Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 20 March 2017 issue)

Dear Kam,
Is it my imagination or has Beauty and the Beast been pulled from Malaysia? What could be wrong with that movie? I mean, it’s just entertainment.
Movie buff

Walt Disney has postponed the release of Beauty and the Beast in Malaysia because our censors cut out a “gay scene”. Malaysian censors cut out the scene and Walt Disney objected to that. I think that is what has happened. The scene in question is probably tame and inoffensive (it is a children’s movie) but Malaysian censors unsurprisingly cut it out. Th e fact that the story managed to grab world headlines is probably because Donald Trump didn’t say anything stupid during those few days but also because it helps re-affirm the notion that Malaysia is behind the times. Maybe we are, but is Hollywood always ahead of the times?

Although I don’t always like their movies (why are all their carnivores vegetarians?) I truly admire the Walt Disney Company because it really studies its craft and leaves nothing to chance in the supremely difficult sphere of entertainment. Ever since Walt Disney released his first Mickey Mouse film, Steamboat Willie, in 1928 his company has gone on to have far more successes than failures and millions of parents have outsourced the raising of their kids to Walt Disney’s films and amusement parks. Walt Disney’s company has managed to succeed even after his death in 1966. Many companies fail with the death of a founder but Disney has succeeded by adapting to and sometimes anticipating changing technology and social trends. But social trends don’t always run at the same speed all over the world.

All movies are the product of their time, and Disney’s are no different. Many of his old movies may have been great fun but some aspects could be horribly racist. In the old movie Jungle Book (1967), there is the famously catchy tune, “I Wanna Be Like You”, sung by Louis Armstrong as an orangutan. I don’t know how an orangutan managed to get to the jungles of India, but that’s not the racist bit. Basically, it’s a black man singing a song about an ape who wants to be human, just like you-oooo. Why wasn’t it a white man’s voice?

In racially segregated 1960s America, it made perfect sense for Disney to choose a black man’s voice to sing a song about a gang of monkeys wishing to become civilised human beings at a time when many white people barely recognised black people as civilised humans. But times have changed and in the recent Jungle Book (2016), the same song is now bereft of its racist undertones by being sung by Christopher Walken, although he’s still an orangutan and I still don’t know how he managed to get to India. I’m probably being oversensitive but subtle messaging can have an impact, which is why Disney chose to have “gay” characters in Beauty and the Beast.

Disney now tries to be more liberal and inclusive. Nowadays Disney movies have female characters that are not just either witches or princesses but can be weak or strong, black or white and even depressed before eventually becoming princesses, because young girls really, really, really like their princesses and they will not be denied.

In recent years, America has made enormous strides forwards in gay rights and so Disney has followed the trend by having “gay” characters in Beauty and the Beast. But many other countries (and not just Malaysia) have not made the same leap forward and have objected to the gay characters, even if they don’t object to the movie’s fundamental premise of female abduction. Holding a woman against her will appears to be perfectly cool because it gives a man the time that he needs to prove himself as gentle and worthy. If the story played itself out slightly differently and the “beast” chose to be very horrible instead, then beautiful Hermione Granger would have no choice but to be trapped inside an abusive relationship forever. But two men freely choosing to love each other is just plain wrong.

Malaysia is not running at the same speed as America when it comes to gay rights, although I do believe that at some point in the not-too-distant future, something like this Beauty and the Beast kerfuffle will be a non-issue here as well. For Malaysia to find itself being challenged on the issue of, say, gay rights by a globally mainstream entertainment organisation like Disney is probably a good thing. It helps to push liberal issues forwards but sometimes I do worry that it also forces conservative elements to become hardened. Sometimes I can sense the Trumpian/Brexit backlash when seeing Hollywood and TV’s insistence in forcing minority characters and issues into storylines where they often do not fit as entertainment.

I despair whenever I see black or Muslim characters turn up in a detective drama because I immediately know they did not commit the murder (unless they are terrorists). The producers (bless ’em) don’t want to portray minorities in a negative light, but it means that the show fails as entertainment because the list of possible murder suspects has just been reduced by 20%. Why not have minority characters commit the crime for something as regular and human as jealousy or greed? If they do then audiences will see that they’re just like you-oo-oo. Meanwhile, I’ll be watching Beauty and the Beast as soon as it becomes available on the internet.

Reprinted with the kind permission of