A Tale as Old as Time (Beauty and the Beast 2017)

 

 98.

Beauty and the Beast

 

8.5/10

A remake of the famous Disney fairy tale where a monstrous looking prince and young woman fall in love. For those who have never seen the original animation, there are only a few differences within this new version brought to life with a star studded cast. We begin with a little back story of how the beast came to be from his lavish, selfish life style, to the change brought about by a beautiful witch.

Emma Watson was cast as Belle, a young female, who has the village envious of her free will and book worm spirit of wanting to know more than what is within her small area of land. Already we see a change to the story as Belle's mother becomes a talking point as she didn't remember her before her death. Her father, who has just had a little sing song of his own, seems to want to avoid the subject but instead praises her with simple sentences.

By the time we meet Gaston, who is played by Luke Evans, we are already treated to some songs, which, although the singing is a little rough around the edges, it adds to the realism that this could be just normal civilians and not everyone has the ability to burst out with some bad ass vocals when needs be. Luke Evans plays a great role as the self loving Gaston who likes nothing better than to hold himself above everyone else and thinks he deserves Belle, the best looking girl in the village. He's followed around by his usual side kick LeFou, who, we can already tell he has a glimmer in his eye for his mentor. Knowing that there was a gay character in the movie didn't bother me in the slightest and it has bothered me since that so many people have complained about it. Worried that their children would be watching this movie and may be offended by it is wrong. Homosexuality isn't something your born with, just like racism. It's educated by family, or friends which is the wrong type of education, there was nothing in this movie remotely offensive. It actually added to the storyline in a great way, adding more humour that wasn't in the animation. With LeFou not wanting Gaston to fall in love, or his sneaky comments about the fact he already has someone who worships him, brought the audience to a chuckle.

The graphics throughout couldn't be faulted regarding the castle, furniture, backgrounds and other special effects. The one disappointment for me was that the beast wasn't as scary as what I came to know when younger. Yes I understand that they may have needed to tone it down for the younger audience, but with the added humour from him, there needed to be something more. His face was hairy, but he needed to be a little more ragged around the edges, rather than this well groomed wolf of sorts.

Most of the songs we came to know and love were present as expected, with 'Be Our Guest', always a great show piece, although I was a little gutted to see the candlestick, 'dabbing' at the ending to the song. A couple of songs were also added with the Beast having his own as he let Belle return to her father. Before this, we find out what actually happened to her mother and why her father didn't want to talk about it too much. I didn't expect that part to be as dark as I first thought, and it gave a bit more grown up aspect to the charm of the movie and Disney as a whole.

The ending brought the biggest change from the original, and although it was along the same lines, it was executed differently. There was the normal moment where the Beast dies for a few seconds until a kiss from the love saves him, but this time the witch turns up and actually brings him back to life instead. She rebuilds the rose and then carries on to revive the Beast and change him back to normal once she believes he's learnt his lesson. Everyone turns back to their normal selves, but then there is one more added part to the story. Everyone who has been living in the village, were the guests to the Prince's party when he was first cursed. When he is turned back, they also get their memories back and become the cheerful soles they once were, than the grumpy assholes that couldn't put up with Belle. The film ends with everyone having a party and dancing, we see Lefou dancing with another man who we had seen earlier, happy to be dressed in female clothes. By now we had already seen him change into some what of a good guy, helping the furniture fight for survival after finally seeing what kind of man Gaston was.

With all the scenes, songs and characters and changes, this film was a really enjoyable watch. It was interesting to see how Disney carried on with making their movies into real life adaptations and just like the Jungle Book, this didn't fail. Each person cast, was the correct call and it was good to see that they were not afraid to change things and spice it up. With some foot tapping and a bit of laughter its going to be exciting to see what movies and casting Disney picks for their next big up and coming.