10 Subplots That Saved Entire Movies

There are many reasons why the '90s Beauty and the Beast runs rings around the 2017 remake, but its portrayal of Gaston is definitely in the top three.

While you definitely aren't meant to like Gaston at first, he doesn't seem anything more than a buffoonish oaf to be mocked. While the whole town adores him because he's strong, conventionally handsome, and voiced by Richard White, Belle just sees him as another distraction from her book. Even his villain song doesn't show him as explicitly villainous until the very end of the song.

And that's the brilliant thing about Gaston, his shift from punchline to villain is so quick yet so subtle because he was ALWAYS the bastard we saw in the third act. It's just that in the first act, Gaston was on top of the food chain, comfortable, unquestioned. But when one woman denies his advances, the mask completely falls away.

These little details to Gaston's arc is what makes the movie's theme of inner vs outer monstrousness so effective. Details that are of course missing from the 2017 movie.