Year 11 English
There are many different versions of Beauty and the Beast; It is a magical story of unconditional love. It teaches children that beauty is much more then skin deep. In this assignment I am to compare two, Beauty and the Beast stories; one by the renowned, famous Grimm Brothers as presented by Disney. The other called Beastly by the modern author Alex Flinn. The two versions have many similarities but still quite a few differences.
Both versions follow the same basic story line; An attractive, spoilt, selfish young man is turned into a hideous beast by an evil witch because he could not see past her ugliness. She cast a spell on him, the spell can only be broken if the beast finds something to love and receives the lady’s love in return. A father gives his daughter over to the beast in exchange for his own life. At first the daughter despises the beast and is terrified of him. Gradually the beautiful young girl comes to fall in love with the beast. However, the young lady’s father becomes gravely ill and the beast sets the girl free so that she may go to her father and help her father get well again. At some point the beast is about to die, but the girl reveals her true feelings and breaks the spell with her love making the beast a handsome man once again.
There are a significant number of differences between these two versions.
The most significant difference in the story would be that one is an animated cartoon and is set in about the 1860’s to the 1880’s, it is also based in Europe. This story is aimed at a much younger age group. It’s a cartoon and has many amusing side characters. It shows basic emotions, children like this because it is bright and colourful and easy for them to understand. Also the music is very dramatic and catches the children’s attention.
Beastly is based in today’s New York. Instead of being adults like in Beauty and the Beast it is teenagers, this is a difference because teenagers are