Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Movie poster.

Beauty and the Beast is a romantic musical film made by Disney and released nationally in theaters on 2017-03-17. It is a sort-of live-action remake of their animated rendition of Beauty and the Beast, but still heavily animated with computer graphics. The film stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as LeFou, Ewan McGregor as Lumière, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts.

Personal

Being a big fan of the animated film, and having many friends who were as well, I saw this movie in theaters. I was not very impressed.

Review

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The castle looks pretty awesome.
• I like that Disney made it clear that Lefou was gay.
• I like Belle's father more as a serious artist than the bumbling buffoon he is in the animated movie.
• The beast is pretty decent looking for a fully CGI character.
• I liked how castle's inhabitants became less human as the petals fell.
• I appreciated that they added backstory to explain what happened to Belle's mother.

Bad

• Most of the animated furniture characters would fit better in a horror film than a children's movie. They're not nearly as cute as the animated characters.
• The beast is pretty much an asshole the whole time and has few redeeming qualities, so it doesn't make sense that Belle would fall for him.
• The enchantress hanging around the town creates a serious plot hole. She has all this magical power, yet she stands idly by as Gaston sends Belle's father to an insane asylum and rushes to murder the Beast. She's basically a sociopath.
• The backstory for Belle's mother was a nice attempt, but seemed rather tacked on. We don't feel bad about her death, because she only got two seconds of screen time.
• If the Beast has the ability to take things from the places he visits (Belle snatches the metal rose) with the magic book, why didn't he just take a bunch of women back with him until one of the fell in love with him?
• Belle's clothes seem out of place compared to all the garish French styles.

Ugly

• As much as I love Emma Watson, she is not a good enough singer to handle Belle's range. I cringed through each of her songs.

Media

Videos

Trailer.

Review, Lindsay Ellis.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass
Bechdel test?	Pass
Strong person of color character?	Fail
Queer character?	Pass

Links