Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Crunchygranola — 22 Mar 2017

The original Beauty and the Beast animated movie is one of my all time favorites, so I had some trepidation about the live-action remake. But, as my rating shows, I was pleased and impressed by the new effort.

Emma Watson is the only actress that I could have accepted as the bookish, plucky Belle since it is who Watson really is, and who she played so many years as Hermione, and she did a creditable job. All of the other roles are also well cast The movie adds additional elements to the story, and its telling, that overall work very well. The timeline is clarified; the relationship of the town to the castle, the haunted forest, and the magic spell are also knitted together better. LeFou has become his own character, with his own comic moments, and real friendship with Gaston, who depends on LeFou to stabilize him at times. This is the single largest addition to the story and is entirely successful. The movie is also updated a bit for present day sensibilities in showing that a fair part of Gaston's male posse have man-crushes (LeFou), or latent feelings of which they are unaware (two of this other followers), all of which I liked.

There is a new song for the beast when he lets Belle go, which I thought was very good, and really needed by the story. I will miss it in the future when viewing the original animated movie (the Ebert site disses the new song, I think the reviewer is all washed up).

Another minor difference: the "bookshop" in the town has comically few books - which actually makes sense for the town as it is, and enhances the contrast of Belle's encounter with the Beast's vast library.

The "battle" scene in the castle involving the townspeople, where they are routed by the enchanted inhabitants played well - it makes perfect sense that the ordinary folk with get spooked by their magicked opponents and cut and run, leaving only the aggressive conceited Gaston to carry on the attack.

Any criticisms? Some.

Watson does get a little lost in castle scenes, they let them overwhelm the actress's presence. The run-time is a little long, and could have been tightened up a bit. The animation of Mrs. Potts was a little creepy. And I really missed the lovely, magical, narrated stained-glass introduction of the original.

Was a live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast necessary? Of course not. Is it better than the original? Again, no (that would be impossible). But I am glad that they did a creditable job.