Beauty and the Beast Ideological Critique

Even though this critique extends to most of the movie Beauty and the Beast, I chose to critique the final scene to be more specific to points that I make.

First I think it's important to say that this movie is for children and so these messages or ideas that are represented are powerful because children are effected much more by the media they consume.

The scene begins right after the Beast gets stabbed by Gaston (the bad guy in the movie, out to get Belle, who just fell off of the cliff because Belle caught the Beast and not Gaston), and is saying his final farewell to the love of his life, Belle. It shows what manliness is and that women need to be protected and saved and fought for, and what real happiness is, and that it's worth dying for. The Beast eventually turns into this handsome, tall prince when Belle says she loves him, which is confirmed by her saying it, which I always thought was odd because love is a feeling, and she had to have loved him before that second that she decided to say that. So, happiness is shown through the love of two absolutely perfect and beautiful people, dancing in the spotlight and as entertainment to all the workers of the castle, all much less attractive (besides that dust mop girl thing), and shorter, skinnier, or fatter than Belle and the Beast. They live in a huge castle and have this perfect love that conquers all obstacles. Even though the movie ends here, it leaves open the rest of their life together, assumed to be perfect, which is helped because of the fairytale ending, preserving their images in the stained glass window along with the song. These final touches to the movie give a permanent placement in the viewer's mind, that this movie put out by Disney is so official and it's rooted with the original Beauty and the Beast (which I'm pretty sure was not written by anyone after Disney was created) and should be classified as a true classic in our minds.