My Movie Review on Beauty and the Beast (2017) (Reconstructed & Re-Analyzed) · 7:21pm May 18th
This review is a completely modified version of the analysis I made on “Beauty and the Beast (2017)” 6 years ago in 2018. It also includes some slight re-analyzing, which became inevitable as I started reconstructing the whole thing.
Not too long ago, I was initially going to look back on many of the first reviews I made simply to correct some grammatical errors and modify their original posts. Including this one. But, as I started doing so with the 2017 “Beauty and the Beast” film, I realized that my feelings towards it had changed over the years. So, I decided to present it as a brand new post.
And no, I did not give the film a rewatch in preparation. My experience with it was something I always remembered, so it was easy to think of what to say without doing so.
Take a look:
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, I will be reviewing Disney's 2017 live-action "Beauty and the Beast".
Here’s the rundown of it:
An arrogant prince is cursed to live as a terrifying beast until he finds true love. Strangely, his chance comes when he captures an unwary clockmaker, whose place is then taken by his bold and beautiful daughter Belle. Helped by the Beast's similarly enchanted servants - including a clock, a teapot, and a candelabra - Belle begins to see the sensitive soul behind the fearsome facade. But as time runs out, it soon becomes obvious that Belle's cocky suitor Gaston is the real beast of the piece.
First off, I’d like to apologize for not reviewing the animated version yet. I know you guys would want me to do that very soon, but I decided to analyze the live-action version first since I never saw it before.
Prior to this, I was initially hesitant to check it out because there were so many controversial things I heard about it. But, I ultimately saw the film anyway with my Mom and grandmother while it was available on Netflix.
Coming from a guy who finally saw the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” for himself, I’d like to say this:
As a whole, the movie had some positives, but it generally wasn’t much of a standout either.
For instance, the music by Alan Menken, as well as the songs, were a 50/50.
Song-wise, the brand new musical numbers the film featured, especially “Evermore” & “Days in the Sun”, were the ones that I thought had a lot of life stored in them. Each of the new songs were fun to listen to in their own way, and it was clear that genuine thought was put into them. But, the remakes of the old songs, such as “Be Our Guest” & “Belle”, were the complete opposite. Compared to the animated film’s versions, the live-action renditions of the original songs were cringy and time consumingly slow. Something about the pacing of the music, and the way the performers sang them, just didn’t click.
As for the score, it was generally so-so. The regular music largely sounded like I was listening to how they were composed in the animated version all over again, so there wasn’t anything particularly new about it.
Similarly, the direction by Bill Condon, and the screenplay by Stephen Chbosky & Evan Spiliotopoulos, were relatively bland.
Before I watched this movie, I previously saw Condon’s work as director of Ian McKellen’s “Mr. Holmes”, and I thought he did an amazing job helming that movie. With the live-action “Beauty and the Beast”, though…I thought he did fine, but I also didn’t think it was one of his best works either.
Compared to the original film, the action sequences came across as sluggish and less lively. The wolf attacks were generally uneventful, and the fight scene of the villagers vs the castle residents was neither fun or engaging. Also, the background sets weren’t the most impressive I ever saw. The castle and village in particular looked like they were props for a high school play!
On the bright side, though, the cinematography was terrific. It helped everything be absolutely beautiful to look at, and it gave a sense of something very natural too.
Regardless of the flaws, I don’t particularly blame Condon for any of this. I think the main problem regarding Condon’s direction was that he was simply held back by a script that wasn’t giving him much creative freedom or room to work with.
From the very start, I could tell that the overall story for this remake was too excessively similar to the animated version’s concept, particularly because it wasn’t able to make something of itself instead of seeming like some carbon copy. It was neither ground-breakingly emotional, nor did it provide many laughs. I did think that the most interesting moment came with the book where you could travel anywhere in the world, as well as the backstory about Belle’s mother and what happened to her. But even then…the film itself hardly made any effort to stand apart.
Likewise, the performances of the cast, characters, and character development were elements I had mixed feelings towards.
Contrary to how many people commended the performances of Emma Watson as Belle and Luke Evans as Gaston, I personally felt that they gave perhaps the most lackluster of the live-action portrayals.
True, they definitely looked their parts, but their portrayals didn’t seem natural either. It looked like that because their characters are so highly renowned, they just weren’t able to perform without looking like the pressure of being their characters & living up to the legacies they created was too great. Not to mention Belle and Gaston were the least interesting characters in this movie, especially compared to the animated version, and their developments came across as predictable and far from intriguing.
Plus, with the exception of Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, none of the cast made their roles French enough for the town and time period the story takes place in.
The incorporation of African-American cast members and characters also didn’t feel right. I’m not being racist or anything, it’s just...when you look in your own history books, you’ll find that the people of a certain ethnicity, like African-Americans, Spanish, and Asians, did not become prevalent until much later than the time period the movie takes place in. I found that to be an example of being too unnecessarily politically correct, and when used at the wrong time, it gives inaccuracy to the setting and culture of a story.
