Anyone seen the new Beauty and the Beast movie? Contains spoilers.

[dragonfly]

Finally got to see this yesterday. I enjoyed it. Emma Watson was perfect. But I feel that it didn't differentiate itself enough from the animated film to really stand alone in its own right. The additions and backstory just weren't enough. And it was similar enough to the original that it just doesn't compare IMO. I thought Jungle Book did a much better job of paying homage to the cartoon but adding depth to the story and pulling in from the original book so that I can take it as a new and different interpretation.

I was a little bummed that Belle didn't get to wear either the pink gown with the red cloak or the green library dress. They really could have done so much more with the library scene.

[LunaMoonCustoms1212]

Alright, let me just say that I had high hopes for this movie, I had been waiting for months, and was excited to finally go and see it. My expectation was not unrealistically high, but I was expecting a good movie because all of my friends and colleagues had said it was a great movie and recommend that I go and see it at some point. After watching it and leaving the theater, I wasn't impressed, it was an okay movie, but nothing amazing. I was trying to pinpoint why it wasn't appealing, and then it hit me. The more I thought about it, the more I dislike the film as a whole. Keep in mind that I LOVE Disney, and went in the theater thinking that I was going to love this film.

Plot: The plot of this movie is virtually the same as the original: A prince gets turned into a beast because of his "selfishness" (which is very poorly written in the new version), and he gets turned into a beast by an enchantress. She gives him a magic rose, and if the beast could find love (and win her love in return) before it completely wilts, he would turn back into a beast. But if he does not learn to love before the last petal falls, he, and all of his servants who live in the castle, will never be able to turn back into their original state. There are spoilers in the spoiler:

Spoiler

So, the plot is rather simple, but this new version takes the plot, and makes it a little more complicated, for one there is the fact that the objects (who were previously people) will basically die and become inanimate objects. This was not a bad change, and this is definitely not what I didn't like about the film, it made sense, there was more at stake of the curse wasn't lifted, and the people would die. There was also the fact that Gaston tied up Maurice and left him to be eaten by wolves, nothing wrong with it, it just felt out of character for Gaston (who is not really "evil" in the original). The one I hated the most was the "If you don't let me marry your daughter I will throw you into an asylum" plotline that completely makes Gaston look like a super evil character. There are other subplots, such as the enchantress from the beginning is a minor character, the Lumiere/Plumette and Wardrobe/Piano romance (which was completely unnecessary), and the LeFou "I am not actually that bad" subplot. The worst one of all was the "Wheres my mom and what happened to her" subplot. We didn't need that, yes you could have at least mentioned what happened, but we didn't need long, dragged out scenes. In the original you don't even question what happened, she just wasn't there, but that was not the main problem I have with the movie

Characters:  The characters in the original Beauty and the Beast are iconic, they are witty, funny, and most of all: likable. One reason why people like the original movie is because they CARE about the characters, you pity the main character, which is something that most every movie needs for you to be invested in them, in other Disney movies you CARE about what happens to Quasimodo, Tarzan and Ariel. You pity, and maybe relate to what they are going through, so you want them to come out on top. This is basic character writing.

Spoiler

This remake takes all of your favorite characters, and makes them worse in every way possible.

Belle: Belle is supposed to be a "funny girl" as the townspeople say, and she is a total book nerd, which is very uncommon at this time. In the remake, she acts completely normal, and doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. As they are singing about how "odd" she is, Belle is doing completely normal things, and just HOLDING a book. In the original, she wasn't even paying attention to what was going on around her, she was just walking and reading her book. Even if you relate to the original Belle, you probably wont to this new version.

Gaston: Let me just say that Gaston is my third favorite Disney villain, and I had very high hopes for him. he was played by a familiar actor, and, looking at trailers, he seemed like he was going to be a very funny character. The new one lacked all of the charm of the original and was not funny at all. He felt like a completely new character and they wrote him WAY too evil. He was doing things that the original didn't even come close to. The original wasn't evil, he was prideful, and that was his downfall. His entire character threw off the entire movie in my eyes. 

The Beast: The beast also lacked all charm that the original had, I hated his character design (he looked far too human), he was stripped of some of his most redeeming moments in the original (such as when HE got Belle out of the cell), and overall was not as likable. He did have a song though, and that was okay, but it just seemed out of place.

Maurice: Maurice was okay, he was basically the same as the original, except that he wasn't an inventor, which was one of his key character traits in the original. He wasn't eccentric enough (which turns the whole "Maurice is crazy" part make no sense). Overall he isn't a very memorable character.

Side Characters: The animate objects were okay, NONE of them had as much charm, and some of them just came off as annoying when they didn't in the original. Too many romance subplots, and they even added another object, the piano, which was even more unnecessary.

The Enchantress (did this character even GET a name?): She was completely unnecessary, and I didn't even realize who she was until the end, and I was confused throughout the rest. No character traits at all, and she makes a weird, out of place appearance at the end.

