The new Beauty and the Beast came out recently and boy, do I have a lot to say about it! Just a warning, there may be some spoilers in here so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you may learn some things you may not want to yet. Here we go.
Emma Watson was a beautiful Belle. For many others my age, we grew up with her as Hermoine from Harry Potter. When I first discovered that she would be playing one of my favorite Disney princesses, I worried that I would only see Hermoine, but that wasn’t the case. Emma Watson fit the role of Belle perfectly and had an amazing singing voice. In addition to Watson, the rest of the cast was fantastic. Dan Stevens played the Beast and Luke Evans played Gaston and they absolutely killed it! I actually loved Luke Evans so much that I almost felt bad for Gaston when he died. Stevens and Evans both fit their roles so nicely and also did a great job singing and acting in the movie.
The music was wonderful throughout the movie. I loved that Disney incorporated the music from the original cartoon but I thought it really made the movie different and even better from the cartoon by adding a couple of new songs in. They really fit into the movie.
In addition to adding a few new songs, there were a couple of new additions to the plot to fill plot holes not covered in the cartoon movie. In the cartoon, everyone in the town seemed totally oblivious to the fact that there was a castle and a beast lived in it. I thought that was somewhat confusing. In the live action movie, we learned that when the Beast was cursed, the enchantress that cursed him also cursed the town and erased any memory they had of the prince and his castle. On top of that, from the cartoon, it didn’t make any sense that the Beast had been cursed for many years and characters like Chip didn’t age. In the live action movie, I think the enchantress trapped the town in a time-loop and left them unable to age. That would explain why Mrs. Potts and Mr. Potts where still the same age when they were rejoined in the end and Chip, their son didn’t age as well. If this seems confusing in my writing, there are several other writers who share similar beliefs and ideas with the live action plot. I would suggest reading more about it.
The special effects and CGI for Beauty and the Beast were also executed well. The Beast was extremely realistic and looked very, very real especially when around Belle. The Beast’s castle was also super cool and reminded me a lot of the one in the cartoon movie.
Belle’s dress in the popular dance scene was also gorgeous and I’m really happy that the costume designers didn’t recreate the dress Belle wore in the cartoon movie. This one appealed to the more modern age but was still classical and beautiful on Emma Watson.
And one other thing, I thought that all of the characters were developed much better in the new Beauty and the Beast. We learned much more about Gaston and his sidekick, Le Fou, and also Belle’s father. We learned more about all of the characters in the castle too, and I think learning more about the characters also really helped build the movie’s background and setting overall.
If you haven’t seen the new Beauty and the Beast movie, I’m begging you to see it as soon as possible. I absolutely loved it and I’m so proud of Disney’s latest masterpiece. Bravo!