However, I didn’t think every performer was terrible. As I likely said, Ewan McGregor portrayed Lumiere perfectly, and Kevin Kline...he gave his portrayal and character of Maurice a sense of innocence, tenderness, and warmth, and he took his role on like a pro compared to Watson & Evans.
Josh Gad, who portrays Lefou, was also quite the eye-catcher. Admittedly, his character did have a slight guy crush on Gaston, but really, he’s not inherently gay. Even though Gad obviously kept his American accent, he was actually really fun to watch. He had the best comedic-timings out of everyone, and the singing chops he gave for every song he was in were extremely well-done. In addition to this, I thought Gad and the filmmakers did an excellent job at making LeFou more three-dimensional compared to his animated counterpart, and his character development was deeply spot-on.
But, the real star of the movie comes from the guy who played the Beast himself: Dan Stevens.
The performance & voice he gave the character, as well as the makeup and motion capture used on him, made the Beast so lifelike and alive. Every moment with him on the screen also makes things worthwhile, because he gives off such strength & emotion into the role. Compared to Belle, the Beast’s character development was executed with such splendor, and he was definitely the most three-dimensional out of everyone.
In the end, though, “Beauty and the Beast (2017)” is sadly the first live-action remake by Disney that I consider to be unimpressive. The intentions are there, and the people involved clearly gave their very best, but it hardly offers anything even remotely new or significant.
So, I rate “Beauty and the Beast (2017)” 2½ out of five stars.
In the future, I will likely be presenting more modified versions of certain reviews I made years before. Some may be ones I'd also gain a difference of opinion on as I modify the reviews, others probably not.
But, I'll definitely be giving a reconstructed version of my review on the classic animated version of "Beauty and the Beast" film. I'll even reward the film with a rewatch in preparation.
As far as im concerned, the animated version STANDS ALONE.
It's hard not to see that the animated version of these movies stand alone honestly for many reasons, because this is all just cheap ways to make cash-grab movies, and if you've been keeping up with the Box Office records of recent Live Action movies, you can see that they're just digging they're own grave. Have you guys seen the Live Action Mufasa trailer, let me tell you.. it is god awful, it's not live action, it's hyper realistic animation, and not only does it look awful, it's retconning the Lion King story's own lore by making it so Mufasa is wanting to overthrow Taka( Aka Scar) and become the king of these lands, WTF DISNEY?! Let's all just not watch this movie and hope this movie flops and that shows them to stop with these movie remakes, I'm done with Disney at this point because of Wish, and this is only digging the grave deeper for me.
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Ironically, I actually thought "WISH" was one of Disney's better movies for a variety of reasons.
But yeah, I too have grown fatigued from their excessive creating of live-action remakes. At this point, it feels like they need to take a serious breather and consider their future endeavors as a company more.
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And now they're on the desperate move for nonstop sequels that will probably ruin the point of the original, like how Ralph Breaks the Internet ruined everything about the first Wreck it Ralph movie, and we're getting Frozen 3 and 4, Toy story 5, and even a rumored Finding Nemo 3 and Incredibles 3, all for the sake of money, and not about the quality but the quantity, and Inside out 2 is the trending start of it. While I do think some of them can be good, this is just desperate to me, I don't mind if you like Wish I can see people enjoying it, but for the future of Disney for me, I'm not gonna see another movie unless it really interests me, and these sequels are just desperate moves for me.
Emma Watson was grossly miscast in this movie. She tried to turn Belle into an intellectual bookworm and it was like watching Hermione Granger dressed like a Disney princess. By my understanding, Belle doesn't read books to make herself smarter than the rest. She reads books to escape to a fantasy world where her imagination just runs wild.
Watson's chemistry with Dan Stevens' beast was off kilter, and she came off as very condescending and holier-than-thou. One of the biggest examples is the soup scene, where she literally GLARES at him for eating sloppily. Then afterwards, when she also decided to drink from the bowl, she looks like she's doing him a massive favor by stopping to his level. In the animated version, Belle was actually very gentle and patient, so when she taught him to eat in a more civilised manner, it felt more natural and kind.
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Well, it’s not particularly surprising. For the past few years, I’ve honestly noted that some certain sequels are the only large standouts Hollywood in general has offered. Sadly, they don’t even count because they’re based off properties that came before. Heck, I saw the Elvis movie distributed by Warner Bros., and I was less than impressed by it.
These days, I’ve come to expect less from Hollywood as a whole.
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I'm honestly looking forward to the Bad Guys 2, because the Bad guys is a book series that has a ton of great stories that could be told from it, while the idea for the Bad guys 2 sounds generic with the Crimson Paw having an old crew of all female members ( Which reminds me of a certain syndicate in a bad way), there are other stories to be taken from the Bad Guys that can make something cool, in one of the stories, Mr Wolf's father is an abusive mafia boss who's caused some childhood trauma to Mr. Wolf, if that ever gets adapted and is done right, it may be a great movie with how it handles Mr Wolf's trauma from being in an awful family and he may have to go through hell in order to save his real one.
