Beauty and the Beast (2017): Review

• This is a NON-Spoiler review for Beauty and the Beast. There are definitely SPOILERS for the original animated movie. So there's really nothing at all I can spoil about the remake.

• Plot Summary (like you don't know it): "Belle (Emma Watson), a bright, beautiful and independent young woman, is taken prisoner by a beast (Dan Stevens) in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle's enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the beast's hideous exterior, allowing her to recognize the kind heart and soul of the true prince that hides on the inside."

• I am a huge Disney fan. I absolutely love classic Disney magic like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, The Jungle Book. Walt Disney himself is a hero of mine. I'm gonna be honest, Beauty and the Beast hasn't stood out among the many Disney classics (please don't kill me). I love the original Beauty and the Beast with all the Disney magic it comes with. I just have never thought that Beauty and the Beast is the best of all time, but I do really like it. I loved Kenneth Branagh's remake of Cinderella. Lily James was just perfect casting. And I really liked Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book. But the thing that I think makes those movies work is that they had the freedom to do their own thing while still keeping the spirit of their original films. They had the freedom because not everybody knew EVER SINGLE BEAT of the entire story. They could change things and put their own spin on it. If you changed a single thing about Beauty and the Beast, people would riot. I'm interested to see how they're gonna do Lion King.

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• They should really just advertise this like it's a new Blu-Ray. Like how they say "Remastered in 3D" or "Remastered in 4K". They should advertise this as "Remastered in Live Action with Bonus Content." This is the exact same movie shot for shot. But here's the thing, I don't blame anybody for that. I don't blame the filmmakers or Disney for going in this direction. There were SO MANY people pumped out of their mind to see the tale as old as time on screen again. Kids who grew up watching the original over and over and over again were so excited to see this story again. And Disney would have made a HUGE mistake if they changed anything. So I don't mind that this movie is what it is because people had a great time watching it and it made a boatload of cash. I think this is the best you could have possibly asked for from a Beauty and the Beast remake in my opinion. I am going to judge this movie on how it adapted the story in this review. So let's get into that.

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• You can pretty much just cherry pick things you like more in the live action version. This is a very well cast movie. It's very obvious casting, which isn't a bad thing. Like how they just cast John Oliver as Zasu. When you hear that you go "of course!" Ian McKellen as Cogsworth......of course. So let's talk about castings that I liked more in the remake. I loved Ewan McGregor as Lumiere for some reason. It didn't feel like it was obviously Ewan McGregor mainly because of the accent. And I just thought he fit that role so well and I just loved it. And yes I actually do prefer this Lumiere to the original (please don't kill me). I enjoyed Ian McKellen as Cogsworth and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts. I prefer the old Cogsworth over Gandalf just a little bit. I actually like Emma Thompson's singing voice more than Angela Lansbury's.

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• I love the casting of Emma Watson as Belle. I thought she was great in this role. I didn't really feel like she was in love with books like the original. I feel like the original showed her passion for books a lot better. I actually blame the direction and the writing for that complaint. But I still think she did an awesome job as Belle. Her best work was when she was working with Dan Stevens as The Beast. I thought Dan Stevens as The Beast was one of the best parts of the movie. He did an amazing job at being super intense and scary, but also did great with the comedy. His singing voice is also really great. And he has amazing chemistry with Emma Watson. Dan Stevens killed it in this role. Dan Stevens and Emma Watson together was a major improvement on the original. I felt the chemistry a lot more between these two actors. Sometimes I prefer real actors giving a great performance over animation. And this is an example of that to me. I'd love to see them together again and maybe when one of them isn't a CGI buffalo. The heart of the story is Belle and The Beast, so to say that they improved on that is a major compliment.

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• Let's talk about a casting choice that I actually prefer the animated version of. The animated version of Gaston is awesome. I think that the writing and Luke Evan's performance as Gaston were a bit conflicted. I feel like the writing was trying to give you the same type of comedic Gaston, but Luke Evans was going for more of a violent antagonist. I didn't feel like Luke Evans was going for a guy who thinks that he is the best looking person who has ever lived, but the script was. Another thing that I didn't think transferred over very well was some of the comedy. There were quite a few gags and jokes or even characters that felt like they were pulled straight out of a cartoon and attempted by real actors. And a lot of the time it didn't work in my opinion.

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• Bill Condon did a great job directing this movie with the very little that he got to add, while also completely adapting this story to live action. With the performances and the music and the visuals, I thought he did a very good job with all of this. I think there was a very talented people behind this. The set and costume designers and the choreographers I’m sure had a ball on this movie. And I think the writers got to add things here and there that fleshed out the characters just a little bit more. To me, this is a remake of a great movie that in some areas didn’t transfer over perfectly and in other areas improved upon the original. Disney gave people a nostalgia piece. And there's nothing wrong with that to me. My grade for Beauty and the Beast is a B+