I loved it. It is very well done. I was surprised that
Spoiler ahead
Spoiler
that the enchanted objects turned in to real objects. I wasn't exspecting that
Ponyfan
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]