LeFou: This is quite a touchy subject, but personality wise, he's not even the same character.

Townspeople: These townspeople are complete jerks!!! They tell-off Belle because she is teaching a girl how to read, and vandalize her washing machine?! They all felt unrealistic, in the original they just thought that Belle and her father were odd, and tried to kill the Beast (which makes perfect sense when you think about it)

Literally every character was different than the original, but they made all of the characters LESS likable and not relatable. This is truly what made me dislike the movie the most, because the characters were different, they each handled the situations they were in different, and then made the movie as a whole less attractive.   

Music: I adore the music from the original movie (come on, its Alan Menken!), but I was a little underwhelmed in the new version.

Spoiler

For one, a lot of the actors and actresses cant sing, and some stand out moe then other. Emma Watson was very heavily autotuned, and it distracted from the movie itself. Theres this thing called dubbing....
I also disliked the choreography of some songs. The best by far was "Be Our Guest", but other then that, they were just okay. The rest of the choreography was very dissapionting: "Belle" was handled poorly, "The Mob Song" was not nearly as frightening or threatening as the original, and Gaston's song was not very funny or believable. Overall they were okay, the songs themselves were fine, but the visuals were not good enough to compensate for some of the autotuned singing. 

Visuals: The visuals in the original were magical, attention-grabbing, and beautiful, but this version lacks everything the original had. Things that were really amazing in the original (such as the stained glass windows, the library, and the castle) were all gone.

Spoiler

I was waiting for that scene that is the best scene by far, something epic, visually attractive and pure magic, this movie had literally nothing. The camera moved around so much that you couldn't stop and appreciate the beauty of the town, the castle, or any of the scenes in general. This is something "The Lord of the Rings" does very well, it gives you long, far away shots that let you appreciate the scenery of the world. This movie lacked fantasy charm, it lacked that classic "Disney Magic" feel, which is something that the remake of the "Cinderella" did very well. I have been comparing this to the new Cinderella, and that's where it did very well. It gave you an updated story on an old classic that needed to be updated, Beauty and the Beast did not need to be as updated because it was a far more recent movie, and it didn't need some of the "updates" that the new one tried to give. It already had a structured story, you don't need much else.

Overall, it was a dissapionting film, one that focused too much on backstory, and not enough on structured characters that make sense. Another strange thing is that I know only one other person (in real life) who shares my opinion. Everyone else thinks its great. I mean, come on, we all knew that it was not going to be good as the original, but this one was much worse then other remakes like "Cinderella" or "Maleficent". I could go on forever about how this movie is no good, but I wanna hear your points. Did you like the movie? Why? Do you agree? Can you expand? I might make some more points as they come to me, but for now, its long enough....




[merging this with the already existing discussion thread ~ Kiwi]

[orangepeachmango]

i was really dissapointed that disney decided to make their first canon gay character such a stereotype and literally the henchmen of the worst character in disney history : /

not all representation is good representation.

[Minty_Magic]

I wasn't very impressed with it either. I do think it had by far the best visuals of any of the "live action" remakes so far though!

There were certain changes I actually liked alright. I really loved that they gave LeFou some depth and character development instead of keeping him as a flat henchmen. I also liked that they toned Maurice down a little from the cartoon, it made him much more sympathetic imo. Those two characters felt far more real and human than they did in the cartoon to me.
That being said, I loathe what they did with Gaston. The original Gaston was such a good villain because he was evil in a subtle, charismatic way. People like him absolutely exist in real life and that's why he's so scary. All his new crimes in the remake just felt silly and over the top.

i was really dissapointed that disney decided to make their first canon gay character such a stereotype and literally the henchmen of the worst character in disney history : /

not all representation is good representation.

This, big time! Even though they tried to redeem him a little it was an awful decision to announce LeFou as being their first canon gay character. Like I honestly can't even fathom how they though that would be received well by the LGBTQ+ community! And ultimately for all the controversy they sparked with this, I hardly saw LeFou as being openly gay, there were only a couple scenes where it was implied he was gay. If they hadn't said anything I'm not even sure I would have picked up on it. In the end I think there were far more people that were angry about bad representation than there were people mad about having a gay character. I hope Disney sees that as a sign to cast their next LGBTQ+ character in a positive role.

Overall, the thing that upset me the most though was the fact that it hardly strayed from the original cartoon. Most of the new additions were kind of silly padding anyway. Why spend all the time and money to remake something that was already near perfect in the first place? It just feels like a really shallow grab at money to me.

I've been really disappointed in Disney lately, I'd really love to see more original properties from them instead of all these live action remakes. Especially if said remakes are basically just re-rendering the classic animations as CGI and adding no new twists to the story at all.
 

