Tale as Old as 25 Years: Bully for a Villain

Disney's Beauty and the Beast turns 25 and soon there will be an upcoming live-action film. (This article will not be talking about the Once Upon a Time interpretation because of reasons...)

In this article I talk about the villain of the film (who isn't talked about much compared to other villains like Ursula and Jafar, and arguably doesn't deserve much credit due to his bullying nature.) Unlike many villains who have a sensational or magical disposition/look, Gaston is represented very much as an alpha male (quite distinct from Captain Hook or Dr. Facilier for example.) While everyone knows without a doubt that Hades (from Disney's Hercules) is a monstrous villain, most of the characters don't see Gaston that way at all.

To be honest, Beauty and the Beast isn't really a villain driven film. The main plot of Belle meeting the Beast is mostly independent of the sub-plot involving Gaston until the end of the film when he riles up the villagers in a mob song to attack the Beast in a nearby castle that they didn't believe existed because of reasons. They don't like what they don't understand because of reasons.

Belle is smart enough to see right through Gaston and figure out that he's the real monster and yet none of the villagers see that. They love him (especially the three silly girls). He's majorly loves himself and the villagers seem to agree with him. He believes he's entitled to what he wants and no matter how much of an ignorant "how can you read this? there's no pictures" man or chauvinist ("It's not right for a woman to read") boar he is, people still view him as a hero while Belle sees him as primeval. (When I was younger I thought she said "prime evil"...)

Note that for the purpose of this article, I decided not to put any pictures of this man. What's amazing is how many people have seen this film for the first time who because Gaston is portrayed as an alpha male and not a typical cartoon or theatrical villain, there are many people who may not have figured out right away that Gaston was necessarily a villain at all.  There were probably many who did not see the belligerent signs and only figured out that Gaston was a villain after he wanted to harm the Beast. And that's only because we spent most of the film feeling sympathy for the Beast and discovering the real monster of the story.