Beauty and the Beast Review

So my friend and I went and saw the new Beauty and the Beast over spring break, and it was really good.  It was a solid reinterpretation of the original, and they added some backstory to some of the characters that brought a lot of depth to the story (more on that later).  It wasn’t perfect, but I would highly recommend seeing it.  Be warned, there are spoilers ahead (and even if you’ve seen the animated film, there are still things you don’t know about this one).  Also fair warning, this post is going to be pretty long (it’s a long movie, there’s lots to talk about).  So screw your courage to the sticking place, and join me as a talk about some of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) parts of the film.

• My favorite casting in this movie was probably Gaston and Lefou (Because first, I think Luke Evans was probably the best singer in this film, (except maybe for Audra McDonald because she is really good) second, Josh Gad is always a fun actor to watch, and third, they played really well off each other, particularly in scenes with comedic moments). Their characters also probably saw the most changes from the original film. I really like the depth they added to these characters.  Both characters in the original movie were fairly cartoon-ish.  You have Gaston who is this ridiculously strong and buff guy, and you have Lefou, who is used in a lot of animated physical comedy (like being thrown around, stepped on, etc.) that you can’t really replicate in a live-action.  This movie, then, made them more realistic and human. First of all, it really played into the more dark and sinister side of Gaston, and I thought that was really interesting. There was a backstory added that gave him a background as a soldier and a war hero. This seemed a lot more realistic than him just being this really buff guy whom everyone worships for some reason. At least there was a reason people looked up to him. The other part of this, though, is that he is also a very violent character. He is used to always getting what he wants, and when that doesn't happen, he is not afraid to eliminate anyone who gets in his way (he literally tries to kill Maurice at one point… by leaving him to be ripped to shreds by wolves).   Closely tied to Gaston’s character arc is Lefou’s.  The thing is, in both the cartoon and the live-action, I do think Lefou is a genuinely nice guy, if a little too willing to overlook Gaston’s flaws (and the fact that he is kind of a big jerk). This version of Lefou, however, doesn't just blindly follow everything Gaston does. As Gaston's actions become more and more questionable, Lefou becomes less willing to go along with them and tries to distance himself from what Gaston is doing. We see Lefou visibly relieved when he sees Maurice, alive and well in the tavern, and he is one of the few to be hesitant about going to hunt the Beast. He even changes sides during the fight scene in the castle, allying with the Beast’s servants (the line goes something like “I was on Gaston’s side, but we're kind of in a bad place right now.” And to be fair, Gaston did just leave him to be squished by a piano.).  
• One of my favorite parts of the movie was the “Mob Song”.  For some reason, I had that song stuck in my head for like a week after I watched it. Some lines were added that illustrate a lot of the changes in the characters.  Gaston points out how using fear allows him to manipulate the crowd because “at times like this they’ll do just as I say.”  And then Lefou has a line about how “there’s a beast running wild, there’s no question,” but it may not be the one they are hunting.

• There also are a lot of comedic moments with Gaston and Lefou, such as:
• During the Gaston song, you can see Lefou slipping change and bribing the other bar patrons to sing with him, which I thought was funny.
• At the start of the film, Gaston and Lefou are talking about Belle, and Lefou suggests she has a certain “Je nais se quoi”, and then Gaston says he doesn’t know what that means.  (Get it? ‘cause they’re in France, and Lefou just spoke French and Gaston didn’t get it… Anyway, I got a kick out of it).
• "Who makes up these endless refrains like Gaston?"
• The CGI overall was pretty good.  I had quite a few concerns about some of the characters going in, and some of those I think were justified, but overall everything looked really pretty.  The “Be Our Guest” sequence, in particular, was gorgeous.  I liked the designs for most of the household objects as well, and I thought the Beast looked really good.  That said, there were a few characters I didn’t like as much.  I had some minor issues with Mrs. Potts and Lumiere.  This might just me being picky, but I wish they had made Mrs. Potts’s face on the front of the teapot, rather than the side, like in the original.
• In after seeing ads for this movie, I thought Lumiere looked a bit too much like a person holding candles instead of a candlestick, and after seeing the full film, I still think that
• 
  Though, I did like this design.
  
