He went on to mention the evil stepmother in Cinderella, a story we had just read a few weeks ago, and witches and monsters in general (they don't, as yet, know too many fairytales).
Well, I said, fairytales are about people solving problems, kinda like the Imagination Movers do, except these aren't ordinary problems but bigger monster-and-witch ones. I started to add, but stopped myself, that these were really ordinary problems writ large, metaphors of our daily existence. But I did mention that the characters in the story learn something and teach us too when they go up against these special challenges.
And they still wanted to watch the movie!
So, we sat down with Beauty and the Beast for rest time (encouraged by the fact that it was made by the Brother Bear people). At the opening sequence, Sis gasped, "Mom, it's beautiful." And so it is, one of the most beautiful films ever made. Sure, they didn't see all of it, as I fast-forwarded through the scary beast parts in the beginning and through the scary Gaston parts at the end, but enough to know they liked it.
Except, "Mommy, I want the beast back," they both said. "I don't want him to die." I explained, through my usual end-of-movie tears, he doesn't die but turns into a human again; that just wasn't an appealing alternative for them. I agree. Most people must, because all the sequels I know about feature the beast not the prince.
Anyway, I hadn't seen the film in a long while, maybe never on our DVD, though we've owned the DVD for a long time. And I realized there's a new song, "Human Again," from the Broadway show, that hadn't been included in theatrical release. It's a good song but was a startling disruption in a movie I've seen so many times. The kids didn't know it wasn't there originally and they liked the humor. Because the household object characters were some of their favorites.
So, we have our first Disney Princess movie under our belts. And I think we all liked it. Though, as Sis pointed out to Mama, "Belle isn't a princess" (which is technically true until the very end). The other films--Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, Cinderella (though not as much)--have scarier villains, those monsters and witches and stepmothers. We'll have to work our way up to those, starting with the books (which just seem less scary, mainly because the kids control their mental images and can self-censor the scariness, which they might not totally understand; visual images in movies can be daunting, confusing, and just plain scary). And, maybe, a few more viewings of Beauty and the Beast.
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