The screening of the live-action movie of Disney fairytale "Beauty and the Beast" in Malaysia has been postponed.

The movie, which was initially due to open this Thursday, was postponed due to an “internal review”, film distributor The Walt Disney Co (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd said in an email.

“The movie release date has been postponed and we are reviewing its new release date internally,” a Walt Disney Malaysia spokesperson confirmed to Malaysiakini.

However, no further reason was given and no indication of if, or when, the movie will be released.

Cinema chain Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) also confirmed with Malaysiakini that the movie has indeed been postponed.

“The new release date is to be confirmed. (It is) being held up for internal review,” said the GSC spokesperson.

GSC in a statement said it will be conducting a refund for customers who have purchased tickets for the movie.

Fellow cinema chain TGV Cinemas also told customers who have purchased the tickets in advance to contact the respective channels for a refund.

Checks by Malaysiakini found that screening times for the movie have been taken off from the mobile applications of major cinema chains.

It is unclear why the movie’s screening date was postponed in the first place. It is believed that the movie’s release was postponed due to a gay character in the movie.

The movie had courted controversy after its director Bill Condon was reported in a UK magazine that the character Le Fou, played by actor Josh Gad, would have a “nice exclusively gay moment” in the movie.

Advisory from Anglican church in S'pore

In neighbouring Singapore, Yahoo News Singapore reported that romantic scenes involving two male characters in the movie had prompted an advisory from the head of the Anglican church, calling on parents to “provide guidance to their children” on the movie.

In a statement posted on the St Andrew’s Cathedral website yesterday, Bishop Rennis Ponniah urged the faithful to be mindful of the “homosexual content” in the movie, which comes out during the March school holidays.

Singapore’s censorship board had given the movie a PG (parental guidance) rating.

The movie stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast and Luke Evans as Gaston.

Descriptions of the "exclusively gay scenes" by entertainment website Vulture.com, however, may suggest that the scenes were not entirely as overt as the Singapore Anglican Church implies.

The "gay scenes" includes one where LeFou asking the antagonist Gaston why he is not happy with just the two of them together, Vulture.com said.

In another scene, LeFou jokes that he has yet to settle down because he is "too clingy" - which Vulture.com described as "a vaguely gay insinuation".

In a scene where he sings the song "Gaston", he also wraps Gaston's arms around him before being pushed aside in what was described as "a gay-ish split-second".

Another character - a talking teapot called Mrs Potts - also tells LeFou he deserves better than Gaston, which Vulture.com called "some light gay condescension".

"Disney can pat itself on its back all it wants for turning a villainous buffoon that was coded as gay in the original film into a morally ambiguous buffoon who is more obviously gay, confides in a teapot, and tries out dancing with a man...

"The true exclusively gay moment will have to come when two gay characters’ intimacy is actually at the center of the scene. Can we get a kiss?" the Vulture.com article reads.