Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Rebecca31 — 24 Mar 2017

A tale as old as time, honestly I wished it had stayed that way. There’s no question that the animated version is better than this remake, but sure we all knew that already didn’t we? From her opening song Emma Watson seemed horribly miscast, her voice auto tuned to within an inch of its life was very disappointing, however as the story progressed she did manage to win me over. Her relationship with the Beast felt genuine and there was strong chemistry between Watson and Dan Stevens. Luke Evans was a definite show stealer, perfectly channelling the essence of Gaston and perhaps the best thing in the entire movie. The only character that didn’t seem to live up to the standard was Ewan McGregor and his horrendous attempt at a French accent and if you thought listening to a bad French accent was annoying you should hear him sing with it. Cringe.

But why oh why Disney did you feel the need to add mediocre songs to an otherwise perfect set list? There is one additional song in particular and if you’ve seen the movie then you know what I’m talking about. It was unbelievably out of place and upset the pace of the movie. So unfortunately for me this disrupting the pace of the story happened too often and I was left sitting there thinking the animated version is a far superior movie and the only reason for this remake is the money which is has certainly made in buckets.

We all know the story and what should have been a dramatic and emotional last act was simply bland. There was no emotion so although I did enjoy a lot of this movie it’s just not as good as it should have been. For all the diehard Disney fans there’s no recommendation because no doubt you’ve already seen this but for everyone else maybe watch the animated version instead.