He is ultimately a clue in the mystery of the Enchantress for Belle and serves little other purpose. Belle’sĮntire focus in this version is learning about her mother while the Beast is just. The ‘what if’ twist of this story puts Belle’s motherĪs the Enchantress, which is an interesting idea and could be a very good story on its own, but it completelyĬhanges the dynamic of what is supposed to be a Beauty and the Beast story. The 'what if' twist of this tale wound up throwing off the entire chemistry of the story, without infusing it with enough chemistry of its own to carry itself.Īs Old As Time did not work for four big reasons:ġ. At its core, this is not a Beauty and the Beast story -twisted, retelling, or otherwise. The Review: What sounded great in concept was disappointing in execution. Shocked and confused, Belle and the Beast must work together to unravel a dark mystery about their families that is twenty-one years in the making. Stranger still, she sees that her mother is none other than the beautiful Enchantress who cursed the Beast, his castle, and all its inhabitants. And that is her primary concern.īut Belle touches the Beast's enchanted rose, intriguing images flood her mind-images of the mother she believed she would never see again.

Belle also happens to be the captive of a terrifying, angry beast. She wants to explore the world, despite her father's reluctance to leave their little cottage in case Belle's mother returns-a mother she barely remembers. She longs to escape her poor provincial town for good. 'Thanks to men like him and Tycho Brahe and Kepler, we now know nothing revolves around the earth- except the moon.PG: for some violence, some disturbing images, and for politics that turn people violently against a specific class of peopleīelle is a lot of things: smart, resourceful, restless. 'Up until this man, Copernicus, everyone thought the entire universe rotated around the earth- that we were the center of it all.' She flipped open to a page that had an engraving of planets and their paths, little callouts to their names and the length of their orbits.

The Beast stood, looking slightly embarrassed, scratching the back of his neck with his hand.īelle grabbed a book and ran over to him, shoving it in his face. and next to it is everything Galileo Galilei ever wrote!! This whole section is about the stars and planets and the entire universe!' Look- here's an ancient text in Greek about astronomy. I don't understand how you don't understand. ' Just books? That's like saying Alexandria is just a library.' She ran over to the closest shelf and tilted her head, reading the titles. He carefully lit the candelabra at the front and placed Lumière on the floor, dismissing him. 'If I lived here, I would spend my whole life in here, reading.' “Forget your magic mirror,' she decided to say.

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell