Beauty and the Beast

Image from IMDB

So, my motivation seems to have come back in a small dosage this evening. After such an eventful (ha ha) day watching The Walking Dead, I feel more in the mood to do something productive tonight.

Slight spoilers ahead (only if you don't want to know about the additional scenes should you not read on...)

It happened to be my 23rd birthday on Friday and my lovely boyfriend thought he'd treat me to a film I was ever so excited about pretty much since I heard about its remake (even more excited when I found out who the cast would be).

I could only be talking about Beauty and the Beast!

From the opening scene, it was glorious.

Emma Watson was truly the perfect Belle. She was bookish (although not as much as dear Hermione), she was beautiful and she was kind. She symbolised the outcasts and the weirdos that we probably all hide within us at some point. Luke Evans was a marvellous Gaston - as cheeky and arrogant as his animated counterpart with a dashing smile and twinkling eyes. I wasn't as set upon Dan Stevens as I could've been (both myself and Adeel thought the Beast didn't look quite right - although my opinion changed by the end of the film). He was a very good fit and portrayed the Beast's struggles wonderfully. The other mostly voice parts were fantastic also. Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellan stole the show for me. I loved the contrast between them both - McGregor as the upbeat, positive Lumiere (that French accent though ♥︎) and McKellan as the grumpy, very English Cogsworth.  Although I knew Emma Thompson was also a voice, she'd made it so different to her usual one that I missed that it was her until the very end! She was also perfect as Mrs Potts. Josh Gad also deserves a mention as the humourous yet clingy sidekick of Gaston (I couldn't help but only here Olaf though!)

Now that the cast have been analysed in great detail, I will move swiftly on to the plot. For the most part it stuck exactly to the same storyline as the Disney animation which was brilliant. The costumes and the sets were fantastic. Absolutely magical and very attentive to detail! The thing I want to talk about though, are the little additions they slotted in neatly that weren't in the original. For instance, the opening scene (my memory doesn't believe this scene was present in the animation although it might've been) took us on a brief but detailed overview of how the Prince became cursed. It was a great start and one that gripped our full attention straightaway. The other notable addition was a small scene where Beast takes Belle to a place she would most like to visit - her original home when she was a baby. This beautiful addition to Belle's backstory is enough to break your heart but to also feel more of a connection to her character and to understand her motivations.

And now, I can't not talk about the music can I? I believe all of the original songs were sung by the new cast as well as a few new additions. At least, I'm certain Beast got his own solo this time. I just wanted to bounce along to them all, they were so good!

One more thing as this is certainly turning into quite a long review (comes from reviewing so soon after watching it I expect!) When I returned home I couldn't help but do my usual search to scan through everything the cast has been in before when I came across a few articles slamming the new version for it's failure to produce anything new and criticising it for the portrayal of a few gay characters. Personally, I thought the idea of a remake was to - you know - just make it again as it was, but being a live action should have been enough to make it seem all new and exciting, no? And as for the critics commenting on the gay characters - it's a Disney film, it is meant to be lighthearted and humourous for those of us adult viewers. Those critics take it way too seriously for their own good.

Small rant aside, this film was PERFECT. If you're a Disney lover, Emma Watson lover, musical lover, or just anyone, GO AND WATCH THIS.

A magical film that I can't wait to rewatch ♥︎

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Rating:

★★★★★★★★★★

🥀