It’s been some time since ‘Beauty and the Beast’ hit the screen. Since then it has gained new life through hopping onto various portable (and not so portable) media and reincarnated itself into a world grossing stage show. However with Hollywood recent years’ of obsession for remakes, it was just a matter of time that ‘Beauty and the Beast’ will be hooked up with the milking machine.
I have been sceptical about the real life remake. After all it is a well-loved animation (especially by me) will really well established characters. Our mind frames were solidly set by the animation itself. So when I first saw the trailer, just snippets of various well known scenes, I can’t help but wonder, ‘would the whole movie hold up?’
Emma Watson, one of the more intriguing actresses of the younger generation was one of the reasons I decided to give it a go. Her growth and evolution as an actress in the Harry Potter series proved that she can act, to a certain point. However her works in ‘The Bling Ring’, ‘The Perks of Being a Wall Flower’, and ‘My Week with Marilyn’ had surprised me not just as an actress, but also as an artist. Her willingness to explore more interesting characters disregarding the importance of those roles made me felt that she is an artist with a clear vision what directions she wants to go.
Playing Belle is not an easy task. The animated character is too well established and they are big shoes to fill. Emma’s Belle cannot say is weak (in terms of characterisation) but you can certainly see a few moments of uncertainties in the character as what Belle was supposed to do in those scenes. For me this is particularly obvious in the opening market scene as I don’t really know what she was thinking while she was singing about how bored the provincial life was. For me I was looking for the care free and quirkiness in Belle that sets her apart from the crowd. But in the opening scene it just became Belle walking through the village singing for no purpose.
That said, Emma’s performance gradually evolved as the movie progressed. At story points that require deeper and stronger emotional range, Emma Watsons without a doubt delivered. The stiffness and wavering in the earlier scenes were gone. This added a lot of authenticity to what seemingly a story book turned animation turned real life movie. Basically ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is about Belle in terms of performance as most of the other big name actors such as Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGreggor are all hidden behind the animated version of themselves most of the time. Kevin Klein as Maurice didn’t really have a lot to show, which was not surprising as Belle’s father has always been a supporting role. However what surprised me was how much life Luke Evans and Josh Gad’s Gaston and LeFou brought to the movie. Luke Evans even managed to make Gaston more lovable than his animated counterpart, which is quite hard to achieve. Josh Gad’s LeFou’s sexuality has been the centre of attention, but then that discussion overshadowed the comic and relevance he provided to this seemingly extremely second line supporting role. He made people wonder where he is whenever we see Gaston on screen. And when Gaston is strutting his stuff, we looked forward to what other silly things would come out of his mouth. The Gaston song in the bar is as memorable as one could expect.
Dan Stevens as the Beast is quietly sadly that it really didn’t give Dan Stevens as great an opportunity to shine as despite being a central character he is closely sealed behind the special effects. Also the CGI team made sure he looks exactly like the one in the animation, so there is really not a lot for him to show at the end of the day.
Transiting from animation to real life, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ had changed things around here and there a bit to make it more believable as a real life story. The Enchantress now has more air time and there are few minor plot point changes to make it possible with real actors. There are also a few new songs written for the movie, which I thought blend surprisingly good with the old songs. The notable ones are Belle’s song about the old Paris she thought she knew and the Beast’s song lamenting on what he brought upon himself because of his arrogance. But the ‘Be Our Guest’ song was just spectacular. It managed to bring back the old charm in a real life format, which I thought was quite amazing. As for the ballroom dance scene, I still think I like the animated version better as the lighting is a bit more hopelessly romantic than the real life counterpart.
Overall ‘Beauty and the Beast’ did not disappoint and it has some great moments. I think for those who haven’t seen the animation will enjoy a lot better than someone like me who had watched the animation so many times that can’t help but keep referencing and comparing. I did enjoy the movie though, and probably will watch it again on different medium. As after all it is a great love story that I think worth telling (and watching).
