Review: Beauty and the Beast

Star Rating: 3.5/5 Good to Very Good

DISNEY’S remake of Beauty and The Beast is an enchanting account of the classic tale that has pulled out all the stops to match the popularity of the much-loved 90’s original.

The Beast (Dan Stevens) with Belle played by Emma Watson.

The musical fantasy delights modern audiences with catchy songs, spectacular dance sequences and memorable set-pieces. Director Bill Condon chose a brilliant ensemble cast of big-name celebrities who were easily able to breathe life in to the animated characters.

Whilst the romantic children’s tale may not entice strapping lads and macho Dads to the cinema, the modernised 2017 adaption and it’s quirky style is likely to appeal to new young audiences, as well as make pleasant viewing for fans hoping to bask in nostalgia of the original.

The classic version – which was the first animated film to ever receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture – was updated in the remake using a new medium which combines CGI-animation and live-action featuring human actors.

This combination has become a high-grossing trend - with the 2014 dark fantasy Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie, the 2015 re-release of Cinderella and then The Jungle Book the next year. Other classics are planned to follow including the 1994 musical animation The Lion King, and the 1941 film Dumbo – rumoured to star Will Smith - about an elephant bullied because of his big ears.

Director Bill Condon - who wrote the screenplay for the 2002 musical comedy Chicago, and more recently directed the final two Twilight films in 2011 and 2012 - successfully cast two great actors as leads in Beauty and The Beast.

He chose Emma Watson (who found fame in her first acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films) as Belle. As the Beast he cast actor Dan Stevens who got his biggest break in 2010 playing Matthew Crawley in the ITV series of Downton Abbey. In the series his central love story was enormously popular and his exit from the show in 2012 caused uproar with fans.

In the film Belle is a young woman living with her engineer Father (Kevin Kline) in a small French village who longs for more excitement in her life. She is ostracised by all of her fellow villagers for being inventive and booky, apart from a self-loving bully Gaston (Luke Evans) who is determined to make her his wife.

Luke Evans as Gaston.

Evans plays the self-infatuated baddie wonderfully, alongside American actor and comedian Josh Gad (known for another comedic role voicing Olaf in Frozen). Gad plays the first homosexual character in a Disney film and is very amusing as Gaston’s loyal side-kick Le Fou (French for a fool or madman) who follows Gaston around imitating his every move. The pair gives the audience a good giggle and their ‘Gaston’ song together is a highlight of the film.

In the story the Beast who was once a vain prince was turned into a monster by a curse as punishment for his selfishness. To break the spell, the prince must learn to love another and earn their love in return before his 21st birthday, or remain a beast forever.

The CGI Beast closely resembles the original animation who was based on a number of different creatures. The animator who created him apparently drew inspiration from a bear for his torso, a wolf for his legs, a lion for his mane, a boar for his tusks and a buffalo for his head shape. The buffalo head was chosen because they saw sadness in the way a buffalo holds its head which helped emphasise the Beast’s unfortunate predicament.

An image from the original Beauty and the Beast.

He stays in a castle alongside his servants who were turned into pieces of furniture following the spell. Ewen McGregor as Lumiere the candlestick, Sir Ian Mckellan (Cogsworth the clock) and Emma Thompson (as Mrs Potts the teapot) are a few of the A-list stars cast as all singing, all dancing furnishings and crockery. 

Belle is kept captive in the Beast's Castle after a chain of events leads her father to be locked there, and she makes unexpected friendships with those inside as the story unfolds.

Lumiere the candlestick (Ewan McGregor) and Cogsworth the clock (Sir Ian Mckellan).

Emma Watson has admitted that Belle’s independent personality and headstrong character attracted her to play the role. The film emphasises that the character makes her own decisions when she devises innovative ways to do laundry, wears riding boots rather than pumps in most scenes, and perhaps most impressively, bravely enters the Beast’s castle for the first time armed with a stick for protection.

Lovers of the original film will be delighted to find that many of the original set-pieces appear in the adaptation. The famous ‘Be Our Guest’ song is sang mainly by Ewan McGregor’s candlestick character in a spectacle where the furniture welcome Belle to the castle impressing her with a musical montage complete with rows of can-canning cutlery, spinning tea-sets and flying plates.

Lots of issues have been discussed about the remake – from Disney’s first gay scene, to the Stockholm syndrome element of Belle’s confinement by the Beast. It has over 94,000 reviews on the online film database IMDB, achieving a very high overall rating of 7.7 out of 10. The overwhelming conclusion has been that this remake of the classic children’s tale is entertaining and funny - appealing to children and adults alike.

Details

Language: English

UK Release: February 23, 2017

Genre:  Musical, Romance

Director: Bill Condon

Screenplay: Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos

Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci

Runtime: 129 mins

Photograph of cast and crew from Beauty and the Beast published on actress Emma Watson's Twitter account.