Russia says only grown men can watch Disney princess movie
Only adults will be able to watch Disney’s latest princess movie in Russia, thanks to the country’s anti-LGBT law.
The live-action Disney remake is the first major Disney film to feature an unambiguously gay character, with Gaston’s sidekick LeFou shown dancing with a man near the end of the film.
The news didn’t go down well in Russia, where anti-LGBT lawmakers quickly called for the film to be denied a release under the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law.
The country’s film censorship board acted today, upping the film’s age rating to 16 in light of the content.
This makes the film the highest-rated Disney princess movie ever released in the region.
Russia’s Culture Ministry confirmed to AP that it had granted a screening license to the film with a 16-plus age restriction.
Ahead of the upcoming live-action Disney remake, director Bill Condon revealed to Attitude Magazine to reveal that villain Gaston’s sidekick LeFou will be gay.
He said the character, played by Josh Gad, “is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston…. he’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings.
Condon teased a “nice, exclusively gay moment” for LeFou, adding that “Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it”.
However, he apparently didn’t run the announcement past Gad first – and the actor is unhappy that the twist was revealed in advance.
Asked about the moment by USA Today, Gad joked: “I haven’t seen anything (about that), tell me more.”
Lamenting the revelation, he said: “I hope that it’s a surprise to audiences to some extent, although I don’t think it is anymore…. I’m honored to have that moment as part of my character’s arc.
“What was most important to me was taking a character that is wonderful and so iconic, but is defined by cartoon conceits in the (original) movie… and expanding on that, giving him dimension, making him human.”
