So the story is that the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” is going to feature Disney’s first gay character in one of its family films, and so a drive-in theater in Alabama isn’t going to show the movie. I think that’s kind of a goofy decision on their part, but, last time I checked, the First Amendment still allows drive-ins not to present movies they don’t like. Actually, I’m more surprised that drive-in movies are still a thing in the 21st century.
In any case, I doubt it will make any difference whatsoever to the film’s box office numbers, which are sure to be enormous. Still, the media loves a good controversy, and all the usual suspects are upset for all the usual reasons. What’s lost in all the hubbub is the context in which this gay character is taking place.
The character in question is LeFou, the groveling sidekick to Gaston, the film’s conceited villain. According to the USA Today, “Beauty and the Beast” director Bill Condon said, “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston.” Condon goes on to say that Josh Gad, the actor playing LeFou in the live-action remake, “makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.”
OK, fine. Does anyone remember LeFou from the original film? Not to put too fine a point on it, but the animated LeFou was ridiculous. He’s not even drawn to look like a plausible human being. Where Gaston is, say, 6-foot-4 with a Schwarzeneggerian build, LeFou is about 3-foot-4 with a 40-inch waist. He has a nose that looks like a tomato, only three teeth and he spends several months standing in a snowdrift pretending to be a snowman, complete with a carrot nose in place of his usual tomato.
Now Gad doesn’t share the cartoon LeFou’s absurd physique, so it’s likely that his portrayal won’t be quite as ludicrous. But if they stick to the original story, LeFou will still be an idiot and a bad guy. I’m surprised, actually, that activists aren’t upset about the fact that the distinction of being the first overtly gay Disney character will go to a complete and utter buffoon. Indeed, if the owners of the Alabama drive-in decided to make their own anti-gay movie, LeFou would be the perfect star of the show.
And of course, the question remains as to what the actual gay content will be. According to the review from the UK paper The Guardian, it’s not much at all: “Le Fou’s homosexuality is only definitively revealed as he pairs up with another man in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment at the final dance. Otherwise, his character is no different from the cringing sidekick in the 1991 version” (sans tomato nose, of course).
So, in other words, the entire uproar is over a single throwaway joke that will likely go over the heads of most kids and prompt a small chuckle from the adults who bother to pay attention. This is hardly the stuff of which great scandals are made.
Yet, sadly, all this is enough for the Russian government to be concerned that the movie may violate its law against gay propaganda for minors. Really, Russia? You think kids are going to watch this and decide that LeFou is the guy who will provide the template for how to live their lives?