BriObsessedWithTheBest

Oh also since it came up in the show: Kendra is immortal because she’s a witch. I can’t remember if she is 17 years old and just stays the same age, or if she’s like 300 and she uses her powers to make herself look young (because she can disguise herself to look differently.) In one of the spin-off books to Beastly (there’s like 4 of them) we find out that Kendra is from the 1660s and a plague wiped out her whole village when she was 17. She had spent a lot of time learning alchemy from the village crazy lady who wouldn’t you know ended being a witch. Somehow the witchcraft ended up protecting Kendra from the plague but her whole family died in front of her. She was kind of bitter about it, but she also knew something was up and figured she should practice her new witch powers. For the next 300 years she would try to help others that SHE thought would need help, such as our boy Kyle here, and sometimes it turned out okay but other times people ended up dying, or she would accidentally cause a witch hunt. She’s gotten in trouble a few times and other older witches would scold her, so she often tries to lay low. She’s chilling at the high school because that’s where a teenager would be. So Kendra is a well-meaning witch, but I think because she’s technically a teenager, she doesn’t have all the foresight when it comes to “helping” people.

I was trying to figure this out too, before I commented on the original post. I figured out that you could get from NYC to Mexico City to Panama City to Bogota, Colombia in approximately 165 hours. I couldn’t figure out a route any further past Bogota, so thank you for finding out it’s another 73 hours to get to Lima, which would be the biggest major city in Peru to have a bus station. However, driving from Lima to Cusco (the nearest town to Machu Picchu) would take about 19 hours because Cusco is up in the mountians and Lima is on the coast. Also you would have to go by car or van since buses don’t typically travel there because it’s an extremely difficult trip. Like even travel agencies and people from Peru don’t recommend you try driving there. So it would take approximately 257 hours, or 10 and a half days, to drive from New York City to Machu Picchu, ONE WAY, not including pit stops, vehicle transfers, and immigration checks. Again, why wouldn’t you just fly there?

Wait. . . are y'all actually thinking they're getting to Machu Picchu by BUS? When they kept announcing the bus for Machu Picchu, I figured it meant they were taking a bus to JFK Airport or something and would fly out to Peru. Why wouldn't they fly there? That's over a 150 hours of driving!

All of the dialogue in the movie is crap, from the insults to the compliments. Lindy's speech at the Halloween party is one of the worst offenders. I get that she's the type of person would want to treat everyone--even mean people--with kindness, and that she tries to see the best in people. But to say "that guy's horrible but he speaks his mind" doesn't stop the person from being horrible. The Belle analogs are always represented as being kind and smart, and you can tell they were trying to go for that with Lindy but everything the writers made her say makes her seem naive and stupid. But also Vanessa Hudgens was definitely drunk during that Halloween scene, right?

It’s because he’s supposed to look grotesque while also being hot! I feel like the producers and creative team were like “oh we can’t make him a furry beast. Alex Pettyfer’s too beautiful to cover up; he has to stay attractive. What’s hot but also disturbing? I know: tattoos! Tattoos are cool! Also barbed wire! But maybe he should also look deformed. So let’s add gaping wounds and scars, that makes him look tragic. But then let’s put the barbed wire in the wounds so it doesn’t seem as gross! Because we need girls to think he’s hot!”

I completely agree with you, and this is another thing that handled better in the novel. In the book, Kyle caught Lindy’s dad breaking into the mansion and the greenhouse and, like the original versions of the story, makes him pay back him back by giving up his daughter. But more importantly, Kyle actually cares about Lindy at this point because he’s been watching her through a magic mirror Kendra gave him. So he has already learned about what she likes and how she spends her time. (Again we all know kidnapping, stalking, and voyuerism is problematic.) When it comes to Will and the housekeeper (her name is Magda in the book) they’re okay with it because at this point there’s already been significant change to how he was before. I think Lindy came to stay with him one year into a two year curse, so that’s a whole year he’s had to become a better person. The housekeeper is fine with it because we find out later she’s Kendra in disguise, trying to guide Kyle in the right direction. And Will is aware of the curse, and while he probably doesn’t believe it, he can clearly tell how depressed and hopeless Kyle has gotten and how excited the prospect of Lindy coming has made him. So really the only adult who would have an issue with it most likely went along with it to help Kyle out, as he was already grown as a person. And like they would’ve heard Kyle mention Lindy by now. They knew he never had nefarious motvies.

Kendra gave him a second chance/more time because he gave the rose to Lindy, he did something kind and innocuous that made someone else genuinely happy (although it was something that didn't really matter to him). Basically, he was nice to someone less fortunate. On that note though, Lindy was a scholarship student. In the book, she is pulled from going to the private school in order to go live with Kyle/Adrian/Hunter, and then after he frees her she has to slum it up at a bad public school in her district. So by that logic, how on earth in the movie is Lindy allowed back at the private school? She's missed enough school that she definitely would've lost her scholarship and wouldn't be able to go to Macchu Picchu. Why does it have to be Macchu Picchu? Why can't she be striving to attend Colombia or something?

The book Beastly, by Alex Flinn, has actually been one of my favorites since I read it in high school. I've read it multiple times, not because it's the greatest ever, but because--as June said in the show-- it's just a fun book. I've also seen the movie before, when it first came out and was disappointed because of the NUMEROUS IMPORTANT CHANGES. First of all, Kyle in the book is turned into a literal beast much like in previous adaptations. He has animalistic features and is covered in fur that instantly grows back if he tries to get rid it. He's literally a monster, and he pretty much spirals into a severe depression. I'm assuming they changed his beastly appearance for the movie to make the film seem less dark or campy and to pander to the Twilight audience. (This was, after all, a pre Shape of Water world.) Also names actually are important in the novel, and the movie even changed his name for no reason. At one point in the novel, Kyle finds out his name means "handsome" and decides to change it to Adrian, which means "dark one." But in the movie they made his name Hunter because . . . Lindy would recognize the name Kyle? Hunter just means "hunter," so did they make that his name because he stalks her? Because it sounds cooler than Adrian? Magic is much more prevalent in the book. Kendra gives Kyle a magic mirror that--much like in the Disney version--allows him to see to the outside world just by saying a person or place's name. Kyle eventually uses this mirror to watch Lindy and learn about her interests once she is set to live with him. And yes, it's voyeuristic, but that's much better than physically stalking. Kendra is an immortal witch and can make herself appear however she wants, and in the novel we find out that she's actually the housekeeper in disguise. And the keyword in Kendra's curse was "beastly," a word that is never uttered once in the film despite the title. But honestly if something doesn't make sense in the story, just chalk it up to magic. The curse lasted two years in the book, instead of one. He started his tutoring with Will long before Lindy got there, and they would read about different literary monsters. Kyle and Lindy studied Shakespearean sonnets about beauty on their first day of class so I have no idea why they would read that "Having a Coke with You" poem. And the deleted ending is more in line with what happens in the book, which is why I think it's a better ending. I think the only thing the movie got 100% right was NPH as the tutor.