swarthy-skinned characters rather than blonde fairy-tale princesses become unbearable for the national education system?"
Traditionalists get very upset at this sort of thing, but fairy tales have always been updated. As a writer in the Guardian says: "Those who demand fairytales stay “exactly as they were” are searching for a point in history that never existed. These folk stories have always been on the move, flitting from one incarnation to another."
Not everything can be updated though, supposedly. The Disney company (where I once worked for 11 years) argues that Song of the South never will be updated. It's never been released in any home video format and the ride at Disneyland has been remodeled and renamed. Banned! The famous song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” - also banned. But I disagree with Disney. If the story were turned over to Black creatives, I can think of some interesting possibilities for rehabilitating it and I'm not alone in this. The great Black animator Floyd Norman asked the company to re-release Song Of The South - in the right context - and embrace that part of its past - “They’re just wimping out,” he says, and that's where we are now, but one day, this classic story should be updated, by Black artists.
