On March 17th, 2017, the next addition to Disney's trend of turning their classic cartoons into live action versions. With a lot of special effects, the beloved tale of Beauty in the Beast will be released.
When Cinderella (2015) was announced to release in 2015, I was a bit nervous, but mainly excited. The movie had a perfect combination of nods to the classic 1950s cartoon, and its own interpretations throughout the story. Lily James provided an excellent role model through Cinderella as someone who can persevere with courage and kindness.
This year, with the premiere of Beauty and the Beast I'm apprehensive about my beloved Belle's story being diminished. While the 1990s cartoon was not my favorite Disney movie growing up, I adore it as an adult, and feel a special bond with the weird bookworm walking while she reads. I'm aware that the Harry Potter saga has made Emma Watson the go-to bookworm girl, and developed a massive fan club devoted to her; however, just by my own opinion from the trailers: Watson is no Belle.
A friend of mine is adamant that the entire casting choices are awkward and all around wrong. Particularly, we both agree on Watson as Belle not being the best choice, and she continues that Dan Stevens as the Beast and Luke Evans as Gaston were also poor casting. While both actors are solid (may we not forget Evans in The Hobbit trilogy), but perhaps not the combination to recreate this tale as old as time. What seemed to make the 2015 Cinderella movie so enchanting was that it wasn't overly crowded with extremely well-known actors and actresses. Both the Prince (Richard Madden) and Ella (Lily James) were secondary characters in their shows Game of Thrones and Downtown Abbey, respectively. This movie is completely stacked with actors like Ian McKellan and Emma Thompson, and it seems unnecssary.
In the end though, I have no doubts that my best friend and I will still be sitting in the theater during Beauty and the Beasts release (March 17), and trying our best to hope we're wrong.
