Beauty and the Beast is the latest classic Disney tale to get a live-action reinvention for the big screen. These classic fairy tales always have the potential to be told again and again, and giving the stories a different creative team and a more tactile world to exist in does raise a lot of potential. The question of necessity will always be at the forefront of any of these films, because something like The Jungle Book had a lot of room for improvement in terms of story. But Beauty and the Beast is such a perfectly-crafted, classic animated film, and even with a stellar cast and a very talented director, the biggest question is still "why?" (the answer is money, but I meant more in terms of concept). Modern-day special effects and sensibilities are one thing, but do they warrant the reinvention of such an iconic film?
Once upon a time, a prince (Dan Stevens) and all of his servants were cursed by an enchantress, and their castle faded from memory. Until someone can love the prince for who he is, he will live eternity as a hideous Beast. Years later, Belle (Emma Watson) finds herself drawn to the castle in pursuit of her father, who was taken prisoner by the Beast after trying to take a rose from his garden. She takes her father's place as the Beast's prisoner, and discovers the magical denizens of the castle, like Lumière (Ewan McGregor) and Cogsworth (Ian McKellan). As time on the curse starts to run out, Belle slowly starts to fall for the Beast, while the villagers - led by Gaston (Luke Evans) - seek to destroy him.
What these new, live-action films need to do above all else is justify their own existence, and I unfortunately feel that Beauty and the Beast doesn't manage to do that. It certainly isn't just a shot-for-shot remake; there are new additions to the story - musical and otherwise. But even with so much effort put into creating a new version of the tale, this is not the best version. If I had more of a nostalgic attachment to the 1991 animated film, maybe the changes made would have been interesting to compare and contrast. But, given that I've seen different versions of this story - filmed and on stage - before, comparison is all I can do, and this iteration of the story didn't sweep me away like other versions have.
That's not to say that this film is just a pale imitation of the animated version. There are plenty of new elements added to the story, but they all feel a bit "fanfiction-y". I could picture a teenage girl who grew up with Beauty and the Beast sitting at her desk writing additions to the story. Plot points like finding out about what happened to Belle's mother - which involves a magical teleportation book - only really serves to reinforce a rose motif. Making Le Fou (Josh Gad) gay - if you thought it would be subtle, leave that expectation at the door - adds a different layer to the relationship between him and Gaston, and that's a notable change, but I hesitate to call it an "improvement". Certain changes felt like they were only included to pad out the run-time, and reinforce things that we already knew about some characters. Some changes made sense, like an explanation for why Beast's castle just disappeared from the world, but no change impressed me.
The Beast really sticks out, and not in a good way. The issue manly lies in the design; the beast looks too human. Motion-capture allows the facial expressions of the actor behind the effect to shine through, but too much human expression takes away from the bestial look. The CGI also looks slightly off; all of the other effects look great, but something about the Beast looks almost unfinished. When Belle looks at him, there's no real connection between the two. Since the love story between them is the point of the film - although it doesn't feel any less creepy than it did in the original - it didn't feel real here. The film's fantastical atmosphere doesn't make up for this, and although the story has new, emotionally-charged scenes to help the relationship develop in a way that makes more sense, I just didn't buy it.
Where the film excels, it excels because the original is just so good. Musical numbers like "Be Our Guest" and "Gaston" are appropriately overblown and fun, while many of the other song recreations felt almost empty. The original songs weren't too memorable, but one might grab a Best Original Song Oscar nomination. Emma Watson gives a solid performance as Belle; the film does give her more of an active role in the story and with her choices, but it's nothing special. They also flesh out Beast by giving him an abusive father backstory to explain why he's so angry, but I thought the fact that he was cursed to live the rest of his life as a hideous monster was appropriate motivation. The highlight of the film is Luke Evans, who embodies the over-the-top narcissism of Gaston to a perfectly hilarious degree.
Beauty and the Beast is by no means a bad movie, but I found it to be a disappointment based on Disney's history with these live-action remakes. What I thought about the most during this film was why they didn't consider making all of these French characters French. The film goes out of its way to point out the French backgrounds of all of these characters - they even go on a magical trip to Paris - and yet the furniture are the only characters who have appropriate accents. That's not a huge problem, but the fact that the story and world didn't suck me in enough to ignore accents is something to be noted. Even the ending didn't give me any feeling of elation; it was too drawn out, and the human acting after the curse was lifted was fairly awkward. I just don't see this film as the definitive version of the story, but if a new generation of fans do, then there's nothing wrong with that.
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