Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Christian G — 07 Aug 2017

Truthfully I avoided seeing this for the longest time because of the buzz about a gay character being portrayed as a guy who finds himself rather pleased about being put in women's clothing and that same stereotype being the one that Lefou ends up with at the end. The idea that Disney would feed into this kind of outdated stereotyping angered me. Still, I found myself picking up the blu ray and seeing for myself.

The film is sumptuous. The opening overture beautiful and promising an experience like West Side Story. While not as inspired or filled with stunning choreography, it is faithful to the original animated work while adding some welcome new songs and moments. The emotion is there, the bombast, the magic, all there. Kevin Kline was a welcome surprise. Emma Watson was perfect as Belle, I even liked her more than before. Dan Stevens was wonderful as well. I noticed more subtle emotion in his face which made me feel a bit more than before. Luke Evans was a presence as Gaston even if his voice was not as hearty or deep.

My only concern was Angela Lansbury. Why wasn't she Mrs.Potts? I mean, Emma Thompson was fine but she worked so hard to sound exactly like Angela, why not use Angela? She's still alive. The same with Cogsworth. David Ogden Stiers is still alive so why not use him as well? It would have been a touching tribute to the original cast if they had been used. It made me sad. It was hard enough remembering Jerry Orbach's Lumiere but to miss those two characters was almost too much.

Still, the film was gorgeous. The emotion still present and hitting the right chords. I still cried at the end. I still felt joy and love. So I forgive Disney the two flaws I found. Hopefully future projects will be better thought out in those respects.