Eye-Candy Distracts from Plot

Supplemental Post #5 - The Classic Tale Undermined by Her Objectification

Everyone is excited to see the new live-action Beauty in the Beast. It's a well-loved fairy-tale classic. Everyone holds the story dear to their heart. Its one of those films, where its hard to go wrong. Everyone loves the classic fairytales so its pretty much guaranteed to make its return plus more at the box office.

Emma Watson has cleverly been cast to play the lead, Belle. This was an extremely smart marketing move because of Emma Watson's enormous fan-base. If we thought Beauty and the Beast would be a hit, simply because of its reputable story, then with the addition of Emma Watson, this film has the potential to be massive. Emma Watson is not only liked by women of all ages, but she also is popular among the boys because of the Harry Potter craze. Emma Watson is the idol of every boy and girl that grew up reading or watching the Harry Potters. Now the Harry Potter generation is in their 20s. So while fairytales usually successfully attract the children age group, Emma Watson will bring in the slightly older teens and young adults. Thus, Emma Watson will effectively stretch and expand the target audience from the fairytales' usual female kid audience to an audience including girls, boys, young and slightly older. For marketing and business purposes, Emma Watson was a genius casting choice.

However, my one complaint about her casting is that her beauty will become the predominant element of the film. Emma Watson is so stunning, that it may be hard to lose oneself in the story. We may just be so distracted by her looks, that we spend the whole time drooling at her face rather than following the story and feeling for her character. We won't be watching Belle and her troubles. We will be watching Emma Watson's picture-perfect porcelaine face and the various movements that face makes to act in a scene. We'll all be watching her "acting". She will be our eye-candy for a short period of 2-hours. We will leave the theatre talking about how beautiful Emma Watson is rather than discussing the adaptation to the famous classic fairytale.