• The big ones I didn’t like were Madame Guarderobe (the wardrobe) and Plumette (the feather duster).  Guarderobe’s face was curtains, and that really weirded me out.  It was like she had eyes and a mouth, but they weren’t actually eyes and a mouth.  
• I think they could have done something different with her.  Also, Plumette was a bird.  Like, she flew around and everything.  That makes no sense at all.  Could she fly as a human?  I doubt it.  Why is she able to fly as a ceramic bird?   It just pushed my suspension of disbelief.  
• The other major issue I had with this film was its use of autotune, which is a bit of a pet peeve for me.  I just don’t think it’s necessary in most cases, and a lot of the time it’s excessively applied.  There were a few times in this movie when it became really noticeable and distracting.  This was especially an issue with Emma Watson’s singing.  A lot of the times she sang, it sounded very computerized, and she sings in quite a few of the songs.  She didn’t necessarily sound bad, per se, just… fake.  She wasn’t the only one who’s singing was altered, but it seemed like her singing in particular was messed with excessively, to the point where it didn’t really sound natural, especially when compared to the ensemble singing.  I don’t blame Watson for this, I’m pretty sure this was a director or editor’s choice, but it still bugged me.  I haven’t heard her sing live, so I can’t judge how good her regular voice is, but I can’t imagine it needed that degree of touching up (and if it did, they could have maybe had someone else dub over the singing, since in movie musicals everyone is lip syncing anyway, and the actual singing is recorded separately, but again, I don't think that was the issue here).  
• The movie also altered quite a bit of the original story, and it tried to fix up a bunch of plot holes from the original.  Some of the ones that stood out to me the most were:
• They established Belle’s mom’s backstory, which was interesting (spoiler: she died of the plague).  The scene itself where they visited Belle’s childhood home was really nicely done.  However, the way they got there was a bit odd (a magic book teleporter).  The book was cool, it just seemed like they used it once and then forgot about it.  Like why didn’t Belle use it to poof herself back to the village when she had to save her dad?  I bet it would be a lot faster than riding the horse through the big giant forest, and she could poof herself back right after to warn the Beast before he gets shot by Gaston (I think that’s how the book works, they didn’t explicitly address how they got back from Paris after their visit).  So they kind of closed one plot hole by opening another. (On a related note, why didn't she change out of her huge ball gown before riding off through the forest to save her dad? I felt like the only reason they kept her in the yellow dress was so she could be seen really easily from the tower where the Beast was having his angsty solo song.)  Other plot holes they addressed included having the Beast actually know how to read (and also having him hate Romeo and Juliet, which I found hilarious), and having the enchantress cause the villagers to lose their memories of those in the castle, so they didn’t just happen to not notice the disappearance of the monarchy from the region.  They did miss the biggest one though, which is that they forgot to give the Beast a NAME (I know it’s supposedly Adam, but no one in any of the movies has ever called him that).  My favorite it when Gaston calls him Beast, and he tells Gaston that “I am not a Beast,” which is such a great line and a good moment for his character, but he then also doesn’t give Gaston an actual name/title to address him with.
• Maurice became an artist, which allowed Belle to become an inventor.  I actually really liked this idea, but I again think they could have done more with it.  It really only comes up once-- at the beginning, when Belle makes herself a washing machine, which freed up her time so she could teach a little girl to read (in one of the cutest scenes in the film.  After that, though, they didn’t really do much with it.  In the original, the dad’s invention was referenced multiple times, and was even used to help Belle and Maurice escape being trapped by Gaston.  (In this one, they escape when Maurice picks the lock, and all Belle really does is hand him a bobby pin.)  I just think they could have had Belle do a bit more with her inventing hobby (although there is quite a bit of other stuff Belle does as well, so maybe they just ran out of time).
• There were a couple scenes from the original that I felt were downplayed too much in the new film.  For example, the library reveal seemed anticlimactic.  The Beast’s lead-up to Belle’s big surprise is one of the cutest scenes in the animated film.  In this one, it was just like, “Oh yeah, I have all these books.  Have fun.”  The set itself seemed smaller than the animated library as well. The other issue with cutting the scene where the Beast plans to give the library to Belle as a surprise is that it forced them to cut Cogsworth’s “flowers, chocolates, promises you don’t intend to keep” line, which in my opinion, is one of the funnier one-liners in the film.  That said, I liked that they showed Beast and Belle bonding over picking out books together.  I thought the scenes in the library were really sweet.
• Similarly, Gaston’s proposal scene also seemed downplayed: it’s a big scene in the original, and a song in the stage version, but here the scene seemed really short, and we didn’t see him get thrown out of the house into a mud puddle.
• Speaking of songs… There were a few new songs added.  For the most part, they were awesome (Alan Menken is quite good at what he does).  The Beast’s song in particular is really good.   This is just a little thing, but I think it would have been fun if they would have added a couple songs from the stage version (especially since the running time is pretty close to a stage musical’s length).  Also, where was “Human Again”?  I think they replaced it with “Days in the Sun,” which, frankly, is my least favorite of the songs they added.
• The movie also added an element from the musical-- the fact that the household objects were steadily becoming more inanimate-- and it worked really well. They even took it to the point where they all froze, right before they turned back into a human (which was rather sad, especially for Chip and the dog).
• A couple other little things I liked:
• The additional characters, particularly the piano (I forget his name), and the connections between those in the castle and those in the village (like Mr. Potts!).
• The references to the original tale, when Beauty asks for a rose, and taking the rose is what causes her father to be captured.
• Little nerdy thing I liked: Belle really likes Romeo and Juliet, which is what she teaches the Beast to read in the cartoon, and later the Beast reads King Arthur, which is the book used in the equivalent scene in the stage version.
• They cut the bookseller, but I really liked the character they replaced him with, who was a priest, and one of the few to stick up for both Belle and her father when they were ridiculed or attacked by the villagers.
• The Beast's reaction to Belle liking Romeo and Juliet.
• I also appreciated that they gave Belle multiple versions of the blue dress. It was a nice way to acknowledge that she wore that dress quite a bit in the cartoon, but also to allow her to change clothes each day like a normal human would.

So, to conclude, the new Beauty and the Beast is pretty awesome, and you should totally go see it.  Thank you for actually making it this far down and for sticking with me through this very long post.