A retelling of the classic Disney animated film of the story of a Prince who is cursed to be a Beast until he can love someone.
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I am sure you had no idea that this film was even going to be released, I mean it hadn’t been on every film for the past year as a trailer. On TV constantly and then more overkill with posters and everything, ok sorry for starting off with a slight rant but I do think it was just crazy with how much publicity it was given considering Beauty and the Beast is a lot of people’s favourite Disney film. It was always going to be incredible at the box office and that has been proven in the first few days since its release.
Anyway moving onto the film, I have been very hesitant in going to see it. I mean I really do love the original film, it’s still one of my favourites. The songs just work amazingly well in it and it has the Disney magic and charm. That is where I think this live action version falls down, it doesn’t have the full magic that it should have. I thought it would be much better in terms of what you can then do with the musical numbers. I actually think it would have been better to have even more original and new songs. My favourite song and moment certainly had to be when the Beast gets his moment and a rather powerful song, it really was easily the part I liked the best, a very musical theatre feel to that one.
I think the toughest part to create the magic with had to be the servants as the furniture as that was a tricky part to really nail. At times it worked very well, but then it just lacked something. Which I know does not really explain it very well but I am struggling to figure out just what it was missing.
I was dubious about Emma Watson taking on the role of Belle but will admit that I was pleasantly surprised. Her singing voice is not very strong but it certainly worked very well for the songs she had to perform. They did have some incredible actors in the cast and that is certainly showing the power of this type of film now, even if we don’t get to see them for a long period of time at all.
I guess with the live action factor it really does make you think about a girl actually falling in love with a beast. Surely there is something wrong with that? But I guess that is totally another issue. I am trying to decide whether I actually liked it on the whole or not, I think parts of it were decent enough but it just did not capture as much magic as the animated film managed which was such a shame really.
Along with the Beast’s solo moment with the song “Evermore”, I did like what they did with “Gaston” even though “Be Our Guest” will leave you very disappointed. I am therefore very interested to now see what everyone thinks about the film. Remember though I do love the animated version, maybe that impacts how you view this one?
It’d be interesting to see what someone thought who had never seen the animated version (I have to admit I only saw it a few days ago!) …or from someone of an age where ‘live’ action’ is their frame of reference.
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Yeah that is a really good point! I watched the start of the animated version the other day, it came on after Pocahontas. Yes I had a strange Sunday morning, still working on the review for that one.
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Always loved the original, in fact it’s one of my 3 all time favourite Disney classics, but I personally far and away prefer this remake as a whole and will totally stand by that rather bold statement. I could write a massive list as to why, but essentially it comes down to a few things.
1)The depth – the fact they just spent more time building the relationship between Beast and Belle by just having them TALK more, and I adore the changes they made in the transformation scene..
And they simply got rid of the line that always bugs me in the animation 😂
2) The score – I enjoy all the new songs, (especially ‘Evermore’)and love that Alan Menken stays true to his score from the original but also adds new music… cue childhood and new feels combining!
3) It’s rare for me to not zone in beyond one or two performances when I watch a movie and not just rave about those.Here, whilst certain ones did stand out more than others, I could tell you something I liked about everyone in the main cast
That’s just me though! I may be in the minority 😉
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Thanks for you in depth comments Kerrie as should an interesting stand point when you are a huge fan of the original as well.
I couldn’t help think of Beastly when I was watching this, have you seen that one?
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I have seen Beastly, and I wasn’t really taken with it apart from the scenes with NPH!
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I wasn’t overly impressed wit his it. But thinking now the concept was pretty good
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It’s funny you should say that, I liked the novel version and enjoyed the concept very much. The film just… lost all of what I liked about it
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I think sometimes taking the story into a modern setting can work very well.
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I’m hesitant to see this as well, so haven’t yet and I won’t until it comes to DVD (as a sort of my personal protest against the existence of these remakes of the animated classics). But, yeah I’ve heard many people say that the charm and magic was sucked out of this one.
But, Belle isn’t falling in love with an animal: she’s falling in love with a man put under a spell to get physical features of an animal. But, it’s still a man. It’s not like he was born under a totally different species and genus. It’s not like Howard the Duck, where he literally is and has always been a duck and the girl fell in love with him.
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Haha yeah I love the reference to Howard the Duck, I know your right but it does still make you think about something strange when watching the film. I couldn’t help but think about Beastly and the approach they took with the story although it wasn’t great I think it took the story into a bullying generation obsessed with looks.
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Tbh, I loved this!
The songs, I thought, were all were brilliantly done (the audience actually clapped after 3 of the songs!) I was surprised with how well Watson’s singing voice really was.
Although the original will always have a special place in my heart, this is probably the best live action remake I have seen.
I’ll try and get my (very positive) review up tomorrow! 🙂
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Let me know when your review is up!
Just out of curiosity did you see it in 2D or 3D?
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2D, although I don’t 3D would be that much of a difference, except for maybe the Be Our Guest scene, with the flying food and cutlery.
I’ve just posted mine now. 🙂 http://wp.me/p3AwwF-LC
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Yeah I was talking to someone the other day who saw it in 3D and found that musical number to be the best.
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