France drops Beauty and the Beast book over ‘inappropriate’ modern illustrations

France’s education ministry has cancelled an order for “Beauty and the Beast” with modern illustrations, saying a cartoonist’s 21st-century version including a police sniffer dog and smartphones was inappropriate for tweens.

Julien Berjeaut, whose pen name is Jul, had been asked to illustrate an 18th-century version of the famous fairy tale for a government scheme to give 800 000 primary school graduates a revamped classic to read for the summer holidays.

A digital copy of the book intended for publication showed the original 1756 text by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.

The revamped version

Jul’s accompanying cartoons depicted the heroine with dark Mediterranean features, the Beast as a comic toothy hair ball, and her selfish sisters as addicted to their smartphones.

To illustrate Beauty’s father exploring the Beast’s castle after “a few glasses of wine”, according to the 18th-century text, Jul draws him drunk, clutching a bottle and singing a famous French song.

Beside the book recounting his business woes and him being “put on trial for his goods”, he draws a ship arriving from abroad and police officers with a sniffer dog inspecting boxes unloaded from his car.

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“It’s a modern rewriting. We have a father coming from Algeria, who must have committed fraud and is stopped by police,” Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Thursday.

“Perhaps in a setting with teachers, we could explain this,” she told the CNews/Europe1 broadcaster. “But it’s a book that is supposed to be read on holiday with the family.

“It is certainly an interesting work, but not for this educational setting,” she added.

‘Complex realities’

Jul said he received a letter from the education ministry on Monday explaining the themes of his illustrations — such as alcohol and social media — “would be more appropriate for older pupils at the end of middle school or start of high school”.

The ministry on Thursday said these “complex realities” included “trafficking counterfeit goods” and “police controls”.

The illustrator criticised what he called “a political decision” and “censorship”.

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“The only explanation seems to lie in disgust at seeing a world of princes and princesses who looks a little more like that of schoolchildren today,” Jul said.

Alluding to far-right conspiracy theories about non-white immigration into Europe, he asked whether he had crossed a boundary for the ministry in “the ‘great replacement’ of blond princesses by young Mediterranean girls”.

Preventing ‘radical ideologies’

France’s president and government have borrowed talking points from the far right in recent years, especially on immigration, in an apparent bid to appeal to the right.

Jul drew a parallel with US President Donald Trump’s administration moving to prevent alleged “radical, anti-American ideologies” — such as discussions on privilege or gender — being taught in schools.

“Why look at Donald Trump with alarm, when we are step by step heading down the same path?” the French cartoonist asked.

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