SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW
These live-action remakes of classic Disney properties just keep getting better, don't they?
At a studio that rules the film industry, there is very little that seems to go wrong nowadays at Disney, and with this latest offering from them, it seems that the trend will go on.
Beauty and the Beast is a remake of the 1991 animated film of the same name, with a practically identical plot and characters and even music, which I'll touch on later.
It stars the stunning Emma Watson as Belle in what is an example of simply perfect casting. My word, is she perfect in the role. Not only does she have the looks but also a surprisingly excellent singing voice as well as a lovely performance which exuded a great mix of both naivety and independence.
I'm glad she gave up the role of Mia in La La Land (which went to Emma Stone who then went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for the part) to play Belle because there truly is no one else I can picture in a role she was born to play (apart from Hermione Granger).
Well, that's another iconic female character recast successfully after Lily James' excellent turn as Cinderella.
The supporting cast were all pretty good as well, especially Ewan McGregor as Lumière and Sir Ian McKellen as Cogsworth. I thought those two worked brilliantly together and shared terrific chemistry in their many scenes with each other. Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts and her son Chip (Nathan Mack) work really well together too.
As perfect as some of the casting was, however, I was really iffy about Dan Stevens as the Beast. To be specific, when the Beast is in human form. Strangely, I found his character to be more attractive and dashing when he was in his animal form than when he was human.
That's not to say that the CGI/motion capture work on him to create the look of the Beast was poor, though. Definitely not. It's just that they did such a good job with the Beast that they made him look too good and refined and hence not menacing enough.
Also, when it comes to Dan Stevens, I just can't shake off the hilarious image of him in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) where he played the wax figure of Sir Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table (of which they very cleverly reference in Beauty and the Beast) - especially in that scene where he disrupts a stage performance of Camelot starring Hugh Jackman in that hilarious cameo.
Hence, not exactly the figure of a charming Prince now, is he? Oh well. His voice acting was great though.
Moving on - I thought the film was visually stunning, and not just because of Emma Watson!
The visual effects and CGI were used in the right places and not too excessively, blending in with the sets to make a practically seamless image. Coming off the back of the groundbreaking effects used in The Jungle Book (2016), the top-notch visuals are now what one comes to expect from Disney these days.
On to the music, and I thought that it was genius how they got the original composer who scored the animated film Alan Menken to return to score this one.
As a result of that, the music sounds so familiar and nostalgic while at the same time, some fresh touches have been added here and there to freshen things up be it through tweaked musical arrangements or singing styles.
I thought the way they handled the musical set-pieces was brilliant, with a very Les Misérables-like way of handling the songs and how the characters break into them from scenes with normal dialogue. It's used to great effect and it never gets tiring or repetitive because each set-piece brims with such contagious energy and joy.
It all adds up to paint a beautiful picture with such lovely music, although I was disappointed with just one thing - and her name starts with the letter A.
Ariana Grande's collaboration with John Legend to cover the titular theme song is just so... mediocre. I'm sorry to those who like the cover but I just didn't really get what they heard in it. Personally, I feel it lacks a sense of grandeur which one would want in a song so classic and made so iconic thanks to the original by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson.
It felt as though all the budget for the song was put in hiring the two aforementioned mega-named stars which explains why the musical backing track arrangement is almost karaoke-like at times.
Anyway, the song doesn't even feature during the movie so it's not too big an issue. Nobody stayed to listen to it over the end credits anyway.
Other areas which could have been improved would be in the exploration of some characters such as Maurice (Kevin Kline) and the adorable LeFou (Josh Gad), the latter of which has been at the heat of controversy lately surrounding the openly homosexual portrayal of the character which is frankly ridiculous.
I felt that these characters could have done with a little more screentime to further develop their very interesting characters, especially the latter. I don't see what the commotion is all about because there wasn't anything too suggestive, and when there were hints of the character's sexuality, it was used sparingly and most of the time for comic relief, which I felt worked for the narrative.
However, maybe this whole hoo-hah about LeFou and his sexuality is a good thing because all it's going to do is to create even more attention for the film which means more people will go see it (apart from the Malaysians of course). Free publicity is always good, so these people can scrutinise the movie all they want because at the end of the day, Disney still benefits from it all.
All in all, Beauty and the Beast was yet another excellent attempt at remaking a Disney animated classic.
Stunning visuals are accompanied with the lovely handling of the music and songs which give the film that extra something.
The performances are all really good, the voice acting is top-notch and it's just a very lovely feel-good movie. Also, I think it's surpassed Cinderella (2015) to become my favourite live-action Disney adaptation thus far.
