Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Wendy H — 20 May 2017

Adaptations of old animated classics can be a difficult task to pull off well, with some such as Maleficent doing exceptionally well and others - yes Cinderella I am looking at you - not so much. But after letting the credits roll on Beauty and the Beast, the disappointment that came with it wasn't really that much of a surprise.

Overall the movie itself had it's charming points and it may have worked better if I hadn't been constantly comparing it to the 1991 animated classic because of how little new work was done on the remake. Whilst this usually wouldn't be a problem, as it's nice seeing a remake being faithful to the original piece, the most important scenes in the movie we're not done well. Whilst in the originals scenes such as the ballroom dance, Beasts 'death' and Belle finally saying 'i love you' had me giggling like a 10 year old, in this movie they felt void of emotions and I was especially sad to see that Belle wasn't wearing her iconic dress.

I'll admit, I sang along to the catchy tune that was 'Gaston' but cringed at the obvious and blant auto-tune that was Emma Watson's singing and the little effort that was put into making it look like the audio track wasn't just simply put over her good-ish at most acting. Her failure to portray many aspects of Belle made me really wish another, more suited, actress was chosen for the role. Emma Watson has had some great movies in the past excluding Harry Potter, but this role is one that she certainly did not fit into, both in way of acting and deliverance of necessary emotions.

Visually, the movie wasn't breath taking but it was pretty and added to the whole setting that is a 'fairy tail'. Some parts, especially the Beast could have been worked upon. BUT over all, the movie wasn't good but neither was it terrible. It had it's charming bits and it was interesting to see how our beloved animated characters were brought to life on screen, however this could never live up to the original and I would love to see one day another group of talented actors and screen writers once again breathe life into a timeless classic.