Beauty and the Beast

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Beauty and the Beast is the latest of Disney’s live action remakes. It’s a well-known story. As the song goes: “Tale as old as time. Song as old as Rhyme.” A beautiful girl named Belle (played by Emma Watson) takes the place of her imprisoned father (played by Kevin Kline) in the castle of a beast (played by Dan Stevens). Over time, the two begin to fall in love. The beast was once a vain, handsome prince cursed to look as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside. He must find someone who loves him for who he is, and not what he looks like. Visually, this movie is amazing. The costumes and sets are fantastic. On the other hand, the CGI used for the beast didn’t look very good. Director Bill Condon shows some flair when directing the musical numbers. For the most part, the cast is great. The parts feel like they were perfectly cast. The best performances in the movie are Dan Stevens, Kevin Kline, and Luke Evans (playing Gaston).  Evans in particular is perfect as the pompous villain. He’s clearly having a ball in this movie. He is intimidating when he needs to be angry, but also laces it with some comedic elements as well. Now, I don’t want to take away from the voice performers either. As usual, Ian McKellen, Stanley Tucci, Emma Thompson, and Ewan McGregor give their all. That said, Audra MacDonald and Gugu Mbatha-Raw feel out of place. There are some deviations from the animated movie. For example, Gaston’s right hand man Le Fou (played by Josh Gad) is gay in this version. However, there aren’t enough deviations from the original movie that make me believe this movie can easily stand on its own. One thing I did notice was that the movie did drag quite a bit at times. The occasional song that was added into this movie just didn’t measure up to the songs that were carried over from the animated movie. Overall, I can’t help but feel this movie was a mixed bag at best. The story dragged out a bit too much, and felt far too familiar. The acting was good for the most, but felt spotty at times. The makeup, costumes, and sets were all good. The CGI was excellent on the household items, but looked awful on the beast. Chalk this up to a movie the critics liked that I just couldn’t get into.

5 / 10