Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Inland E — 11 Aug 2017

Excellent live action remake to an animated Disney classic! Bought the movie when it was released on BluRay/DVD/Digital HD combo pack after seeing it in the theater a few months earlier. Pitch perfect casting of all the characters overall. Especially liked the standout performances of Emma Watson as Belle, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, and Luke Evans as Gaston. Each brought their animated character counterparts to life as well as could be imagined. Every member of the distinguished ensemble cast brought some realness and distinct personality to their characters in this live-action version.

From the charm, fearlessness, independence, intelligence, and radiance that Emma Watson represented and embodied within Belle. To the enthusiasm, joy, and pure fun that Ewan McGregor embraced with Lumiere. From the brashness, arrogance, and over-the-top entertaining persona Luke Evans brought to Gaston. The casting, acting performances, along with the CGI special effects, and fabulous direction of Bill Condon together combined to make this movie a magnificent success.

For all the comments about auto-tuning the vocals of Emma Watson, it likely did happen. But they likely also did some level of auto-tuning for the other cast members vocals as well. But it honestly did not bother me. Some level of vocal enhancement, audio processing, and fine auto-tuning of recorded singing likely happens for movie musicals and audio recording studios for various performers. Not just for actors/actresses in movie musicals, but for studio music albums released for even the best musical artists. So some level of vocal sound production was likely done for the singing moments during this movie musical for the cast members to varying extents. Each member of the cast performed their vocal singing sections admirably, with Luke Evans as Gaston and Ewan McGregor as Lumeire particularly standing out in their singing sections given their previous Broadway musical theater backgrounds.

In the end, this live action version of "Beauty & The Beast" will finish as one of the Top 10 grossing movies all-time revenue grosses earned at the box office. Both domestically and internationally worldwide overall. So based on those box office results, a vast majority people who saw this movie enjoyed, were entertained, and pleased with what they saw in the theaters. Amazing accomplishment to all those involved in the movie for giving us an entertaining live action version of an animated classic that will be remembered for generations to come. Superb, astonishing, and amazing job!