Beauty and the Beast (2017) Review
Disney’s live-action remakes have been a bit of a mixed-bag. We either get Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Maleficent (2014), which were both stinkers, or The Jungle Book (2016), which was awesome and improved on the original animated film. Now we have Beauty and the Beast, which is definitely not the latter, but it’s not the former, either. It’s stuck in the middle. While I had a lot of fun with the film and it was solid entertainment, if I was choosing to either watch the original animated film or this one, I’d go with the original. So while the live-action version is fun to see, especially if you’re really curious to see what your favorite animated characters look like on the big screen with live-action counterparts, and the musical numbers still hold up, and that’s enough to offer for me to recommend the film.
So the story is basic: Belle, a small French village misfit who lives with her father, dreams of more excitement in her life, and she gets more than she bargained for when her father is imprisoned in a nearby enchanted castle by a beast, a former man whose unkindness leading to his transformation. She takes his place as prisoner and learns that she might be the key to the beast turning back into a man. Yeah, basically if you haven’t been living under a rock for the last twenty-five years, you know the rest.
Some of the more obvious good points about the film include the production design and costume design, which might be early favorites to be nominated or even win next year’s Academy Awards. The costumes, in particular, really strike the viewer, whether it’s the famed yellow dress that Belle fits into in the famous dance sequence, or the villagers garb, it’s a great job. The cast, for the most part, is pretty great. Emma Watson definitely looks the part of Belle, and while she’s not a Broadway-level singer, she handles the songs well. Dan Stevens does his best as the beast, and while the singing was a rare improvement on the original, the motion-capture performance wasn’t anything groundbreaking. Luke Evans, while not as bulky as the original illustration of Gaston, is probably the standout. The singing works, the selfishness of his character is excellent, and overall there really isn’t a false-note in the performance. He’s the type of fun villain you’d want in a film like this. Another standout is Kevin Kline as Maurice, Belle’s father. He gets a bit more fleshed-out than his animated counterpart, and this is one of the rare cases where the fleshing out really improves the character, and perhaps brings some more emotional moments into play. Josh Gad is a lot of fun as LaFou, and seriously, the whole openly-gay controversies are over nothing. Literally, there’s one shot where he dances with a man that’s played off for laughs, and some comments that are much of the same. So if you were on the fence about seeing this just because of that, you really don’t have anything to worry about. Then you have the voice-work of Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, and others, and all of them do what they can to bring their CG characters to life. The singing is good from all of them, especially Thompson on the title song and McGregor with “Be our Guest”. I did mention there are a couple of improvements on the original, and one of those is a new song from the beast, “Evermore”, and while its placing is kind of awkward, it’s a well-written and performed addition. “How Does a Moment Last Forever”, another new song, is also great, especially as its played over the end credits covered by Celine Dion. These are all good additions that do indeed improve on the film.
However, there are a couple of things to complain about. There’s an enchanted object introduced late into the second act that’s used as a device to help Belle warm up to the beast, and it seriously makes the biggest plot-hole I think I’ve ever seen. Those who have seen it probably know what I’m talking about. While I got what it was there for, it’s never seen again, and it could have been used to help a lot of things in the end. Also there’s a couple of scenes here and there that are just padding. The film runs at just under two hours or so without end credits, and at times it is slow, especially when there’s no musical numbers blasting on the soundtrack. I also thought the design of Cogsworth and Lumiere, in particular, didn’t look appealing in the least. The wardrobe just didn’t translate well, in story or design, and the same goes with the feather duster that Lumiere has a fling with. Also there’s a few characters in the village that show up out of nowhere in the third act that all of a sudden we’re supposed to feel attached to and care about, and that just didn’t work. Plus there’s a completely pointless scene early in the film where Belle is chastised for teaching a young girl how to read. While I got while it was there, a further example of how Belle doesn’t fit into the small village, we just got a whole five-minute song about that! Move on! Plus there’s no pay-off or anything. It’s not like young girls learning to read saves the village or anything. There’s a couple other examples like this, but I think you get the point.
I think that’s about all I’ve got for this one. I mean, it’s highs are really high and its lows drag down the film, but there’s more highs than lows in the film. The strong elements definitely overcome the flaws. The music remains great, and a few additions really help, but overall I prefer the original animated film but I do think this is a worthy addition to the cannon of Disney live-action remakes.
My rating: 8/10.
