Once upon a time, there was a girl named Belle who lived in a poor, provincial French town. Fed up with the towns ignorant inhabitants, especially the handsome but boorish Gaston, Belle longs for adventure. She gets just that when her father goes missing and she is led to a mysterious enchanted castle and meets its monstrous, beastly master...
I've talked numerous times about Disney's animated films and how much I love them. So, with the release of this live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast (1991), I can briefly talk about Disney's live-action adaptations of the animated films as a whole.
For the most part, I'm not a fan. I personally don't see the appeal of re-imagining perfectly fine animated movies that could easily be seen again today, whether by DVD, TV screenings, digital download, or heck even movie piracy. Then again, I admit this is just purely my own hangup. I take it for granted that there are a lot of people who either haven't seen or are unable to see the original animated ones, and perhaps there are those who want the novelty of seeing their beloved animated characters come to life. I won't be dishonest about my feelings towards them though, so here's a very brief thoughts on the live-action re-imaginings we've seen so far:
101 Dalmatians: OK
Maleficent: Eh
Alice in Wonderland: Bad
Cinderella: Eh
The Jungle Book: Excellent
I suppose another reason I'm miffed is because these remakes for the most part are based off very successful outings as it is. I really wish they can give their less-successful or least-known movies another chance instead of having the successes hog even more glory. Therefore, what draws me to these re-tellings is what good new material they bring to the table that justifies the time and effort put into making them while staying true to the original. I'm both wary and curious to see how the upcoming re-tellings of Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Mulan will do.
So that brings us to Beauty and the Beast. Before I fully begin, here are my brief, non-spoiler thoughts. All in all I'm mixed on this. On one hand, I felt that they might have adapted a little too much of the original, making it feel less like an updated re-imagining and more like a derivative rehash. There were also some issues with the casting and vocals that also were disappointing. However, what saves it for me is that there's just as much new ideas and elements, aspects that improved and/or re-told them from a different perspective. With things I equally did and didn't like, I feel this movie to be an above-average outing for Disney's live action re-tellings, below The Jungle Book and above 101 Dalmatians.
Let me start off with what I didn't like or am iffy on. First, the overall general presentation. As said previously, I believe they might have gone a little overboard with adapting the original. Not only do they reuse the same songs, they also reuse certain dialog. It was so brazen in its re-telling that I expected them at certain points to reuse the same camera angles and shots. Even certain key points reuse the same instrumental scores. On top of that, there were some changes to songs, story points, lines, or moments that I felt either didn't need to be changed or were changed for the worse. One example is the segment "Something There". What makes it work in the animated one is how the lyrics and singing were internalized, only by voice overs of Belle and the Beast that represented their thoughts and feelings in their hearts. In this one, they sing the lyrics out loud to each other, really weakening the impact and symbolism of the scene.
And speaking of Belle...<sigh>
Also wasn't too fond of Luke Evans as Gaston. His performance didn't give the impression that Gaston was a larger-than-life paragon of manliness and power, someone with strengths that are offset by their negative qualities. He's just some guy. One of the strengths of the original Beauty and the Beast was its strong protagonist and antagonist, so when you have this one where Belle and Gaston aren't portrayed well, the movie really suffers. All of these bad elements collide into each other that the movie may have very well crashed and burned...
...if not for the what this movie did really well. Dan Stevens as the Beast wasn't amazing, but I think he did a fine job with the role. You still get a sense of the human inside of him, and I think the makeup was pretty good. Another definite plus for this movie is the ensemble cast with so many recognizable names. I will admit to being excited to watch when I heard that the likes of Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Josh Gad, and Kevin Kline were attached. Even Emma Watson, despite her performance, still had name recognition. The objects being voiced by this star-studded cast really made them, for lack of a better term, more alive.
Other changes for the better are the alterations of Maurice and Le Fou. Maurice is less of a wack and kook, and more like an actual, real caring father. As a result, this allows him to play a larger role in the film, helping Belle in her time of need when the situations were dire. Le Fou's change also allows him more involvement and a bit of character development. Even though I didn't like Luke Evans as Gaston, he did fantastically when he was paired up with Josh Gad as Le Fou. It's less of a man/servant role in the original, and more like brothers-in-arms with Le Fou acting as Gaston's voice of reason and keeping his darker tendencies in check.
I also give major props to the brand new songs added to this movie. Alan Menken, one of the original lyricists of the animated one, returned to make the new songs alongside Tim Rice. Rice is responsible for a lot of Disney's song output during the 90's, and they both make new songs that build upon the work of the late Howard Ashman, the original genius behind Beauty and the Beast's fantastic songs. One specific mention goes to "Evermore" the song given to the Beast, FINALLY giving him a full song that was never in the original movie and its Broadway adaptations. It encapsulates and brings finality to the Beast's character at that point in the movie.
Finally, I would like to give mad praise to the original stuff they added to the story, filling in some of the plot holes that the original movie glossed over or finally outright explained. We know how and why the townsfolk never acknowledged the prince or his castle. We also see family members of the castle staff making an appearance like Mrs. Potts' wife, we know backstory of Belle's family and her mother, the added horror of the objects slowly becoming more inanimate as time runs out on the curse, and further additions and expansion of certain characters, like the harpsichord played by Stanley Tuuci and his wife being Belle's non-existent wardrobe in the original one.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
All in all, Beauty and the Beast is flawed. Its massive recycling of the original is just perplexing and redundant that you're left wondering why they even bothered, and the performances of the primary heroine and villain makes it a bit of a drag. However I feel it to be balanced out by the stuff it did right. When the movie would do something new and different, it was exciting. But when the movie was held back by the trappings of the original, it's like its going through the motions instead of redoing it with any real excitement. As a movie on its own, free of the baggage of the animated one, it's perfectly find and serviceable. But as a live-action re-imaging, it plays it too safe and leeches off the original instead of creating its own identity with what its got.
It goes without saying that the animated one is far superior. However, as far as Disney's misguided attempts at redoing their animated classics goes, I feel it to be one of the better ones because the new elements are so strong and memorable. I'm definitely glad I saw it, but I'm not in a rush to see it again any time soon. The near balance of the strengths and weaknesses of the movie means that I will grant Beauty and the Beast a final score of 2.5/5. Not a bad movie by any means, but how much you will really like it will depend on your attachment to the 1991 movie. And as the 1991 movie is my favorite Disney animated flick of all time, I feel the 2017 to be just be caught in the shadow of its progenitor's success.
But regardless of how me and you, dear readers, feel about this, the 2017 movie is still better than Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World.
