Beauty and the Beast (2017)
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Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 American musical romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos. Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films, the film is a live-action remake of Disney's 1991 animated film of the same name, itself an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 18th-century fairy tale. It features an ensemble and choir cast including Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as the eponymous Belle and the Beast, with Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian McKellen, and Emma Thompson in supporting roles. The film premiered at Spencer House in London on February 23, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States in standard, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D formats, along with Dolby Cinema on March 17, 2017, close to 26 years after the animated film from Disney and around the 20th anniversary of the original 1991 film's sequel/midquel The Enchanted Christmas.
Plot
An arrogant prince is cursed to live as a terrifying beast until he finds true love. Strangely, his chance comes when he captures an unwary clockmaker, whose place is then taken by his bold and beautiful daughter Belle. Helped by the Beast's similarly enchanted servants, including a clock, a teapot, and a candelabra, Belle begins to see the sensitive soul behind the fearsome façade. But as time runs out, it soon becomes obvious that Belle's cocky suitor Gaston is the real beast of the piece instead of the actual Beast.
Bad Qualities
- It furthers Hollywood's lame ideology of "everything old is new again" by remaking this film, proof that they haven't learned their lesson from Disney.
- The story, while faithful, is way too similar to the original 1991 film. The new scenes and songs don't add much to the plot by exceeding runtime length and are just there to escape the similarities. It feels more like a copycat rather than a remake, which makes the movie rather pointless.
- While Emma Watson does her generally okay performance, she is a terrible casting choice for Belle, since it's her singing that's a problem, and inferior to Paige O'Hara from the original film, as she was so clearly autotuned.
- Ewan McGregor's singing is also terrible; in addition, he tries way too hard to use a fake accent for Lumiere but ends up sounding annoying.
- Another thing is, since Emma Watson is British in reality, she is playing the role of a character who is possibly French as the film was set in France like the original 1991 animated film. The 1991 version also had Belle speak in an American accent (aside from scenes where she pronounced French names with a French accent as heard in the musical number "Madame Gaston") before being voiced by an American actress, making it inaccurate to the source material.
- Why didn't they even think of using an American actress to play Belle's part instead of using a British actress of all people?!
- Beast's character design is terrible and barely even looks like the original Beast. He looks more like the Faun from Pan's Labyrinth and Stranger from Oddworld mixed-mashed together or even basically more like Chewbacca from Star Wars with ram horns.
- Also, he and his servants' character designs all look hideous, and fall away under the uncanny valley.
- The characters' personalities come across as unlikable throughout the film and barely act like their animated incarnations:
- Belle went from a quirky but nice, fun-loving, cheerful, patient, and polite action girl who isn't a pushover into an overly defensive, tomboyish, and arrogant snob who rarely ever smiles, all for the sake of shoehorned "female empowerment" on the part of feminist actress Emma Watson.
- While not as bad as he was in Belle's Magical World, Beast is a much bigger jerk than he was in the original animated film, which makes him and his character development in the remake far more difficult to be rooted for.
- LeFou isn't funny at all, unlike the original which was used as comic relief. He is a filler character who serves no purpose at all in the film.
- The Enchantress, who is given a larger role in the film, comes off more like an amoral psychopath who practically triggers the entire events of the film from start to end, right down to the infamous jump-the-shark moment where the film officially gets to flip it's middle finger to the original 1991 film is where she undoes the Beast's curse near the end of the film before Belle confesses her love for him, which makes the Beast's character development throughout the entire film completely pointless.
- High overuse of CGI, especially for the enchanted objects (for example Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, etc.) and the wolves.
- While the visuals are gorgeous, it is highly repetitive and distracting from the story.
- Many of the new songs in the film are shoehorned simply to distract you from the poor writing, and they just feel bland unlike in the original version where it made the film magical and vibrant.
- A scene where LeFou dances with another man for three seconds at the end of the film is just there to pander to the LGBTQ+ community, which caused a ton of controversy and the film to be banned in some countries, a problem that might be carried over to Eternals.
- There are numerous stupid decisions throughout the film that mostly attempt at trying too hard to fix plot holes from the original 1991 film, like how the enchantress at the beginning now erases the memories of the other guests. Nostalgia Critic criticized and mocked the choice with "And that’s how we solved that plot hole, but fear not. We will have many more to confuse you."
- Speaking of stupid decisions, many scenes from the original film that are re-used in this film are butchered beyond belief; for example in the infamous library scene, the Beast arrogantly shows off the castle library to Belle after the latter recites Romeo and Juliet much to the former's chagrin, in stark contrast to the original film where the Beast gifts Belle the castle library out of compassion and affection towards her, which made the Beast come off as far more unlikable in this film.
- Belle and the Beast spend less time with each other in the film, and their emotional scenes are shorter than in the original. For example, when Belle finds the rose in the West Wing and the Beast arrives, their argument only lasts for 7 seconds, while the original is 30 seconds long! The original argument was more than 4 times longer than in the remake!
- Consequently, this results in both Belle and the Beast's romance having terrible chemistry, unlike their original animated counterparts where the chemistry is amazing.
