Should Your Children Watch Beauty and the Beast?

Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast opened to impressive box-office numbers last weekend despite many parents and even an entire country refusing to watch the film.

A remake of the 1991 animated musical, Beauty and the Beast earned a record-breaking $170 million at the North American box office and nearly $350 million worldwide. The numbers gave the film the highest opening weekend of all time for a PG-rated movie. According to The Independent, it also was the seventh biggest opening of all-time and the most successful opening ever for a female-led film.

Despite initial success, the film and its director, Bill Condon, have undoubtedly created a huge controversy by choosing to include “several scenes that wink at same-sex attraction.” In fact, Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham urged parents to boycott the film, and the Southeast Asia country of Malaysia denied the film from showing in its theaters.

“Adults will likely notice the film’s obvious homosexual innuendos and recognize them for what they are, but will kids?” asked Focus on the Family’s Plugged In review of the film. “In a different, more innocent time, I wonder if these scenes would have been viewed by youngsters as little more than silliness. Alas, however, we live in this activist age. A day when actors and directors and studios feel it necessary to insert such things in an attempt to normalize and elevate certain sexual choices, and, unfortunately, they’ve chosen to do so this time in a movie aimed at children.”

Plugged In took the time to point out the film’s redeeming elements as well.

“Some of the scenes in this new Beauty and the Beast, such as the famous welcome-to-the-feast number, ‘Be Our Guest,’ are nothing short of magical,” Plugged In’s review said. “On top of that, this fairy tale fantasy’s encouragements to choose kindness and compassion, and to look beyond surface beauty, all ring as clear and true as a, uh, Belle.”

In the end, Focus on the Family advised well-meaning parents to make an educated decision that’s best for their family.

“Families that don’t embrace Beauty and the Beast’s pro-gay moments will be forced to grapple with how best to respond to them,” Plugged In concluded, “and for those who were looking forward to revisiting this beloved tale as old as time with a younger generation, that’s a disappointing and difficult decision to have to make.”