BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)

Tagline:  Be Our Guest

(Family, Fantasy, Musical) [PG]

There are no such things as beasts, or talking teacups... or magic! But there are wolves and frostbite and starvation. 

In this one, a young idiotic self-centered jerk of a Prince treats an old lady like dirt and she decides to curse him turning him into a beast. That clearly wasn’t enough punishment so she turned his entire castle full of servants into various objects, clocks, kitchenware, pianos, coat racks…whatever. Belle, a young woman runs into the beast looking for her father and decides to stay at the castle if the Beast let her father go. Did Belle’s time with the Beast lead the two to fall in love allowing the curse over him to be broken? Meanwhile, her father runs into issues back at home and now the town’s biggest jerk is on his way to kill the Beast. What the crap? How is this all gonna work out? You know what, forget it, I can’t watch (just kidding). 

Acting-wise Emma Watson for this role in this movie, playing “Belle” she’s fantastic and she does an exceptional job in her singing parts. The reason I am trying to be specific is that this isn’t the same version of “Belle” we get in the animated version and that’s totally fine. Emma Watson actually intentionally gets hit by a snowball in one scene, gotta love that she took that on. I am not sure why, but if she takes an acting role this year, she will have taken roles every 2 years since 2015 (so nothing in 2016, 2018, or 2020). Luke Evans is great as the antagonist Gaston and manages to get you to dislike his character just about as soon as he starts talking. He actually had to wear fake teeth for this movie because his normal canines make him look like a bit of a vampire. Dan Stevens is good as the beast especially where he’s asked to sing, but not earth-shattering. I also like that they cast Josh Gad as LeFou because he was perfect for the part.
 

The Good – I liked the design changes to Lumiere (voiced by Ewan McGregor who had to redo his voice work to sound more French), and Cogsworth (voiced by  Ian McKellen) looks fantastic. “Belle” and “Be Our Guest” numbers are really well done. The castle design work is also pretty ornate and the attention to detail is incredible. I also love wolves, so any time live wolves are not being used and they look rad, I have to give props to the people responsible for that. I do like that they made the Beast more likable in this one and gave him more personality. The movie was a huge success at the box office making over a billion globally. I do like that they expanded the story a bit giving more of a backstory for Belle’s father etc. 

The Rough – Mrs. Pott’s design and Chip’s design are not nearly as charming as they were in the original. In fact, rather than being cute or comedic, they are actually pretty damn creepy. I also wish the Beast design had more contrast. The facial features in most scenes don’t come across as much “alive” as they do flat, probably due to the lack of fur in the middle of the face. I also wish they had gone with bigger feet and paws. 

Admittedly I forgot about this thing after having only seen it once, but upon a second watch, I feel like I went against my own rules and expected it to be too much like the animated version. However, if you look at this thing on its own merits, it’s quite fantastic and a lot of fun. The humor injections here and there balance this thing out nicely. I have to give it a solid 6 out of 7. Out of the live-action retellings of animated movies out of Disney, I have seen so far, this one is way up there. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.