Beauty and the Beast

Nostalgia is a powerful thing isn’t it? At least that’s what Disney’s hoping for.

The newest live-action iteration in Disney’s revamped line of old animated classics, Beauty and the Beast is a tale as old as time, one that many of us know by heart, so I’ll be brief: Belle (Emma Watson) is a misunderstood book worm and pseudo-inventor/apprentice to her father, Maurice (Kevin Kline), who, on his way to the market one day, is kidnapped by the Beast (Dan Stevens) and imprisoned in his magical castle. After realizing something is amiss, Belle takes it upon herself to search for her father, eventually taking his place as prisoner and ultimately striking up a courtship with the Beast himself. But as we all know there’s a catch: if the Beast does not fall in love and is loved back by the time his enchanted rose drops its last petal, he, and the magically transformed denizens of the castle, will forever be stuck in their new forms, never to become human again. With outside forces looming in the near distance in the form of Gaston (Luke Evans), a pompous and self-centered ladies man, hell-bent on making Belle his bride and vanquishing the Beast, will the romance between Belle and the Beast that is slowly blossoming into something unusual and real be enough to change everyone’s fate, or will Gaston succeed in his master plan and claim Belle for his own?

First things first, this take on the 1991 classic is just that – the 1991 classic. This film is almost exactly the same as the original in many ways all the way down to having some of the same shots and line deliveries. To those who obsess over the animated version, this will most likely be the high points of the film, and while I do admit I got giddy when I recognized choice shots and lines, the overall feeling I had with it all was “okay, this is cool, but what else do you got?” I know that the original was great, I understand it’s a classic, but why, with the vast money and time put into a project like this, would settling for what is essentially the low hanging fruit be your focus for this new vision? Why not, as recent Jungle Book remake showed, expand upon what came before and spruce up the original with today’s movie magic and storytelling sensibilities instead of solely relying on what came before and not doing much else?

I know a lot of fans would cry foul at a statement like this, claiming that that is exactly what this film does, but more often than not, I found that the added material and extended sequences from the original often felt a little flat and tacked on more than anything. The new songs are just okay and the added emphasis on certain characters and situations, while welcome, yet again fall into the pitfalls of not being enough to justify being included in the film, or end up being too under cooked to be a worthwhile addition as is. I will admit that when the film hits, it soars, but bringing back the feelings the original gave us can only do so much when this new version is much longer and drawn out to a point that it feels as if this was an unedited version of the animated film. You don’t realize it, but the original succeeded in telling a beautiful and poignant story in less than an hour and a half, and now with this remake, they’re grasping at straws before the halfway mark even hits.

As a coherent film and story, Beauty and the Beast stumbles a bit if only because of the fact that the priorities of the film seem to be so oddly misplaced. There’s way more attention being paid to addressing the nostalgic factor than making a great, standalone film, and when it comes down to it, there’s way more misses than hits. That being said, my main problems with the film stem from the odd pacing and treatment of the main characters. I’ll admit I had literally no impression of the Beast in any way, shape or form until the midway point of the film when his and Belle’s courtship took center stage. Before then, Beast didn’t even seem all that important and to be honest, a little underused, but when he and Belle started to really interact and play off of each other, the film was finally hitting the peaks I expected throughout. Then, out of nowhere, the film would take an odd jump forward in the story, or gloss over a relatively important scene all in the name of getting to that good ol’ nostalgia everyone loves so much, and to me, it all seemed a little lazy and uncalled for. When you have about 40 minutes of extra time to play with compared to the original, why are you more concerned with rushing to the next big sing-along as opposed to really digging deep and treating these characters in the way they deserve to be treated? Again, this film does have a decent amount of great character and story moments to be sure, but the lack of attention being paid in setting this version apart from the original and giving it its own identity is a little disheartening to say the least.

On the acting front, everyone is serviceable; Luke Evans and Josh Gad (as LeFou) seem to be having more fun than anyone, while Dan Stevens’ Beast only gets interesting past the halfway point. Emma Watson coasts on a rather one-note version of her character even though she brings some much needed smarts and a light edge to the role when needed, and as for the secondary characters, Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), and Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson) along with the other enchanted members of the castle, take a bit to get used to but eventually fall in line with their animated counterparts.

While still very entertaining and (mostly) magical in its own right, Beauty and the Beast succeeds in bringing back that old school charm of the original but does little else to set it apart from that animated vision. With other Disney remakes like The Jungle Book and Pete’s Dragon’s elevating their source material to new, successful heights, it’s a shame that the filmmakers for this film settled for so much of the same when we could have been given so much more. There’s nothing blatantly wrong with this take on the beloved classic, it’s just lacking in a lot of ways that I couldn’t understand, so if you liked the original then there’s no reason you won’t like this incarnation, just don’t expect much else.