I was thinking the same thing. She did her hair and bought a dress that doesn’t fit… the wrong dress. Sure, it’s gold like the iconic Belle dress but the design is completely wrong and it doesn’t even fit the model. So yeah, I have to wonder what makes this cosplay impressive.
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I probably wouldnt notice if i saw someone cosplaying Belle as a brunette, especially if they had a really nice dress 
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Yeah…when it comes to “accuracy” in cosplay…skin tone and hair color are not usually something that you notice unless it’s jarringly different. If she were bleach blonde playing Belle it would look too off.
I am just also confused like @anon36155390 as to why this is so “good”.
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I would say it’s mainly the dress because the wig looks like an obvious wig. I’m willing to ignore it since i do like the outfit, though i can’t say that the picture blew me away. Perhaps if she had been paired with a really good Gaston or Beast i would be impressed. Missed opportunity.
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Yes, the dress. Assuming she made (or had it made) it is incredibly well done.
No. It is to dress up as the character and have fun. So you might be the type who wants a screen accurate reproduction - like the many people in the 501st (Stormtroopers). But others want to bring their own take to the character. This may mean the hair color, skin color, or even sex doesn’t match the original character. And of course there are those who take it a step beyond, with something like a Steampunk version of a Disney Princess.
Also “good” is subjective. What is good for one person may not float your boat.
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She’s a woman living in 18th Century France, where the literacy rate for women is maybe 20 percent of the population. So in the very least we can say she is more educated than the majority of her peers.
Especially compared to some of the other people from that village…
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Not to put too fine a point on it…but yeah, sure, no duh. I said isn’t one point to be accurate…not all points. But the things you mention are obvious variational cosplay takes. In this case she is clearly going for authenticity. To which…it seems less than authentic to me.
And yes it is ofc subjective…But I am asking “WHY” someone else sees this as “pretty impressive”. Because whatever Xeni sees here…yeah…I’m not seeing it at all. It is perfectly fine, there’s nothing bad/wrong here with what the young lady has done…but when the headline says “pretty impressive” I am thinking more of the following…
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Like I said, it’s subjective. Maybe Xeni just really likes the character Belle and the dress. If hair color is the only thing holding it back from being perfect, then it gets a pass from me.
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Exactly, thanks for putting this so well.
Oh, I’ll grant you that. But some parts of the fandom hold up Belle as the scholarly or intellectual princess. On the other hand, the designation may come in comparison to the other princesses and, well, Beauty and the Beast came out, that cohort was not much of a brain trust.
Some of the reaction in this thread seems to unfairly blame the cosplayer for Xeni’s headline calling it “pretty impressive”. I don’t feel like folks would be harshing on her otherwise.
On a different note, there is so much wrong with the whole Beauty and the Beast story. First off, let’s start with the title, which is all about appearances. It’s not “Smart Girl” and the Beast. Disney tries to make up for that by making Belle a fan of books, but as others have noted she has a curious mind and enjoys stories, but she doesn’t actually show off any intellectual skills. As for the underlying story, there the whole kidnapper to romance story line. One could argue that Belle volunteers to be the Beast’s captive to free her father, but that is under duress, so I think the story still fits that horrible Romance novel crap where a big Alpha Male kidnaps a heroine, and then the heroine learns her kidnapper is actually a great guy and they live happily ever after. I’d be happy if we could remove that kind of story from every story ever. It just normalizes and even glamorizes abusive relationships - if you just get to know your abuser well enough you’ll change him and learn what a wonderful caring person he is. Bahhh…
Well, to be fair, any of the fairy tales of the time were pretty fucked up if you thought about them too far.
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That’s the thing with our culture. We tend to forget how awful most things were in former times. Including the folk horror stories known morphed to fariry tales…
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I think about that about books and movies that include dueling as some sort of romantic notion between honorable gentlemen rather than as a remembrance that it’s much the same thing as when gang members or angry white dudes or whom ever start fights when someone looks at them wrong. They are both about using violence to settle differences, often trivial differences. Shakespeare mocked it frequently even as he used fights to further the plots of his plays. And we tend to romanticize the the violence. I wonder if there will be historical re-enactment groups that will re-enact all the violence of our decade’s violence as entertainment the way people do the Civil War?
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For me its not even on my short list of favorite Disney movies. I see the appeal but certainly as an adult i see there’s a lot to be desired from the story.
I really love highly polished cosplay that have perfect sets, professional photography, etc.
Back when I was on FB all the time I followed many cosplayers. Initially just the ones that had reached some sort of professional level of quality. But eventually they recommended people at varying levels of skill levels. I saw posts by people that had worked very hard to accomplish the best cosplay they currently had the skills and assets they could. And then people that don’t even cosplay would just just unleash on them an unholy hell storm of internet rage. You’re not the right ethnicity. Your paint job sucks. Your dress is off the rack. Your hair is terrible. Your photos are amateurish. Lame background. And on and on and on.
So after seeing far too many people post about being crushed like this. I shifted my approach to focus on complementing the positive. They know every flaw far better than any casual internet commenters do. They are already planning on how to do it better next time. But at some point they have to say it’s time to call this done or else they will never finish anything.
The thing is no cosplayer was perfect when they started. Each had to grow. And to grow they needed encouragement and support when they were still learning how to master a fuck ton of different skills. And yes, part of growing is getting constructive criticism on what they did well and what they could do better next time. But just saying to the BBS that this person didn’t deserve to be posted about isn’t really helping this cosplayer. Getting featured on BB should be a super exciting thing. Then they look at the comments and see this.
I see your daughters cosplay up thread. It looks fantastic. But if you threw that photo on to a random nerdy sight, while most people we say great job, you just know some people would just have to bitch about something that wasn’t 100% this or that. Maybe even say she doesn’t deserve to be featured. And that negativity would do nothing to help her grow. it would just be mean for the sake of feeling superior.
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Assholes always ruin everything. I my experience, for the most part, people who actually cosplay are very supportive of even amateur attempts. Like you said, it’s the spectators who tend to chime in and tear people down. Like that scene in Fight Club, “I just wanted to destroy something beautiful.”
I have heard of some rumors and drama behind the scenes for contests and the like, but that is sort of peripheral to the cosplay.
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I think you missed reading what I said.
My daughter does not cosplay…at all. She is an actress and singer…that was her costume for the play. And most theatrical costumes are not nearly the quality of what a cosplayer does. They need to be able to act/sing/dance/move/emote in what they are wearing and also usually change that costume multiple times during a show. They are not the same thing.
I also think you are conflating two different things. Those of us asking “What is pretty impressive exactly?” is not the same thing as “This cosplay sucks!” I do not see anyone saying that, I see people asking questions about what others see as “impressive” and providing critique.
@Mister44 I just don’t think that is what is happening in this thread though.
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Oh no, I didn’t mean to suggest that it was. Just the meanness @Garymon observed elsewhere, I’ve seen also. And it usually isn’t the cosplayers being toxic, it’s the peanut gallery.
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