KUALA LUMPUR: Beauty and the Beast is trending on Twitter, but not for a good reason. As expected among Malaysian netizens, thoughts and wisdom were immortalised in 145 characters, and some were worth pondering.
User @zarakahan tweeted: "So in Malaysia we ban Beauty and the Beast but a movie that glorifies rapists (Ombak Rindu) we put it on a stamp. Great messaging right here."
"Beauty and the beast was my motivation for the month, and 3 days before the release date we've been told it's cancelled off? :(," said @aliadfaisal.
"Do they know that those kids who watched the animated Beauty and The Beast are now adults? Lol," tweeted @izrinhariri.
Facebook users too have their own thoughts about the no show.
Kay-z Loh pointed out, "There isn't any gay kissing scene nor sex scene. It is a children's story".
Another user, Ysiad Wong posted, "WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS ON MY BIRTHDAY AND NOW ITS SHATTERED... why??? No malice pls just love this movie... sad to the moon and back."
Siva Kumar thought the whole deal was funny. "Gay..... the no 1 threat to Malaysia.. sad state", he posted with a bunch of laughing out loud smileys.
Farhani Ali posted: "Is not only Malaysia banning this movie. Texas did so too. Do you even know that?"
The posting got a reply from Jay WS, who said: "It doesn't matter if the Trump administration also bans it, what matters is the level of maturity we humans have and the ignorance we have to ignore the evidence of reality. Homosexuality naturally occurs in almost all observed living beings."
For some users, Beauty and the Beast is just another film and life will go on even if they don't get to watch Emma Watson and Dan Stevens on big screen here.
As Twitter user @shamaineothman suggested, "OK why don't you take that money you were going to spend on Beauty and the Beast, on Adiwiraku instead? JOM!"
Now that the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPF) has announced that the film will be released with minor edits, what will netizens say next?