KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 13 – The highly anticipated live-action movie of Disney fairytale “Beauty and the Beast”, will not be releasing on it’s original 16 March date here in Malaysia. According to Disney, the release date for the movie has been postponed due to an “internal review,” film distributor The Walt Disney Co (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd said in an email.
When we contacted Disney Malaysia, no specific reason was given on why the release has been postponed. According to the local Disney representative, they are currently reviewing a new release date for the movie here in Malaysia. Previously, a release date for the movie was seen in promos and menus for the various cinema sites, however, they have been recently taken down from the showtime listings at major cinema chains.
There have been various speculations about why Disney had to postpone the movie, including censorship issues, however, as we mentioned earlier, Disney did not give a specific reason for the delay. Let’s hope, whatever the delay is, we’ll get a definite release date for the movie soon, before this “Tale as old as time” gets really old.
Starring Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast and Luke Evans as Gaston, Beauty And The Beast is a live-action remake of Disney’s classic animated feature, which became the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1991.
The movie has courted controversy after its director Bill Condon told UK magazine Attitude that the character of Le Fou, played by Josh Gad, would have a “nice exclusively gay moment” in the movie. Many Malaysians have begun flooding Walt Disney Co’s (Malaysia) Facebook and Twitter accounts with queries regarding the postponement.
As a result, Russia imposed restrictions on the film, with children under the age of 16 banned from watching it. A drive-through cinema in Alabama, United States, also banned the movie from its screens because of the gay character. Watson was also in the headlines recently after posing for a risqué cover shoot for US magazine Vanity Fair.
