Proving that live action remakes of their classic animated fairy tale films are excuses to print money, Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Emma Watson as Belle, is raking it in worldwide. Naturally, the success of the film has sparked talk of a sequel, with Watson suggesting that her character, now married happily to the former Beast opening up the chateau as a library to the good people of the village. These being the same folks who looked down on her for being a bookworm and almost lynched her beloved when he was still in beast form. The notion elicited a snarky article in IO9 that suggested that a better scenario for “Beauty and the Beast 2” would be to put Belle and her beloved husband under the guillotine during the French Revolution.
Someone has not grasped the idea of the happy ending part of Fairy Tales.
Mind, if we assume that the original story takes place about 1760 or so, that gives us 30 years before the happy couple, and their kids are in peril of the Great Terror. That gap leaves us plenty of time for a host of sequels before Beast, Belle, and family escape either to Great Britain or, better yet, the New World.
The desire on the part of some social justice warrior types to see Belle meet the National Razor likely stems from a misunderstanding of the issues and events of the French Revolution, to begin with. To be sure the class system in late 18th Century France was horrible almost beyond belief. But many in the aristocracy were aware of this and wanted to change things, which they did when the Estates General revolted against the King and eventually passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Of course, things went south with the Great Terror and lines of presumed enemies of the Republic, many but not all in aristocratic lace, being led to Madam Guillotine. One would think, though, that Lord Beast, influenced by his bookish wife who doubtless will have read Voltaire, would have been one of those liberal (small “l”) aristos who wanted to change things.
A better idea for a sequel would set the action about 20 years later, during the American Revolution. Belle’s son (let us call him “Beau”) joins the Continental side with his good friend Lafayette. But the family curse starts to manifest himself, with obvious complications, until true love, in the arms of an American girl, conquers all.
The second generation lives happily ever after in a well-appointed home in Philadelphia. Later Beau gets mom and dad, and his siblings safe out of France to avoid losing their heads. That is a more Disney-like story than poor old Belle being decapitated in front of a howling mob.
