Walt Disney’s creations have been around for nearly a century now, and it’s well-documented how a lot of the ideas propagated in the cartoon films simply don’t age well. We might not be able to time-travel to the past and correct the wrongs, but we can surely do better in the modern reinterpretations. That’s something Dhruv Uday Singh’s short film Beauty & The East tries to grapple with.
Doing a spin on the classic Disney fairy tale, the short film tries to understand how the Beast turns into a ‘white man’. And how things would turn out, if the prince actually turned out to be ‘brown’. Let’s stress upon this for a moment, why the depiction of a beast is shown to be ‘brown’ while when he turns into a prince he automatically becomes ‘white’. Is this just ancient stereotyping? Even in the 2017 reinterpretation starring Emma Watson, the makers chose to cast Dan Stevens in the role of the ‘Beast’.
In the short film, Belle (played by Cate Scott Campbell) is perplexed after seeing her ‘brown and hairy’ prince (played by Dhruv Uday Singh). And when she points that out, the prince shoots back saying that she literally told him a minute ago about how much she loved him when he looked like a brown, hairy ‘man-dog’. Belle says she pictured a ‘white prince… like it always is’. The prince retorts with the fact that it wasn’t like he looked like a polar bear or swan, to transform into a ‘white prince’. And he simply cannot bring himself to understand how a person of colour is less attractive than an actual Beast.
This parody is supposed to be taken in a lighter vein, but the questions it poses about the much-loved classic are ‘fairly’ pertinent.
Disney has been open to criticism around their racist gaffes, and even partially redeemed themselves by introducing Princess Tiana (the first Disney Princess with an African-American heritage) in 2009’s The Princess & The Frog. And that was taken forward with Polynesian Princess, Moana. However, like the latest version of The Beauty & The Beast is proof, Disney can strive further to be more inclusive of professionals/characters from other races.
You can watch the entire short film here:
Oh and that punchline about Kumail (Nanjiani) really works!
