Fairy Tale and Film

Beastly
(Daniel Barnz, 2011)
 
offers an interesting update. A young 
witch, offended by a rich brat at high school, decides to make the con-
ceited bigot as ugly as he is inside to teach him a valuable lesson. His 
transformation – bald, tattooed and scarred – turns him into a virtual 
recluse, rejected by his father, with only a housekeeper and (blind) tutor 
for company. Humbled by his experience, he learns to care for these 
‘servants’, as well as a girl at school whose life is endangered due to her 
father’s involvement with drug dealers, bringing out his finer qualities. 
Paralleling Disney, it is not our Beast who is presented as the threat, 
but another male, and by offering the girl his protection their love is 
nurtured, helping to restore his humanity. An additional test of char-
acter is passed when he asks the witch, instead of returning his looks, 
to help the people he has learned to care for instead (granting a visa 
for the housekeeper’s children to prevent their deportation, and sight 
for his tutor). Such selflessness is rewarded, the hero having evidently 
benefitted from his transformation. Despite modernising the story, 
essential features remain the same: redemption is achieved through 
female approval, and the hero proving himself to be a better man. 
Although some of his flaws can be attributed to youthful immaturity, 
affluence also plays a part, giving him a nasty sense of superiority. 
It is only when he loses his conceit, alongside his looks, and is rejected 
by his father, that a kinder disposition is located, and the fact that he 

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Fairy Tale and Film
displays compassion towards people formerly considered beneath him 
adds some interesting political overtones.
8
The other films discussed here involve male maturation tales with 
notably older protagonists, yet similar points are made in terms of the 
changes demanded – all being required to show a degree of kindness to 
others (not solely a potential love interest) in their efforts to improve 
themselves. Maturity is signalled by rethinking their aims, securing and 
subsequently valuing partners, learning to communicate their feelings 
and undertaking greater responsibility for their families. A degree of 
enchantment gives what are presented as immature men the means to 
grow up, providing an interesting inversion of 
Peter Pan
. 
Pinocchio
also 
offers an important antecedent in terms of male maturity – particularly 
in aligning emotional development with greater familial responsibil-
ity. This motif has been increasingly apparent in film. Indeed, in terms 
of reflecting an awareness of ‘contemporary sexual politics’, Warner’s 
claims for the innovations of 
Beauty and the Beast 
demand reconsid-
eration, with many cinematic precursors questioning masculinity and 
approving more nurturing qualities. 
Kramer vs. Kramer
(Robert Benton, 1979) inaugurated the trend, 
depicting a husband forced to undertake childcare duties for his young 
son when his wife suddenly leaves, affirming the difficulties of strug-
gling to balance work and family commitments, as well as the painful 
realities of divorce. These concerns gained resonance throughout the 
following decade, often with a humorous tone added to the theme 
of strained father–son relations. 
Vice Versa
(Brian Gilbert, 1988) uses 
fantastical means to bring the pair closer together. Granted occasional 
weekend custody of his son, yet too involved in work to enjoy any kind 
of relationship with him, a divorced father undergoes an important 
transformation in a body-swap comedy in which a mutual wish to 
change places is realised. A magic skull serves as the catalyst and as they 
work to return the skull to its owner they become closer.
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