[Beldarna]

I thought it was nice, but I had expected more. It was too close to the animated film that I found myself comparing them through the entire thing. I loved the new scenes as songs as they paused the comparisment for a while. To be honest, i saw the new smurfmovie last night and thought it was better. :/

[shelvesofwhimsy]

I just saw it this weekend and I will always love the original best!
I did NOT like Emma Watson. I'm sorry but she just did not look or feel the part of Belle. I wish they had chose someone who wasn't famous and could have brought more to the movie. The supporting cast was great, I loved the art direction, and I liked that they kept it close to the original. Did it need to be made? Probably not, but it was OK to me lol.

I still think I liked Cinderella better than this remake.

[dragonfly]

Mrs. Potts and Chip were creepy. My least favorite part.

[bright rabbit 1]

My birthday is going to be this Wednesday, and my dad is gonna take me to the cinema to see Beauty and the Beast. 


[merging with existing movie discussion thread ~ Kiwi]

[dragonfly]

How fun! I hope you enjoy it. Happy early birthday

[melodys_angel]

Aww, enjoy <3

[LadyMoondancer]

It was okay, but the animated movie was so much better IMO.  It had a lot of very dramatic moments that weren't present in the live action movie.  Like the first time Belle sees the Beast . . . How he sidles out of the shadows and you see that great shot of his face . . .

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And you get how alien and frightening he looks to Belle (and the audience.)  And I just never saw anything in the new movie that ever matched that drama.

Or when Belle is just about to touch the enchanted rose and the Beast leaps over, puts the glass back over it, and curls his whole body over it protectively.  And without any words at all, that tells the audience just how important this rose is to the Beast.

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A big one for me was that the Beast did not seem angry enough in the live action for me to believe it would make Belle run away.  In the animated version, he starts out quietly upset about the rose and then he just loses it and is terrifying and heck yeah I could believe that would make anyone want to run from this terrifying monster.  In the live action . . . he yells a line or two about how she almost doomed them all.  And while it would be upsetting to be shouted at, it didn't come across as scary.

Gaston was great and I liked the romantic subplot with LaFou. I thought it was super blatant that he was gay.  (I actually went into the movie thinking the gay subplot would be Lumiere x Cogsworth so I did pick up on it without knowing about it beforehand, lol.)  I didn't feel like LaFou was a stereotype at all.  The guy he ended up dancing with, a little, lol.  I knew he was gay from the moment I saw him;  very classic late 1800s urban gay guy with the plucked eyebrows.

Belle's dad was good, and Emma Watson did her best but I didn't really feel any chemistry between her and the Beast and I'm not sure about all the "LOL you're making jokes now YOU'RE SO FUNNY" thing in the middle of the movie.

I didn't like Lumiere essentially being man-shaped with a candle hat / candle hands.  Just not very creative IMO.  The Beast, too, seemed too man-shaped.  I assume this was because it's easier to put CGI over a human actor than to make CGI that moves and is shaped more like an animal.  But I mean.  He is supposed to be a Beast.

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So yeah, I don't regret seeing it, but I don't think the filmmakers understood what made the big moments in the animated movie BIG.

Edit:  I did like the insight into Belle and her father being out of place because they were out-of-towners.  I liked that they showed why / how Belle didn't fit in (too innovative, too well-educated in a place where teaching girls was considered a waste of time), which they honestly didn't show in the animated movie.  I liked how she got her books from the library of the local priest (this makes so much sense!!).  And I really like the fact that they showed the plague-doctor's bird mask because those things are just awesome.  So there were a lot of points I liked.  I was just disappointed it wasn't more forceful and gothic and dramatic.

Double Edit:  Oh, I just remembered!  I REALLY liked the explanation for why the servants were cursed too, that it was because of their inaction in the face of the cruelty of the Beast's father.  I thought that was brilliant.  What a fitting punishment, that their inaction would turn them into inanimate objects.  (Still seems rough on Chip though, lol.)

[orangepeachmango]

I thought it was nice, but I had expected more. It was too close to the animated film that I found myself comparing them through the entire thing. I loved the new scenes as songs as they paused the comparisment for a while. To be honest, i saw the new smurfmovie last night and thought it was better. :/

GHGHT  this is a bold statement, Beldarna!!

[dragonfly]

I saw it for a second time yesterday. It's not going to be one of my favorites. I did catch something I missed the first time - in the ballroom, stone instruments atop the pillars were playing the music. I always wondered about that.

Then at the end, when they've turned back to humans and Mrs. Potts tells Chip he smells good. Ahahaha of course, because he smells like tea!

I agree about the Beast not being scary enough which is odd given the uproar (ha, ROAR) about him being too ugly when his first photos leaked.

[LadyMoondancer]

Oh, good catch about him smelling like tea!  I didn't notice that!

Your comments reminded me of the part of the movie that made me the most emotional, which was when the servants were turning truly inanimate.  When the footstool-dog fell on its back and just laid there, I lost it.

I never thought of it before, but Disney's Beauty & the Beast (both versions) have a bigger ensemble cast than almost any of their films.  Like, the servants are pretty important secondary characters.

[beajjai033]

Enjoy! Hope you'll love it as I did