Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Davrosdaleks1 — 17 Mar 2017

Really liked this film! It's rare that you see people in the theater clap.

A lot of people complain that this is a rehash, and yes, they're right. But, it's a really good rehash. The director and screenwriters were wise enough to stick with the key points of the original film while adding some new stuff that really worked. More background and humanization are given to characters causing the film to come across as a little darker and more mature than the original. The actual romance between Beast and Belle feels so much stronger. It also fixes plot holes and pacing issues from the original. One weak spot is that this film has so many characters that the director has some trouble juggling the more supporting characters.

The film is beautiful. Has a brightly colored, ornate French fairy tale look. The redesigns to the enchanted object characters are really unique. The computer animation is impressive. Cinematography is good, but I do feel that some of the camera angles could have been improved upon. Contains all the original designs. A couple of songs have some slight lyric changes, but I feel that they suited the new context of the film. They did drop the Gaston reprise, due to plot changes. I'm disappointed but understand their reasons. There are 4 new songs in this, which I liked. The song Evermore is especially good. One downside of the new films is that 3 out of four of them are ballads and I kind of wish there were more dynamic differences between songs.

Cast is great. Special credit should be given to Josh Gad, a living imp, and Dan Stevens, who brings so much emotion and nuance to the role.

Rehash or no I recommend it to everyone.