Do yourself a favor and be a guest to the Beauty and The Beast movie to experience the magic. (That sounds like a typical Disney line, but whatever.) Or, maybe wait a few weeks until the parking lots aren’t packed. This past weekend, my money contributed to the $174.8 million dollars that has now made Beauty and The Beast a box office hit, according to Deadline. After months of huge anticipation built from fans all over the world, it’s not hard to see why this animated to live-action adaptation was so popular.
Fair warning: The below contains spoilers!
The legendary Emma Watson stars as the classic main character, Belle, opposite of Dan Stevens, the Beast. The movie follows the same exact storyline as the animated flick with a few modifications here and there such as the semi-controversial difference of Josh Gad’s character, LeFou, being portrayed as a gay man. Was it really that shocking? No. Was his character hilarious? Uh, yes! Another huge difference that we witnessed in the 2017 film versus 1991 version was the fact audience members got to see more of a background story for both Belle and Beast.
It’s almost a thing with Disney movies that either one parent is missing or both are missing. To switch things up a bit and learn more about Belle’s upbringing, Beast along with the audience discovers Belle’s mother passed away in Paris due to the plague. On the other hand, Beast’s mother passed away due to her own personal illness which lead him to be brought up by his father who taught the Beast to become the man he was before meeting Belle; stingy and unsympathetic. I, for one, thought this was a fantastic feature to add considering viewers don’t necessarily ever learn about a Disney main character’s back stories.
The other huge wow factor to the movie is the undeniably impressive set design and wardrobe. Major thumbs up to that team who paved the way to bring our beloved classical film to life. Lastly, we can’t forget the musical numbers! “Be Our Guest” had to be the best one out of all which seems like a very obvious choice to make but the effects made to bring that scene to life did not fall short. If my five-year-old self had a chance to watch this, I know she would want to be Belle and sit in that room while an impossible performance was occurring right in front of me. It looked real. It felt real. Granted, this would only happen if objects can really talk…
On the downside, the only minor upset I could possibly imagine would be the strong focus on Gaston’s storyline right when I wanted to see more chemistry built between Beast and Belle. It just seemed as soon as the two main characters grew a stronger bond, we were dragged to witness Gaston live his life while Belle is missing. Not that Luke Evans didn’t do a phenomenal job portraying the narcissistic Gaston, but it somewhat felt very Gaston focused more than Belle, at times.
Despite that,Beauty and The Beast left me jaw-dropped, dancing in my seat, and clapping in the end knowing Bill Condon successfully brought a classic feature with a huge following to the big screen. This isn’t an easy thing to do especially with having the pressure from critics around the world depending on Belle to be depicted similar to the ‘91 film. But the way I see it, not everything will always be the same. If we wanted the same thing, we could have just remastered Beauty and The Beast and called it a day.
What did you think of the movie? Let us know down below in the comments.
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‘Beauty and The Beast’ Review: Experience The Live Action Magic. (Photo Credit: Beauty and The Beast Official Facebook)
