This past week, I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." As a child, I absolutely adored the animated version as I'm sure many others have. After all, it was the first animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards in its respective year. So needless to say, I was incredibly thrilled when I realized Disney was doing a live action remake. I have to be honest when I say that I am not usually a fan of the live action remakes Disney has done in the past, but this movie was done better than its previous counterparts.
Starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, the film follows the original animated version pretty closely with some storylines being added in order to tie up so loose plot holes from the cartoon classic. Nevertheless, the general story still focuses on Belle, who takes her father's place, when she discovers him locked up in the Beast's castle. While held prisoner, Belle discovers a different side to the Beast as the two begin a friendship that soon blossoms into love.
All the actors played their characters perfectly, and I found myself falling in love with the portrayals of the villains, Gaston (played by Luke Evans) and Lefou (played by Josh Gad). There was something more sinister about Gaston in this version, who now has been rewritten as a war veteran that the townspeople reluctantly respects. Additionally, Lefou is a more fleshed out character, bringing some of the most comedic aspects to the film. I'm certain the director, Bill Condon, allowed Gad to improvise some of his character's lines and they really did work well. "Gaston," sung by Gad and Evans, had to be one of my favorite numbers in the entire film, only tied with "Be Our Guest," which was presented in such a spectacular fashion that it ended up doing the original justice. Unlike previous live action remakes like "The Jungle Book," the musical sequences in "Beauty and the Beast' work because they flow well with the narrative and don't feel shoehorned into the story. The musical numbers were interwoven seamlessly into the ultimate story, and even provided more of a backstory to the characters in some of the newly original songs created specifically for this movie.
My only gripe with the film is that the CGI was very noticeable. The furniture pieces like the beloved Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts, as well as the Beast, were so prominently animated, that it seemed to clash with the rest of the live action world. Since I noticed that everything was computer animated, I felt myself being taken out of the story's world somewhat. However, it can also be argued that since this is a live action remake of a cartoon, the magical aspects of the film can be a little cartoonish. Nonetheless, for my personal taste, I would have preferred the furniture and the Beast to look a little bit more realistic.
