'Beauty & the Beast' Review

Beauty & the Beast Review:

#BeOurGuest

BY IAN TAN

From the director of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2 comes the live-action retelling of the Disney classic, Beauty & the Beast… this can’t be good.

Nah, who am I kidding? It’s Disney.

Let’s start with the good stuff. Over the past two years, Disney has been very successful (commercially and critically) at adapting a number of their animated classics into live-action counterparts. Cinderella, The Jungle Book and even Pete’s Dragon were solid live-action adaptations of old Disney animations, and so is this year’s Beauty & the Beast.

The cast, for one, does a splendid job at bringing the beloved characters to life. Emma Watson suits the role of Belle nicely, channeling the right amount of charm, fearlessness and humanity to the character. The same can be said for Dan Stevens, who plays the Beast. However, the standouts were really Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson and Nathan Mack as Lumiere, Cosworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip respectively. Although mainly providing the voices for these characters, these A-list actors bring a level of charisma and emotion to these characters that wouldn’t be present had they been voiced by anyone else. Another highlight was Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as Lefou, both of whom seemed to really enjoy playing their roles, Evans especially.

 Can't touch this

Beauty & the Beast also benefits from stellar production design and costumes, much like 2015’s Cinderella. The interiors of the Beast’s castle and Belle’s little provincial town are beautifully realized and gorgeous to look at. However, I did find some of the character designs a little weird, especially being so used to their looks from the animated film. For instance, I’m not a big fan of Lumiere’s live-action design; it just didn’t feel very Lumiere-like to me. Ewan McGregor nailed the character’s voice though. I also really liked the Beast’s look. I was curious as to how much emotion could have been articulated with him looking the way he does, and I was very pleased to see how effective the CGI work for the Beast was, and Dan Stevens’ performance really brought out the character's humanity. 

 

Cogsworth was the best

As for flaws, the biggest one for me was probably the predictability of the story, which follows the animated version almost to a tee, save for some additional character backstories. Besides that, there really isn’t anything new story-wise in this live-action retelling of the tale as old as time. It’s a safe way to please fans of the classic, but I was hoping for just a little more innovation in the story and characters, kind of like what they did with The Jungle Book just recently. Another thing that I felt the original did better was its emphasis on the iconic rose, which in the cartoon felt like more of a ticking clock than this movie made it out to be.  As a result, the stakes didn’t feel as high as they did in the animated film. Also, the relationship between Belle and the Beast didn't grow as organically in this new film as it did in the original, which was a wee bit disappointing to me since their relationship is the where the heart of the story is supposed to be.

Humbug

Overall though, 2017’s Beauty & the Beast is still an enjoyable, magically Disney time at the movies, even if it never really surpasses the quality, heart and originality of the 1991 classic.

Score: 7.4 out of 10