Nov 04, 2020
Of the Disney live-action remakes, this is one of the better ones. Of the category of "remakes that follow the original to a fault" I'd say it's probably the best of the batch. The original Beauty and the Beast is a concise 90 minutes that goes by super easy and gives you everything you need. Yes there's a lot of little details and character elements left out, but as a fairy tale, it works. And it was one of the first Disney movies to show a truly strong female lead and a depth to its romance (no, I don't buy into that Stockholm theory). Belle was headstrong, the Beast was stubborn, and they worked through it into a unique love. Did we need to know about all the townspeople? No, it wasn't a story about them. Did we need the enchantress to return at the end along with the full plothole filling details about her curse? No, because it was a fairy tale. Did we need a tragic backstory for both Belle and Beast that shows how they became the people they are? Not really, we get enough of them in the present to draw our own conclusions. The live action version however, gives us those things.
The thing is though, each time it would go into a bit adding something, I would be reluctant at first but by the end I'd think "y'know what, that's actually fine, that works." Is it all necessary? Not at all, but if you're going to expand on this story into something of an epic musical, the stuff they expand on it with is good stuff. I'll be honest, getting more one-on-one moments between Belle and Beast was really effective, and the moments were often touching. The original showed the development fine, but this shows a little more, and I like what it shows. There's also new songs, and unlike something like say live-action Aladdin, the songs fit the tone of the rest of the film.
The musical segments are good too. There's smaller pieces where there need to be, but there's also the big showstoppers that while not the animation, are still stellar in their own right. They know how to use the live action space in the unique way it presents. The biggest thing I like about the movie though is that the environments just looks great. The set design of the castle, the town, this is a place I want to visit. It looks alive and real. Much of it is CGI obviously, but there's a good amount of practical effects that look amazing.
I've raved about this thing enough though, what doesn't work? Honestly, the secondary characters. Ewan McGregor is having a ton of fun as Lumiere, but everyone else feels like they're just sort of there. There's not a lot of personality even though there's more time given to them. Part of that I really credit to the character design. The enchanted inhabitants are designed to look much more like their real life counterparts, but this takes away the personality they had in the animation. Ewan McGregor has a voice and personality that works through that sometimes, but most of them don't. As for the townsfolk, man I love Kevin Kline but he's just not that interesting as Belle's dad. Josh Gad as LeFou is…mostly okay. He gets some solid laughs, but at the end of the day it's just a Josh Gad performance, and I don't love some of the changes they make to his character in terms of his Gaston loyalty. Speaking of Gaston though, Luke Evans is pretty good. Not much more to say, he does the job.
Overall, it's not the original animation, but it's still a solid update. I don't like all these Disney reboots, but if they keep doing them with this level of effort, there's something to it. It puts effort in and creates it's own (forgive me) beast.
Verified