The 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney’s most
revered classics. It’s a masterpiece. So when a live-action remake was announced,
it was all but certain that it was going to pale in comparison. And it turning out to be something superior
is an impossibility. Hence, since it
would be a lesser film no matter what it does, there’s only one approach left
for it to take to avoid being a hated remake; that is, to essentially duplicate
as much of the immaculate essence of its source material as it could – meaning
it should retell the animated classic in live-action form down to a T.
That’s exactly what the
live-action Beauty and the Beast
smartly does. It executes the original
movie’s notable sequences and key musical numbers with minimal deviation. Except for the addition of a few extra plot
points, scenes, and songs, the movie is generally a beat-for-beat live-action reproduction
of the animated movie, as many scenes are conveyed shot-for-shot and many lines
are delivered word-for-word.
And it worked! When a gorgeous imitation is based on an
embodiment of perfection, it might not be as perfect as the original, but it’s
still gorgeous. A well-shot photograph
of the Grand Canyon won’t be as glorious as the actual Grand Canyon, but it’s
still beautiful to look at. The original
animated movie is the Grand Canyon, and the live-action remake is the gorgeous photograph.
In fact, it is when the times the
movie tries to do something different that its quality starts to dip. Belle
is already one of the best-layered Disney Princesses, and yet she is given this
distracting, pointless backstory that doesn’t add anything to her character. There’s also repeated emphasis to articulate that
the Beast has a mean personality because he had daddy issues. They’re just there to add additional drama,
but they failed to lead to anything notably rewarding. Rather, I found them annoying. In addition, the new song numbers aren’t that
impactful either.
Visually, the movie is sumptuous to
behold. It can’t match the glorious
aesthetics of the animated film, but there’s an admirable effort to be meticulous
and exquisite.
The CGI work on the Beast is
particularly fantastic and realistic.
Seeing him go all adorably awkward or helplessly in love with Belle is extremely
charming. I’m not sure if this can be entirely
attributed to the CGI or actor Dan Stevens deserves as much credit. If it’s the latter, then kudos to him.
The cast is a delight. Sure, what’s easily noticed about this movie is
Emma Watson – the Emma Watson,
Hermione Granger herself – as Belle. She’s
great, but she’s not quite the best thing about this movie. Though they mostly did voice work for this
movie, I was thrilled of the excessive talent that made up the Beast’s ensemble
of servants: Ewan McGregor as Lumière, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson
as Mrs. Potts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, Stanley Tucci as Maestro Cadenza, and
Audra McDonald as Madame de Garderobe.
Kevin Kline, as Belle’s father, also displayed subtly impeccable comedic
timing and dramatic handle.
But the greatest thing in this
movie is Luke Evans, who is a magnificent bastard of a Gaston. He flawlessly played the “villain you’d love to
hate (and punch)” persona. The funniest
moments of this movie are when Gaston goes overly narcissistic and smug,
celebrating how much of an “amazing” person he supposedly is. (There’s also this scene where Le Fou calms
an enraged Gaston by telling him to think of his “happy place”, which happens
to be when he was still a soldier at war.
How hilariously absurd this Gaston is!)
So, overall, Beauty and the Beast is another continuation of Disney’s “live-action
remake” winning streak (I’m most excited about Mulan now). And, again, it’s
a success because it just replicates its source material. However, there’s also a sense of trickery at
play there. Yes, this movie had me
smiling. It gave me the feels. But, come to think of it, I felt this way
towards it because it was simply channelling a beloved classic. I was smiling because of sequences and songs
I’ve been fondly familiar with for years.
I had the feels because the love story of Beauty and the Beast (the animated one) has always had such effect
on me, as I consider it the greatest romantic movie of all time. So the live-action remake just essentially re-directed
what love I had for the original to itself.
I enjoyed watching Beauty and the Beast (live-action
remake) because I’ve always loved re-watching Beauty and the Beast (the original animated movie). Since the former was replicating the latter,
then it was as if I was just re-watching the latter for the nth time. I was manipulated.
In this sense, then, though Beauty and the Beast is a beautiful
remake, it’s also a fundamentally unnecessary one. If watching it is basically like watching the
original animated movie – a cinematic masterpiece – then isn’t it much more
rewarding to just go watch the original again?
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