Beauty And The Beast is directed by Bill Condon and is the latest in what is shaping up to be a long line of live action Disney remakes. Belle (Emma Watson) is an ahead-of-her-time outcast in a small, French, 18th century village. In return for her fathers life, Belle is taken prisoner by a Beast (Dan Stevens), who needs true love to break his monstrous curse. Meanwhile, nefarious Gaston (Luke Evans), the most popular (and arrogant) man in the village seeks Belle's hand in marriage and will do anything to get it.
There are some minor plot changes in this version, but none of them seem unnecessary. Small changes in certain scenes and characters, don't really affect the arc of the film in the long run, and bigger changes- such as the backstory of what happened to Belle's mother- are welcome additions, adding more depth to some key characters; especially Belle and Maurice. The father- daughter relationship between these two, is explored far more effectively in this film due to some new dialogue that really illustrates just how close they are. And thanks to some additional scenes between Belle and the Beast, the romance in this version seems less rushed than in the original and far more plausible on the whole.
Gaston and LeFou's relationship has a completely different dynamic in this film. Unlike his arrogant, but mainly idiotic animated counterpart, Gaston is pure evil in this version. He's vicious, scheming and far more dangerous, losing his role as a comic villain and becoming a truly threatening character. LeFou- as I'm sure you've probably read- is gay in this version. Unfortunately he's a stereotype, he's a camp, over the top, clichéd gay best friend and his sexuality is completely played for laughs. Is it a disappointment that the sexuality of Disney's first openly gay character is used as comic relief? Yes - but did we really expect a sensitive portrayal of an LGBT character from a big budget Hollywood movie, that's aiming to make as much money internationally as it possibly can. He has some of the funniest lines in the film (and he was possibly my favourite character) so at least he's memorable as a Disney milestone- but is he memorable for the right reasons?
One problem with updating animated films into live action, is that while it might be great to see beloved main characters as real people, it also means that the more cartoonish side characters such as animals in the Jungle Book, or talking furniture in this case, have to be turned into 'realistic' CGI. When beloved characters such as Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs Potts are turned into CGI, they lose all of their charm. They just can't show any emotion like their animated counterparts can; so no matter how great the voice acting is from Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson (amongst others), it just doesn't work when it's coming from a blank piece of wood or metal, that struggles to show any kind of expression.
Obviously an important part of Beauty And The Beast- and of any Disney film- is the soundtrack. For fans of Disney musicals, the live action remakes up until this point have been a bit of a disappointment- Maleficent and Cinderella weren't musicals, and The Jungle Book only included a couple of choice songs. Beauty and The Beast however is a true musical with many songs from the original film, alongside some new ones. The new songs fit in well and feel as if they could have been part of the original film and the old songs retain their original feel, despite some line changes and differences in orchestration. Unfortunately (and I hate to say this, I really do) the weakest cast member in terms of singing was definitely Emma Watson. Her voice sounded completely auto tuned throughout the film. I still enjoyed it, because I'm personally not a fan of Paige O'Hara's performance (not a popular opinion I know- and no offence Mrs O'Hara). But there was just this inescapable computerised sound to her voice, which at times was a bit jarring; given the 18th century setting and the strong vocal performances (or at least less obvious auto tuning) of the other cast members.
For lovers of the original animation, who hail it as their favourite Disney movie, this version will probably be an enjoyable experience that is either loved equally or just less than the original. For me- someone who enjoyed the original but didn't love it (always more of a Mulan person)- this version is a great improvement, adding more character depth, and a better overall story as a result. This was a great movie experience full of excellent acting, beautiful set design (far less garish than Cinderella, and far more real than The Jungle Book), and great musical numbers. Personally, I think that this is the best live action Disney remake so far.
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment