If you were asked to summarize the drawing “Beauty and the Beast, ” how would you do it? Would you say it's about a young woman who gets stuck in a castle until she falls in love with her kidnapper and ends the curse suffered by him and his staff? Think again: According to the remake director, the animated feature was a metaphor about AIDS.

At the time the film was released in the early 1990s, the epidemic of the syndrome was taking over the news. However, the taboo on the subject was very large, so approaching it in a Disney animation would need to be as clever as possible - so much so that this plot twist has only been revealed now!

Bill Condon, director of the live action remake that will hit theaters this month, said composer Howard Ashman found himself represented in the story of the girl trapped in the castle, but in Beast condition. So much so that he encouraged the script to focus more on this character, who had suffered a curse that affected not only him but everyone who loved him - something Ashman himself felt when he found himself with HIV.

The composer was one of the first public figures to assume his condition

Gay character and first kiss between men at Disney

At the time, Howard Ashman had recently discovered his seropositivity. By convincing the producers to go the way he suggested, the composer turned the story into a metaphor for what he himself was going through. The composer was one of the first men in show business to take on HIV, which resulted in his early death at age 40 on March 14, 1991 - just four days after the film's first test screening.

For the drawing, Ashman was nominated for three Oscars: Best Soundtrack and Best Song for "Belle" and "Beauty and the Beast." He eventually won the prize for this latest song, and his partner received the posthumous figurine in his name. Ashman also worked on the tracks for "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid."

Interestingly, this information comes just the week it was reported that LeFou, villain Gastón's aide in "Beauty and the Beast, " will be portrayed as homosexual in the new movie. Also this week, Disney aired its first gay kiss on a cartoon: the cartoon “Star Vs. Forces of Evil, ”which airs on Disney XD, showed a peck between two guys.

Scene that aired last Monday (27) is fast but quite iconic