Beauty and the Beast Live action

After all the hubbub about the film getting delayed, The Malaysian Censorship Board (LPF) has finally let Beauty and the Beast pass through, albeit with some minor editing.

To quote LPF chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, he stated that “the film has been approved with a P13 parental guidance classification, with a minor cut” meaning that parental guidance is advisable for attending children under 13 years of age.

If you’re wondering about the cut in question,  you guessed it, it’s a “gay moment” in the film, which apparently takes place during this song below. This has been the target of a controversy surrounding Josh Gad’s character LeFou, has a “nice exclusively gay moment” in the movie.

The purported “gayness” of the character has caused some controversies the world over. One lawmaker in Russia had proposed banning the movie in the country, calling it “a blatant, shameless propaganda of sin and perverted sexual relationships”, a drive-in movie theater in US state of Alabama has banned the movie from it’s premise because of the LeFou character, and even Singapore’s Anglican church has come out with an advisory about the movie because of the purported gay element. Though in actuality, the movie apparently has been approved for quite some time, and the postponement was due to an “internal review”.

How exactly they are going to cut out a chunk of the song without wrecking it, is beyond us. We’re just glad that the movie isn’t getting banned entirely.

Beauty and the Beast was originally supposed to premiere 16 March and as for the new release date, the LPF states that it has no control over that. Golden Screen Cinemas and TGV Cinemas have since started offering refunds for customers who have purchased tickets to watch the movie.

Disney hasn’t made any new announcements on the movie commencement date so fingers crossed we still get to watch it this week.