It is quite interesting the correlations you see in your life and your favorite stories. Or maybe our minds make up the correlation because we like these stories. Would you agree? I will get back to this concept.
When I am getting to know a person I always ask 2 questions, number 1: If you had a super hero power what would it be (flying is the most common answer by the way). Question number 2: What is your favorite Disney Princess? (For girls, favorite Disney Prince). And unfortunately I fell into the most common answer, Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I guess a half-naked girl swimming around has that effect on people. My personal opinion is because she is in the ocean, and I am fascinated by the ocean, although it too is one of my greatest fears. But recently I had to change my opinion about my favorite Princess. I was going through my Disney classics and watching the ones I have not seen in MANY years. I am not kidding when I say I have not seen them in about 10 years. Beauty and the Beast was one of these movies. It has been so long since I had seen it; all I remember is the beast turns to a man in the end. So I decided it was time to watch the classic. After watching it I was hooked. I wanted to find the original story; I wanted to read every book that was based on this story. I wanted to know everything I possibly could about Beauty and the Beast. I was looking up the original story up on the internet, and the one that came up was written by Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. I read it and fell in love with the entire story all over again. (P.S. this particular version is not much different from the Disney version)
In my search to find every version of the story I came across a book titled Beastly by Alex Flinn. I was a little nervous about reading the book because I had recently seen a preview for the movie (based on the book) and it had Vanessa Hudgens in it and I don’t think she is that great of an actor. In-fact when I saw the preview I rolled my eyes and thought, “Not another sappy romance with a Beauty and the Beast twist to it. Sadly I did not know I would love this story shortly in the future. I continued to look for books, when I narrowed it down there were two books. Beastly by Alex Flinn, or Beauty by Robin McKinley, and since I am indeed male, I wanted to read the book from the beasts point of view. So I settled for Beastly. (I also had some persuasion from Miss T (Who is supposed to be posting blogs too, but she is not easily motivated)) I ordered the book, and two weeks later I had received the book and read it. I think this is one of the few books that I will read time and time again. So as you can tell, I decided I needed to see the movie. Also after I saw ‘I Am Number Four’ it started to sway me to seeing ‘Beastly.’ Alex Pettyfer has become one of my new favorite actors.
After I had been waiting for a few weeks to see the movie (I did not want to look weird coming out of a chick flick alone) no one wanted to go, or couldn’t find the time. So I settled and saw it alone. I looked like an idiot to the other people in the theater (there was only 2 couples there besides me). I have to say they did a good job with some of the things. But alas, I have to say the book is by far better. Just little things that were left out that I really liked about the story. And Vanessa really was not good. If it was me I would have had Diana Agron as Lindy (that’s Beauty). But then again, Lindy is supposed to be pretty without being gorgeous, so maybe not.
Now I think it is time for me to tie this whole thing back to my question at the beginning, does your life seem to correlate with your favorite stories? I feel like this story is slightly similar to my life. I am not a beast, I am a little conceded though, but the thing I feel correlates with my life is the concept. Falling in love with someone because of who they are, not because of how they look. Sometimes I am pressured from my family into finding someone to marry soon. (All of my siblings were married by the age of 20) I am waiting for my “Beauty” to come and love me for who I am and not let any of my deep secrets or bad habits, or physical appearance get in the way. I think that is why I love this story so much. Because the Beast found love no matter how ugly or rude he was, she found the real diamond underneath all his faults.
Basically I think everyone who loves Beauty and the Beast should go to the library or the book store and find a copy of Beastly and read it. I am sorry I got a little sappy; it is good to speak from the heart sometimes right?
Dr. K
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