Considering the best of these Live Action reboots was almost absorbed by it's own attempts at turning a somewhat progressive character into a walking melodramatic mush of a character, my expectations for Beauty and the Beast were at an all time low. And let's face it, my personal connections to this film are significantly greater than all of the previous reboots that Disney has done since 2010. After all, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King are my three favorite movies that this company has made and have been significant parts of my childhood. But critics adored this film and the soundtrack (which was released on YouTube) was at the very least tolerable, so I decided to see this film on the day it came out.
My faith in the critics has fallen to an all time low and I now have literally no faith that any of the future Disney reboots will be any good. If you wanted to see a Cliffnotes version of the 1991 animated film (WHICH WAS NOMINATED FOR BEST FREAKING PICTURE), then you are probably going to like this film. But if you wanted to see a film with a unique take on a classic fairy tale with some allusions to arguably the Greatest Animated Film of All Time, one with pathos, emotional connections, strong characters, brilliant lighting and cinematography, and of all other things: HEART, you will absolutely loathe this film. I don't think my heart has ever been broken by a film faster than this one did to me. And I'm not joking.
Plot: Once upon a time, a selfish prince rejects a haggard old woman who sought shelter from the bitter cold. In response, the woman transforms into an enchantress and turns the prince into a hideous beast and his servants into household objects. She grants him an enchanted rose that would wither away unless he could learn to love and earn love in return.
We then cut to Belle, a beautiful woman in a village that does not appreciate her uniqueness, except for the hunter Gaston, who seeks to woo her and make her his wife. But Belle rejects him and returns home to her father, who is a music box creator and is leaving to sell his music boxes. While on his journey, he comes across a mysterious castle in the woods and enters. When he accidentally takes a rose from a garden, he triggers the wrath of the Beast, who imprisons him in the dungeon, where Belle finds him later. Belle offers to exchange her life for his, to which the Beast agrees. The enchanted staff of the Beast's Castle tries to make Belle at home, hoping that she can one day break the spell that surrounds them by falling in love with the Beast.
Meanwhile, Belle's father begs people in the village to help him, but only Gaston offers to help (hoping to get Maurice's approval to propose to Belle). But when that fails, Gaston decides to have him committed to an insane asylum, while Belle and the Beast slowly develop a closer bond between each other.
What's Wrong?: This film is almost, point for point, a complete rehash of the original film. Whereas you can say that the other films at least tried a handful of things to make themselves standout from the original, this film does almost nothing different save for irrelevant plot points that cause more confusion than anything else. Almost all of the important plot points, from the petals falling off the rose, to Gaston's plot to commit Maurice, to Belle being a quirky outsider in their village, to Gaston's plot to kill the Beast, all of those moments are brought back to life in this 129 minute film that feels like 329 minutes. This films drags in so many places that it actually hurts this film in the long run, for one specific reason, arguably the biggest flaw this film suffers from.
Heart. If there is one thing this film lacks that the other film had was heart. This film suffers from the same issues that failed love stories like Attack of the Clones and Twilight suffered from: by telling us that these two are falling in love instead of showing it. In the original film, there were several scenes where Belle and the Beast showed signs of maturing as people during Belle's time in the castle, the best scene in the film being their ultimate argument after he saves her from the wolf attack. This film glosses over the important romantic building blocks, because they felt it was more important to tell us that these two are in love instead of showing it. And when you cannot show people falling in love, you clearly cannot write a love story. And it's especially jarring to fail at telling arguably the greatest love story ever told.
Also, the casting in this film is incredibly hit and miss. Luke Evans was a hilariously inept Gaston, I don't know what kind of accent Ewan McGregor was trying to pull off as Lumiere, and arguably the worst casting of them all was Emma Watson as Belle. Sure, she looks like Belle and attempts to act like her, but she lacks almost all of the charm the original character had, again falling into that "show, don't tell" thing that this film suffers through. Plus, she can't sing. Not exactly Russell Crowe in Les Miserables bad, but definitely not on par with Paige O' Hara or any of the other Disney Princess singers for that matter.
Not for nothing, but this film needed Kenneth Branagh as it's director. I remember how amazing the cinematography was in Cinderella, and for a movie that was being remade from one of the most beautifully stylized animated films of the Disney Renaissance, this film looked gross half the time and the other half looked more pandering than Cinderella's first few minutes did. The stylistic designs used in the 1991 film are unique in their own light, such as the green lightning bolts used during the clash between Gaston and the Beast, or the fact that only Belle or the Beast wore blue in the entire movie (seriously, go watch the original film again and let me know who else other than Belle or the Beast wore the color Blue in that film). But this film could not have missed it more in terms of cinematography and style.
One last thing that bugged me (trust me, I could write an effing essay on why this film didn't work), was the complete pointlessness of turning Le Fou gay. I've always said that if you are going to write a character that is homosexual, there should be a point to it. Don't just write a character that is gay just for the sake of it. That is why I am one of the staunch vocals opposed to making Elsa from Frozen gay, because I have always been a subscriber to the theory that a gay character's homosexuality should not be a part of their character and should be as much a part of someone's character as a normal relationship is in a normal movie. I don't think of Bob Parr's relationship with his wife as a part of his character in The Incredibles, nor should I think of Anakin's relationship with Padme as part of his character. It adds to their development, and nothing more. Forcing the issue down and doing almost everything stereotypically incorrect when it comes to portraying a gay character (as they did with Le Fou here), actually does more to hurt the LGBT community than it does help it.
What's Good?: I never thought I would say this after such an abysmal film like Wild, Wild West, but the best performance in this movie goes to Kevin Kline as Maurice. Of all of the actors in this film, he has the most humanity and the most HEART. I don't know where Kevin Kline learned to act in the last few years, but he certainly has reversed his career after such duds as his performances in Wild, Wild West or as Phoebus in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Overall: I consider this film to be THE WORST of the reboots, by far. No, it didn't completely miss the point of the book like Alice in Wonderland did. No, it didn't mix random plot points together and call it a remake like Maleficent did. And it didn't even have the constant tone problems The Jungle Book did. But this film was worse because there was almost nothing new in it, nothing that I could say was done superior to the original film, and the film has an ego about it that it's something completely different yet the exact same at the same time. An unwarranted ego, by the way. And once again, if you can't remake a film better, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU REMAKE IT AT ALL? I have complete faith now, that Jon Favreau's The Lion King will be an absolute disaster, as will the prequel to a live action reboot of both 101 Dalmatians and Aladdin, and has safely proven to me that the only movies of quality this studio can make are either animated (Feature Animation or Pixar), Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, or Star Wars films.
Final Grade: F
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