{"id":93857,"date":"2017-03-14T02:06:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=93857"},"modified":"2017-03-14T02:06:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T06:06:13","slug":"beauty-and-the-beast-shelved-in-malaysia-despite-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/14\/beauty-and-the-beast-shelved-in-malaysia-despite-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Beauty and the Beast’ shelved in Malaysia despite approval"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Walt<\/a>
Walt Disney has shelved the release of its new movie \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d in mainly Muslim Malaysia, even though film censors said Tuesday it had been approved with a minor cut involving a \u201cgay moment.\u201d (Photo: Beauty and the Beast\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia \u2014 Walt Disney has shelved the release of its new movie \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d in mainly Muslim Malaysia, even though film censors said Tuesday it had been approved with a minor cut involving a \u201cgay moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country’s two main cinema chains said the movie, due to begin screening Thursday, has been postponed indefinitely. No reason was given.<\/p>\n

Film Censorship Board chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid said he did not know why the film was postponed as it was approved by the board after a minor gay scene was axed. He said scenes promoting homosexuality were forbidden and that the film was given a P13 rating, which requires parental guidance for children under 13 years of age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have approved it but there is a minor cut involving a gay moment. It is only one short scene but it is inappropriate because many children will be watching this movie,\u201d Abdul Halim told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

He said there was no appeal from Disney about the decision to cut the gay scene.<\/p>\n

Disney officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Star English-language newspaper cited the Disney company as saying the movie was postponed for an \u201cinternal review.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film’s characters include manservant LeFou, who plays the sidekick to the story’s villain Gaston, and, according to director Bill Condon, \u201cis confused about his sexuality.\u201d Condon has described a brief scene as a \u201cgay moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia last week approved the movie but banned children under 16 from watching it.<\/p>\n

Malaysia’s censors in 2010 loosened decades of restrictions on sexual and religious content in movies, but still kept a tight leash on tiny bikinis, kisses and passionate hugs. The new rules allowed depiction of gay characters, but only if they show repentance or are portrayed in a negative light. Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and whipping in Malaysia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia \u2014 Walt Disney has shelved the release of its new movie \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d in mainly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":92377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[16125],"class_list":["post-93857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","mauthors-eileen-ng","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}