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Even so, you can’t deny that Disney isn’t the only one concocting these trends, right?
Heck, I’m still furious about the fact that Netflix is making a live-action remake of Avatar and Universal is creating one for How to Train Your Dragon! And don’t even get me started on how much PBS Kids has been ruining Cyberchase as of late.
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Why remake Avatar the Last Bender when you have the original all available on your own channel already, it's so stupid and I hate that they thought remaking it was a good idea and totally say I'm furious about it too, but hey it's better then the movie to say the least, and I've heard they're gonna be making a future animated movie made by the people who made the original series, so that may be good, but yeah these live action shows of cartoons do not work because of how much they butcher the original, do you think Beastars would work in live action? Of course not, Beastars is meant for anime and animation, because the characters were made for animation, it's honestly one of my favorite recent anime's because of how the character's work for the world that Beastars has, and the dark themes and moments it has.
This is definitely my favorite live-action remake (though I prefer the animated one slightly more, partly due to Gaston's scream when he falls, it's not as high-pitched in the live-action one). Then The Jungle Book. The rest were either all right, meh, or rubbish IMO.
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IKR? Why did they make a prequel to one of the worst remakes of all time instead of their sacred fan-favorite animated one? At least they're not risking ruining that continuity (but we could FD it if they did), but still. Is it because it made a lot of money? They DO know that was just hardcore fans of the original who were expecting something at least half as good and felt ripped off by the time this was over? Not the most honest money to make. It's not even that hard, they had to have actively been TRYING to make it this bad. Including making the lions emotionless. Real life cats are naturally more expressive even though they only say "Meow", and NostalgiaCritic did a better job making his cats expressive by giving them voices. Not that he needed to do much. They are real life cats, after all. Not to mention cutting most of Be Prepared, they HAD to know fans would hate that.
Disney is nearing the end of their days. Not only are they not making as good content anymore (except in their TV series, which they aren't profiting off of unless peaple keep Disney+ just for them, and while Wish was an improvement over the other Post Wreck-It Ralph films, they still didn't even try to meet the high bar set by their rivals with The Last Wish), but they made stupid decisions such as alienating Disney+ subscribers by purging content, etc.
Most Post Endgame MCU films haven't been great except the Spiderman films, Guardians 3, and The Marvels (but only four particular scenes that appeal only to peaple who love villains dying spectacularly, crossovers, and cats. And I have a feeling cats are the only one of the three that many people like.) And Star Wars, many feel that they've ruined Star Wars completely, except Mandalorian. I found the sequel trilogy fun but I don't consider them part of the main canon any more than Dragon Ball GT, I consider it its own thing in a "What-If" timeline. But many hate them with a passion.
I think it highly unlikely Disney will recover from this slump like they did with the later half of the Post Renaissance, and then it was only brief.
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Totally agree with this entire statement, Disney is falling off to the depths of Tartarus because of how bad they've been failing with they're movies, the sequel's won't help save what's been lost, it'll only delay the inevitable. live action versions of shows or anime are a bad idea, because considering shows like One piece has over 1000 episodes and the live action only has up to 10, it's never gonna live up to the original. I have no idea why TV seasons are so short now, but I know it's affecting shows that need more runtime, Hazbin Hotel was good, but it was flawed with the pacing and characters because it was only 8 episodes, 12 episodes would've worked out far better with a runtime of 30 minutes if done right, Helluva Boss is doing that with 12 episodes now and I think Hazbin needs that for season 2.
But live action shows of long running anime or cartoons just do not work because of how much content they cut out. Imagine if Beastars ever gets live action ( which I hope to god it doesn't ) I still don't think it would work because Beastars is far more complex with it's themes and moments, even though the pacing goes to fast by the end, it's a great series which works because it's animation and pacing are essential to the story, I wouldn't mind if the show got a 4th season after it goes past the manga even if it's finished, because I'd like to see character's like Rokume explored more since she was only in 3 chapters, there are character's who may not get the development they need because of runtime and episode count, what I'm mainly saying is, the live action adaptations don't have what made the original special, because the original had better pacing and character depth, while remakes are just shallow redoing's of what made that special.
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The advantage to shows being shorter is that they are easier to rewatch. I can rewatch Sailor Moon Crystal and Beast Wars more frequently but MLP rewatches will take longer. And over a thousand episodes, forget about rewatching them unless you're sure you have a lot of time.
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Here’s another ironic thing to tell you:
I refuse for the life of me to ever associate with Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss, particularly because of their Satanic subject matter.
I don't really mind that at all honestly, because there's just some people who don't like other stuff that people do, I don't mind that at all, and to be honest, of all the live action remakes I've seen, this is one of the better ones, anything after this is just digging a deeper grave that'll just bring Disney down from cooperate greed.