- Belle's signature ball gown is a massive downgrade compared to the original, as it looks more like a cheap modern-day thrift-shop-bought prom dress as opposed to a super-stylized traditional ball gown from the mid-18th century, due to its lack of details. The main reason why the ball gown was designed this way was because Emma Watson refused to wear a corset for stupid feminism reasons claiming that it was 'sexist oppression against women, ignoring the fact that corsets were normal as a support garment back in the mid-18th century, the period this film is set in.
- The scene where Beast is killed by Gaston is worse than in the original, as it is made to look like Gaston just shoots him from behind 2 times with a shotgun instead of stabbing him brutally with a knife. In addition, this film has Gaston plunging from the castle because the bridge he was standing on crumbles and collapses, unlike the original film when he falls from the castle after stabbing the Beast after losing his balance.
- While it was nice to see how Belle's mother died in the flashback, it was rather disappointing that her actual name was never mentioned. The same goes for the Beast's mother; truly, the film attempts to paint the subject of the dead mothers as something important and an element that Belle and Beast could bond over and their characters develop with, but aside from one or two scenes, they're never integrated fully into the plot.
- Speaking of the flashback, there is a cameo of a plague doctor, which can be scary for a PG-rated film.
- The film expands upon Gaston's backstory by revealing he was a soldier before the start of the film. This is supposed to be used to try and humanize him better, but in the film itself, it doesn't mean anything except to explain his physical skills. This is especially strange since Gaston is portrayed a bit more sympathetically than in the original movie, but because we get little context for his backstory (despite it being made a big deal outside of the film), it feels like an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the character with promises of adaptation expansion that didn't happen instead of the actual movie.
- The film's official poster spoils the whole movie, as it shows the enchanted objects such as Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts in their human forms.
Good Qualities
- The visuals are very dazzling to look at.
- The new songs, while shoehorned, are still great.
- Even the Beast's song, Evermore (especially the version sung by Dan Stevens), is very magnificent, despite being out of place.
- Beautiful cinematography, especially for the castle.
- We get somewhat decent backstories to how Belle’s mother died (despite her name never being mentioned, as previously stated before) and how the Beast turned into a selfish jerk when his father raised him.
- The idea that the Enchanted Objects would turn into unanimated objects if the curse wasn't broken in time adds drama and tension to the film, whereas this wasn't mentioned in the original film and nothing seemed to indicate that the Beast's failure to break the curse would kill the servants (even though it was planned).
- Despite LeFou's flaws, he is at least less of a Butt-Monkey than he was in the original.
- Beast's servants are still likable and are pretty fun characters.
- At least The Enchantress undoes the curse which repairs the crumbling castle, revives the Beast, and restores him and his servants to their human forms.
- Great performances for pretty much everyone, and if Emma Watson's casting choice was horribly bad, her performance was pretty decent.
- Speaking of which, Dan Stevens and Ewan McGregor were excellent casting choices for the Beast and Lumiere, and their performances are very good and excellent, especially when they are singing.
- Nice production values.
- Good costume design (except for Belle's signature ball gown).
- The ending isn't too bad.
- While this movie is unnecessary and flawed, it is great to see another Beauty and the Beast film for the first time since 1999's Belle's Tales of Friendship.
Reception
Although Beauty and the Beast is generally positively received by critics, with many praising its faithfulness to the original animated film, as well as elements from the Broadway musical, performances of the cast (particularly Watson and Stevens), visual style, musical score, songs, costume design, and production values, though criticism was drawn toward some of the character designs (especially the Beast), its excessive similarity to the original and the lack of chemistry between the lead characters, hence the remake has been considered by many to be inferior to the original 1991 film. It also received criticism over its portrayal of LeFou, as some felt that it was used as a way of teasing LGBTQ+ audiences without providing adequate representation, with his "exclusively gay moment" being his three seconds dancing with another man at the end of the film, leading the film to be banned in some countries. The film was universally panned by fans alike.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 374 reviews, with an average rating of 6.69/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With an enchanting cast, beautifully crafted songs, and a painterly eye for detail, Beauty and the Beast offers a faithful yet fresh retelling that honors its beloved source material.". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
The late original voice actor of Mrs. Potts and the writer of the 1991 film, Angela Lansbury and Linda Woolverton disowned the film.
In response to the decision to make LeFou gay, Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter behind the 1991 animated film, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 "Was he in love with Gaston? No. He was just a toady and besotted with a person he could never be."
Trivia
- Previously, Disney had begun work on a film adaptation of the 1994 Broadway musical. However, in a 2011 interview, composer Alan Menken stated the planned film version of the Beauty and the Beast stage musical "was canned".
- The film's ending originally featured Gaston being cursed by the Enchantress, though the idea was scrapped.
Videos
External Links
Beauty and the Beast (2017) at the Internet Movie Database
Beauty and the Beast (2017) on Letterboxd
Beauty and the Beast (2017) on Metacritic
Beauty and the Beast (2017) on Rotten Tomatoes
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