By Dexter Hansen
As Shazam takes the nation by storm, we are reminded of the many body swapping movies we have loved throughout the years. The theme of “fish out of water” is used in all of these movies to great comedic effect. While Shazam uses this theme for comedy as well, the movie has another theme of growing up and leaving childish ways behind. This theme is not as obvious but very present in another movie we have all known and loved for many years: Beauty & the Beast.
At the front end of the Disney animation renaissance, the House of Mouse released its crown jewel of the modern era. This is more than firing on all cylinders, it’s sheer perfection. I would go as far as to say this is one of the best animated films ever committed to celluloid. Presented in rich colors and pristine animation, the theme of true beauty is nestled at the heart of the film. This inner beauty inside each of the characters, affects their growth over the movie’s run time.
Told through the eyes of Belle, we see the eponymous Beast change from child to man. In the opening scene, the eleven-year-old prince is turned into the full-grown Beast. This curse is leveled upon him for not seeing the inner worth of someone and basing his judgement on what he can behold with his natural eyes. It is no accident the prince is only eleven when he is cursed. By making him a child, the anathema is showing the act of judging on outward appearances is childish. Belle is his only hope at redemption and salvation.
While from the beginning of the movie Belle is presented as a more mature character than those surrounding her, she still makes the same snap judgment the prince made. The movie presents two paradigm shifts in Belle and the Beast. Belle’s change is more subtle, learning to see the inner beauty of the petulant prince. By making Belle our protagonist, the audience is almost lulled into not seeing her character refine her views towards the Beast. During Something There, Belle’s inner monologue has to inform us how she is beginning to see a new prince.
The love Belle shows the Beast is what ultimately makes the overt change of his character so compelling. The Beast has been trapped, not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well, in the same form he has been in since he was a child. In the scene when Belle tends to the Beast’s wounds after he is attacked by wolves, we are able to see a microcosm of this transformation in both characters. Belle is strong and holds her ground as the Beast attempts to rebuff her for leaving the castle. This firmness allows her to clean the wounds. However, when she places the rag on the actual laceration, the Beast recoils in pain. The way he winces is meant to conjure up the child prince he was. The snarl makes his servants tremble and hide in fear. Only when he realizes that Belle is doing the greater good for him does the Beast calm down. The animality in his snapping at his servants is quelled and a more human side emerges.
Leaving behind the spoiled prince who denied the enchantress shelter, his transformation to a true man is complete in one of the best coalescing of characters in a movie. The Beast is hunted by the personification of his former nature in Gaston. In a moment of true character, the Beast has over taken Gaston and dangles him over a ledge, only to spare him. With no other characters watching, the Beast has let go of the child that he was. True exuberance comes as he climbs to Belle, in utter disbelief she would return. As he physically climbs up the roof, he too is symbolically climbing out of the mental anguish the curse has placed him in. As if to parallel the beginning of the film, Gaston is still overcome with disgust at the Beast. In his hubris, he drives his knife deep into the Beast’s back. Belle saves her love before he would plunge to his demise; but, with no true love of his own, Gaston loses his grip and plummets to his death, symbolically taking the childish nature of who the Beast was with him; while Belle has saved the inner beauty of the Beast. While many wouldn’t think to connect the theme of “growing up and growing as a person” in Shazam to the same arch in Beauty and the Beast, it is there when you give it a closer look.