Great fun for the family.
7.5/10.
At a studio that rules the film industry, there is very little that seems to go wrong nowadays at Disney, and with this latest offering from them, it seems that the trend will go on.
Beauty and the Beast is a remake of the 1991 animated film of the same name, with a practically identical plot and characters and even music, which I'll touch on later.
It stars the stunning Emma Watson as Belle in what is an example of simply perfect casting. My word, is she perfect in the role. Not only does she have the looks but also a surprisingly excellent singing voice as well as a lovely performance which exuded a great mix of both naivety and independence.
I'm glad she gave up the role of Mia in La La Land (which went to Emma Stone who then went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for the part) to play Belle because there truly is no one else I can picture in a role she was born to play (apart from Hermione Granger).
Well, that's another iconic female character recast successfully after Lily James' excellent turn as Cinderella.
The supporting cast were all pretty good as well, especially Ewan McGregor as Lumière and Sir Ian McKellen as Cogsworth. I thought those two worked brilliantly together and shared terrific chemistry in their many scenes with each other. Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts and her son Chip (Nathan Mack) work really well together too.
As perfect as some of the casting was, however, I was really iffy about Dan Stevens as the Beast. To be specific, when the Beast is in human form. Strangely, I found his character to be more attractive and dashing when he was in his animal form than when he was human.
That's not to say that the CGI/motion capture work on him to create the look of the Beast was poor, though. Definitely not. It's just that they did such a good job with the Beast that they made him look too good and refined and hence not menacing enough.
Also, when it comes to Dan Stevens, I just can't shake off the hilarious image of him in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) where he played the wax figure of Sir Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table (of which they very cleverly reference in Beauty and the Beast) - especially in that scene where he disrupts a stage performance of Camelot starring Hugh Jackman in that hilarious cameo.
Hence, not exactly the figure of a charming Prince now, is he? Oh well. His voice acting was great though.
Moving on - I thought the film was visually stunning, and not just because of Emma Watson!
The visual effects and CGI were used in the right places and not too excessively, blending in with the sets to make a practically seamless image. Coming off the back of the groundbreaking effects used in The Jungle Book (2016), the top-notch visuals are now what one comes to expect from Disney these days.
On to the music, and I thought that it was genius how they got the original composer who scored the animated film Alan Menken to return to score this one.
As a result of that, the music sounds so familiar and nostalgic while at the same time, some fresh touches have been added here and there to freshen things up be it through tweaked musical arrangements or singing styles.
I thought the way they handled the musical set-pieces was brilliant, with a very Les Misérables-like way of handling the songs and how the characters break into them from scenes with normal dialogue. It's used to great effect and it never gets tiring or repetitive because each set-piece brims with such contagious energy and joy.
It all adds up to paint a beautiful picture with such lovely music, although I was disappointed with just one thing - and her name starts with the letter A.
Ariana Grande's collaboration with John Legend to cover the titular theme song is just so... mediocre. I'm sorry to those who like the cover but I just didn't really get what they heard in it. Personally, I feel it lacks a sense of grandeur which one would want in a song so classic and made so iconic thanks to the original by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson.
It felt as though all the budget for the song was put in hiring the two aforementioned mega-named stars which explains why the musical backing track arrangement is almost karaoke-like at times.
Anyway, the song doesn't even feature during the movie so it's not too big an issue. Nobody stayed to listen to it over the end credits anyway.
Other areas which could have been improved would be in the exploration of some characters such as Maurice (Kevin Kline) and the adorable LeFou (Josh Gad), the latter of which has been at the heat of controversy lately surrounding the openly homosexual portrayal of the character which is frankly ridiculous.
I felt that these characters could have done with a little more screentime to further develop their very interesting characters, especially the latter. I don't see what the commotion is all about because there wasn't anything too suggestive, and when there were hints of the character's sexuality, it was used sparingly and most of the time for comic relief, which I felt worked for the narrative.
However, maybe this whole hoo-hah about LeFou and his sexuality is a good thing because all it's going to do is to create even more attention for the film which means more people will go see it (apart from the Malaysians of course). Free publicity is always good, so these people can scrutinise the movie all they want because at the end of the day, Disney still benefits from it all.
All in all, Beauty and the Beast was yet another excellent attempt at remaking a Disney animated classic.
Stunning visuals are accompanied with the lovely handling of the music and songs which give the film that extra something.
The performances are all really good, the voice acting is top-notch and it's just a very lovely feel-good movie. Also, I think it's surpassed Cinderella (2015) to become my favourite live-action Disney adaptation thus far.
Great fun for the family.
7.5/10.
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