Beauty and the Beast(2017) Review
I went into Beauty and the Beast having different expectations than most people. I wasn’t going into this as a die hard fan. I never realized how popular a property like this could be until last weekend’s outrageous box office numbers came out. The Disney animated films weren’t something I rewatched over and over again. I didn’t even remember much of the animated version.
Before I get into my positives and negatives… I think that the huge fans of the animated classic will definitely enjoy this movie. It captures that Disney, fairytale magic of all their other films and it’s a cool experience to be able to see everything recreated into live action.
The three biggest positives are the sets, the music, and the casting. The sets were, to me, the strongest element. They were extremely detailed and realistic, really contributing to the fairytale style of the story. The most notable one was definitely the castle. Everything about it was grand and beautiful. It was fun to look at and examine all of its in’s and out’s. In terms of the music, it worked out very well, regardless of how much auto-tuning there actually was. Almost all the songs hit and there wasn’t anybody who gave a weak musical performance. Emma Watson as Belle was perfectly cast. Same goes for Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as LeFou. They all fit their characters’ personalities very well and they got lost in their roles. I wasn’t distracted trying to stop thinking that I was watching Emma Watson or Hermione on screen. I believed her as Belle. I thought another strong element of the film was its ending. All the changes in the lighting and set pieces contributed to the transformation after the curse is broken. You get to see all the furniture come back to life and there’s a good final dance number. All the music and visuals in the movie warrant seeing Beauty and the Beast in the theatre. Even if you’re on the fence, I’d recommend going solely based on that.
Even though I think this adaptation captured the tone and feeling of the original, it still had some big negatives as well. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of musicals, I felt that there were a few too many songs. Like I said, on their own they were all good. Unfortunately, I got a little tired of some of it after a while. The CGI of the beast was also sometimes jarring. He looked really good on his close-up shots. There were certain wide-shots, however, where he stuck out from all the real life elements in the scene. The biggest downside of the movie for me was the pacing. The beginning picks up pretty quickly but the middle drags a lot. It gets going again for a while and then seems to drag again every so often. The strong ending does help make up for that. Another thing I found myself wondering after I got out was if a live-action Beauty and the Beast was a smart idea. On one hand, it does open up the story to a new generation and gives the older fans a new look at something they love. On the opposite side, it doesn’t offer anything new besides the visuals. The beginning is slightly different, but everything else is pretty much beat for beat the same. I would have appreciated a few scenes of new dialogue and felt like something more could have been added. They do hint a lot at the beast and Belle’s past, so maybe a few more memories and flashbacks to help understand their motivations would’ve given it a unique enough twist.
No matter what, we are getting a ton more of these. There’s a new Lion King coming out, a new Little Mermaid, a new Mulan, and a lot more. There’s definitely something cool about getting to see how these animated films transfer over to a live-action format. I just hope we get a different spin on some of these stories that make these new adaptations feel original while still embracing the important elements of the properties they are based on. Beauty and the Beast gets a 6.5/10 from me.
