‘Beauty and the Beast’ Live-Action Remake Boasts Impressive Acting

A single red rose is a major symbol in “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo Courtesy / Patricia York A single red rose is a major symbol in “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo Courtesy / Patricia York
A single red rose is a major symbol in “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo Courtesy / Patricia York
A single red rose is a major symbol in “Beauty and the Beast.”
Photo Courtesy / Patricia York

By Adam Miklas
Staff Writer

Keeping up with Disney’s live-action remakes of their original animated films, we now have “Beauty and the Beast.”

For anyone who doesn’t know, the story of “Beauty and the Beast” is about Belle, played by Emma Watson, wanting to leave small town life behind her.

Her father, played by Kevin Kline, gets captured, and Belle leaves town in order to rescue him, where she sees the enchanted castle and meets the Beast, played by Dan Stevens.

She takes her father’s place as the Beast’s prisoner. The Beast must learn to love her and be loved in return before the last petal of a magical rose falls, or he will remain a Beast forever.

The film is good, but not great or amazing.

For one thing, they do explain a bit of Belle and Beast’s back stories, but it doesn’t add much to the overall film. It does give more context and reason for why these characters are the way they are, but it doesn’t really affect anything in any significant way.

The film goes out of its way to fix plot holes that the original movie had, but also creates a much bigger plot hole in this movie thanks to the addition of a certain subplot.

The film also adds songs that the original didn’t have, which is great so that this film doesn’t become just a shot to shot copy of the animated movie.

However, these songs seem to exist only to add to the run time as they do not add anything we as an audience don’t already know.

The easy-to-follow plot is now even easier thanks to the songs spelling out everything.

The biggest problem with the film is that it just doesn’t do too much different. Now, it doesn’t have to be different for the sake of being different, but besides some back-story and fixing-up problems with the old film, it is just the old film in live-action.

At least “Cinderella” gave more of a natural reason why Cinderella and the Prince fall in love, and “Maleficent” was an interesting perspective film until the last act.

“Beauty and the Beast” is the same movie as before.

However, the film is still very well done.

The songs are just as great as they were before, and even the new ones aren’t too bad.

Some of the changes are also appreciated, such as Belle being more independent and stronger than she was in the animated Disney film. The acting is very well done, and everyone seems to have a great singing voice, so no Russell Crow in “Les Miserables” moments are in this film.

The CGI, while having a bit too much, is also very believable. It does look like the Beast could be real.

Some of the musical moments are straight up gorgeous, with tons of detail and beautiful colors, and special mention going to “Be Our Guest.”

And of course, the big ballroom dance scene is just as magical as it was back in the 90s.

So while this film does have problems, it is still a great film.

Fans of the 90s animated film will enjoy it, and even if you have not seen the animated version or other variations, it is still enjoyable, and this is coming from someone who strongly dislikes musicals.

It is beautiful and well done, if a bit dented in spots.

Email Adam at:
amiklas@live.esu.edu