Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Mrmoviebuff — 18 Mar 2017

When I heard that Disney would be remaking 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991), my favorite ever Disney animated film, into live-action, especially with this cast of actors... it's hard not to get excited. 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991) is without a doubt, as close to a perfect Disney animated film as you could get... so perfect that it became the first animated feature to be nominated for the "Best Picture" Academy Award. Not to mention that with 'Cinderella' (2015) and 'The Jungle Book' (2016) turning out to be surprisingly good, there were more reasons to get excited. Now I'm not sure if it was my expectations that did this to me, but I found Disney's live-action, and arguably more modern, take on this "Tale as old as time" to be mostly okay! I'm not going to waste my time summarizing the plot as I'm sure everybody should have seen the original film by now, so I'm just going to explain what I liked and what didn't work out so well for me. What I liked was the choice of actors and their roles; Emma Watson, best known for playing the bookworm and intelligent Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" franchise, fits the role of Belle since these two characters are not that different, so it seems. Her singing, admittedly, does sound auto-tuned - especially when she hits the high notes - but it's not bad. She did her best, and that's admirable. Dan Stevens ('Downton Abbey') plays the Beast very well too, with enough anger and arrogance to make him almost no different to his animated counterpart. Luke Evans and Josh Gad share terrific chemistry as Gaston and LeFou, and Gad's version of the "Gaston" song sounds eerily similar to the original version from 1991... clearly Gad thrives in playing Disney sidekicks (many of you may remember him as Olaf the snowman in 'Frozen'). Ewan McGregor ('Trainspotting' and 'Star Wars') surprised me as Lumiere, a role I didn't think he would play well, but, his version of "Be Our Guest" is something I wouldn't mind listening to again. He shares funny chemistry with Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, not to mention Emma Thompson is fantastic as Mrs. Potts, and her version of the enchanting "Beauty and the Beast" number is also something worth downloading. The production design of this film cannot be faulted as well, much like 'Cinderella' (2015) two years ago, it's very lavish and great to look at. Now for the not-so-good things. The movie spends a lot of time trying to be too much like its animated counterpart, shot-by-shot some scenes look similar, the dialogue is also very much the same, yet the execution of these lines don't sound as natural as they should have. If just the musical numbers, the lyrics, remained similar to the original, that's fine... but 80% of the dialogue in this movie, maybe more, was just from the original. And they don't have the same beat...

The lead characters, played by Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, two gifted young actors, unfortunately for me, lacked a bit of chemistry. I didn't feel as if there were any spark or emotional intensity like their animated versions. This isn't a problem with their acting, I think it has to do with the script and the editing execution. What I did like was the near ending, the way they executed the last petal falling from the rose, and how the characters react to that I thought was emotionally heavy. I'll give director Bill Condon credit for trying to be as respectful to the original movie as possible, but focus on the like-able characters, don't worry too much about making look aesthetically similar to the original by using the same camera-work. The reasons why 'Cinderella' (2015) and 'The Jungle Book' (2016) worked so well was because they didn't concentrate too much on being similar to the original, they still made it about character, and why these stories were so important. Those remakes were able to stand on their own without the need to watch their original versions. 'Beauty and the Beast' however, it seems wants to be compared to the original, so much so that it tries to be similar in both camera-work and dialogue. But the characters come second nature... This isn't an insulting remake like Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' (2010) or a dull and excruciatingly ludicrous one like 'Maleficent' (2014) (a movie I found difficult to sit through), this is something fans should see. See it for the music, the production design, and just the overall nostalgia. But don't expect a "Best Picture"-level movie... leave that to the original 1991 animated classic.