Gaston analysis - what worked and what didn’t 

To me, Gaston is one of the scariest Disney villains because he’s the kind of villain we’re most likely to encounter in real life. He’s not a sea witch or god of death, he’s not even a criminal. He’s just a rotten person with power and influence, and as you said at the end, that’s something that exists in the real world. He’s so well written in the original and they completely missed the mark in the remake.

I feel like Disney wanted to make Gaston an entitled “nice guy”. But that just doesn’t work with his original character

Also, in the remake Gaston isn't a Hunter anymore, he's a war hero, so that perfect symbolism in the original fight is gone.

Spot on! The changes they made to Gaston's character, and Lefou paying the villagers, only really works if they were going to have Lefou be the main villain or something. Like Lefou was the brains and manipulating Gaston for power or something. Because making Gaston so sympathetic and treated badly by Belle and Maurice, who are the jerks instead of him now, makes no sense otherwise. Really before that snap split second turn to villainy, that came out of nowhere, Gaston is literally the only one you could call nice. Gaston being accepted as a villain only works with the existence of the 1991 original, because we know from that he is the villain. If this was an original work, the movie would be criticized so much for that.

you are again spot on. The only thing that made me laugh out loud in that movie and makes me snicker when i think about it is: Gaston: And she's the only girl that gives me that sense of... LeFou : Hmm... je ne sais quoi? Gaston : I don't know what that means.

Luke Evans is so charismatic that I can't root against Gaston lol. Great analysis!

I love so much your videos about Beauty and The Beast! You are very good at analyzing it. And I do agree with you. It disappointed me that Disney made a copy and pasted version of the brilliant cartoon, but at the same time changed so many things. Like, they repeated the scenes, but changed the characters! And why? Belle became a “plain Jane” rude, without any passion on her eyes; Beast became rude, unromantic, lifeless, without any of the innocence that the original Beast had (like the scene with the birds, or when Belle teaches him how to dance and he is genuinely nervous), and Gaston became more like a victim of trauma than the actual villain that he was suppose to be. It was a waste of potential, really.

In the original animated movie, after Gaston's failed proposal (and presumed wedding) to Belle, she referred to him as "boorish and brainless," and his actions had proven her right. He was rude, crude, and sexist. He had given her every reason to refuse him. But in the remake, after she had rejected him, her comment about him being "boorish and brainless" seemed unfounded. At least he had made the attempt to woo her, in this movie. She was the one being unreasonable. I'm not saying that they should've wound up together, but it was inconsistent.

I admire your ability to articulate your thoughts so smoothly. Movie critiques are not my favorite past times, but your delivery and your points captivate me. I'm probably not the first person to say it's hard to stop listening and move on with my day...haha!

I love & enjoy your videos on Beauty and the Beast. Every time that you have one, I watch them & find myself agreeing with you 100 percent. Please keep doing more videos like this, especially about Beauty and the Beast

I really like this analysis! Beauty and the beast isn't my favourite Disney animated movie. Which makes the shitshow of remake they made even less interesting to me. But it also makes me wanna see the animated again, just to see how they did the character development and also the mob mentality. And yes, fans of ... questionable celebrities don't get paid for doing the dirty work of the celebrities, so I'm not sure what the remake tries to say with that ...

Hi Jennifer, so glad that I found your channel! Your comments on Beaty and the Beast (2017) are all spot on. I just want to seize the opportunity to say that to me the best singer in this movie is Audra Mcdonald playing the Wardrobe. She is a Broadway icon (for a good reason) and as much as I hate this remake, I love her as this character. Not to mention that in her 2-3 brief scenes in human form she wears the most beautiful dresses in the entire movie! But yes, Luke Evans, Josh Gad and almost everyone else did such a good job singing those songs... and then the whole autotune/editing of Emma Watson's voice is looking even worse. I love how you pointed out the different dynamic between Gaston and the village people. This is something sooo well done in the original - even in a seemingly simple fairy tale they made such a good commentary on the mob psychology. It's almost sinisterly when you watch it as an adult (I mean, it is sinisterly when you are child too, but for different reasons). Lindsay Ellis actually made a very good analysis on the whole live-action remake, but particularly on this topic. It seems it's kind of a trend in Disney now - they tried to make the villains less evil - but for the most part it doesn't work. I'm sorry but some people are just evil. That doesn't mean they are simple. Hans in Frozen is a very good example and it is villain kind of a similar way as Gaston.

12:52 I have a better idea: they just shouldn’t have made this movie at all.

I love all your videos on the Beauty and the Beast remake. It has so many issues and I have a hard time putting those things into words, so I love watching your videos. I'm actually doing Beauty and the Beast the musical at my school, and it's interesting to see what they changed/ added. I'm playing Mrs Potts, and I noticed that they changed a lot of her lines.She seems, to me, more sentimental than the cartoon version. There's something else that I can't quite put my finger on, but they're definitely different. I would be curious to hear your opinion on it.

Maybe I'm already late to discuss, but I just want to figure something out. You've mentioned that during the scene in the tavern, LeFou paid the people to get attention for Gaston, but if you look closely, you can see that he just paid the musicians to begin the song and for some rapiers (maybe even for the drinks and some damage that they've done in the tavern). Or maybe I just didn't understand that scene right... Anyway, great analysis, and I totally agree with you.

What I don’t like about the remake Gaston is it’s not established to the audience that he is the “bad guy” until pretty late into the movie, yet others (Belle & Maurice) treat him as one when he objectively hasn’t done anything wrong at that point.

5:14 That’s what I said when I first watched this Anyway, I loved this analysis and since you did what didn’t work for Belle and Gaston, maybe you could do one for Beast since there’s so much about him that I didn’t like

Jennifer! I am so happy to see a new video from you. Your points on Gaston and LeFou and Beauty and the Beast are so spot on and cathartic. Seriously, the point of villagers blindly following Gaston was completely the point and is still so completely relevant. Incisive and brilliant. Thank-you!

In the original fairy tale of the : beauty and the beast, at least in the fairytale book that I own there's a evil knight how wants to marry belle or as her real name is (at least in my fairytale book) Isabella

Sorry but the meaning of “taking your lumps “ is being defeated. LaFou is saying people still want to be Gaston even when he’s being defeated, not even if he’s punching them.

Hi, I have a question: can you do a review about Beauty and the Beast 2: An Enchanted Christmas? It would be instructive and funny. 🙂

Always good to hear from you

Great video, thanks)

I haven’t heard anyone mention LeFou paying the people off, and honestly, that feels really awful to me as well. The point of Gaston was that he’s pretty much the big man on campus. He’s got girls fawning over him, and everyone is GLAD to sing his praises. Why would they form a damn angry mob at his say so? Adding to that LeFou being gay here it does make me wonder more about why he’s going out of his way to make Gaston look better liked? The reason Gaston wanted Belle was cause he’s the alpha male and she’s the most beautiful girl, and thus they SHOULD be together- so since the whole reason he wants Belle is CAUSE of the whole alpha male ego thing, if LeFou is trying to get with him, then why the hell is he playing into the things that CAUSE him to WANT BELLE SPECIFICALLY?

I love this because I feel like they were cruel to the Gaston in the remake. He started out with no more fault than being clumsy and trampling cabbages, which is certainly no reason for Belle to be so rude to him. I honestly liked Gaston. He had more charisma than anyone else in the movie. For them to suddenly turn him into a cold-blooded murderer after being no worse than a clumsy fool, was, to me, unjust to the character. I’m so tickled that you like him best because I agree.

Honestly, in the live-action they were more interested in developing Le Fou instead of Gaston, I got the feeling they sort of tried to make Gaston a dumb brute, who was famous only because Le Fou lowkey loved him (yeah, war hero and blablah, but Gaston's background wasn't thaaat explored) and used money and charisma to give his man everything he wanted. Too bad Disney didn't have the guts to portray Gaston like the cunning villain guy he was.

Hi, Jennifer, I really hope you have not given up on the channel. I really miss your videos!

2:30 OK, maybe not in the fairy tail , but remember that Jonh Cocteau's La Belle et la Bette" included a guy named Adamant (or something like that ) who had a similar role to Gaston . So maybe Disney or Linda Wolverton (the movie screenwriter of our beloved classic ) was inspired by that . There's a video of Teacup for one where he talks about Gaston and why he worked perfectly as a villain in the 1991 classic And I think at first both Gaston and the Beast looks quite similar ; both wears red, both have blue eyes , both sees Belle as a tool (one for status and because of her looks and the Beast because she would be the one who would break the spell) . That's quite interesting 😊. The turning point is how they react to a NO from Belle; one reacts visibly humiliated and wants to marry Belle without any concern of what she feels ; the Beast of the other hand feels bad and guilty , saying she just seems him ....like a MONSTER (that scene just make me so sad 😭) Love your videos about Beauty and the Beast ! I just wanted to add some things but you already did a great job !😉👍

do a video about the beast’s transformation from beast to human!!

I don't agree with you about Maurice not having a reason not to give Gaston Belle's hand in marriage. Gaston literally smiled by the toughts of war, explosions and widows. Why would he want such a son-in-law?

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I thought Luke Evans was... OK? He's a good singer, but I didn't think he was brawny enough. Broader shoulders, deeper voice needed.

All of the changes in the live action were unnecessary and executed badly.