YNMS: Beauty and the Beast
Monday, May 23, 2016 at 6:45PM For better or worse, the Disney live action adaptations are here to stay. We bemoan the risk of bastardizing our classics, but it is easy to forget that some of these stories have a long history of screen iterations from their fairy tale roots. Beauty and the Beast has been seen as legendary Cocteau classic and 80s TV cheese before Disney musicalized the legend into its most popular version. Naturally, Disney has another one on deck.
While the quality of these reboot/rehashes has ranged from the unexpected delights (Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella) to the outright nightmares (Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland), the predictably high box office returns of each guarantees that your personal favorite will eventually get the live action treatment if it hasn't already. The just released teaser for Bill Condon's hints at a very literal take on the musical, but is that a good thing or bad?
YES
- Starting off with the musical's prologue score is a great way to earn some evocative good will. One of the best and most transportive parts of the score that's too easily forgotten!
- Those voices you hear: Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen. Yes please!
- This brief first look is selling more of the mysterious and dark sides of the story. That's a very welcome introduction after the candy confections of Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland.
- The imagery recalls the mood of the original, but doesn't carbon copy. That final shot of the rose is just lovely!
- With the other cast members like Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald, Kevin Kline, Luke Evans, and Josh Gad, could there be a performance as fun as Cate Blanchett's evil stepmother?
NO
- The supporting cast may be enticing, but Emma Watson and Dan Stevens together doesn't promise romantic fireworks. Are they even individually right for their roles?
- How much will be borrowed from the musical? Our only scrap of dialogue here is a direct lift.
- More CGI set enhancements or full environments. Beauty and the Beast calls for massive sets that can be lived in, swelling budgets be damned!
- No character designs yet. They could be hiding something treacherous...
MAYBE SO
- Typical opulence in the set design, but at least this castle isn't hideous to look at.
- If Bill Condon is returning to populist fare, at least it isn't a franchise like Twilight.
- Alan Menken has sole composer credit. Is his previous work being lifted, or will he have new pieces threaded into his best work?
Surprised to say, but I'm leaning YES. How do you feel about this first look? Has it changed your mind on this particular adaptation?
Reader Comments (36)
The prologue was one of my favorite parts of the original so I'm excited to see if get a new interpretation. I also just watched Gods and Monsters for the first time so I'm hoping for a return to form from Condon. Not excited at all about Dan Stevens. Or the beast costume/makeup (how will they pull this off...) Emma Watson has improved immensely as an actress since HP but I'm detecting hints of Hermione's furrowed brow here. And the bits of dialog do seem a bit hammy/like they're replicating the original. Nervously intrigued based on the supporting cast.
I'm more fearful about how they handle the Beast character than fearful of Dan Stevens' ability to play the Beast. Stevens is a great actor, but character design will surely make and break this movie. And this goes for all the other voice actors as well. We all know they will rock this, but can we bear to look at them?
Anyways I'm a YES. That score... be still my heart.
I'm yes because even if it's a carbon copy, it's still the best musical in Disney's canon outside of Mary Poppins.
I can't form a reasonable opinion based on a minute and a half of images, and I'm not terribly satisfied that Hollywood keeps calling on the same five directors to helm musicals. I guess that means I'm in the maybe column until more is revealed.
Josh Gad.... again? I'm seriously starting to get annoyed by him.
I hate the idea of this but I honestly love the cast. I was stoked that Emma got chosen as Belle because I think that's basically flawless casting. Then Ewan signed on and the image of him singing Be Our Guest stopped all my bitching and moaning about Disney and live-action.
The castle looks gothic enough and the BALLROOM (the most important part of the whole production) looks a bit Hall of Mirrors/Chateau de Versailles and i'm here for that.
There's only two more things i'm still worried about. The actual look of The Beast and how Belle's gold ballgown turns out. I think they flopped with Cinderella's ballgown but i'm 20 times more invested in Belle's. I always thought that that dress would look terrible in real life but hopefully i'm proved wrong.
And well, if we're talking about Menken's best score, for me, that goes to The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
CGI chandeliers? Damn, DIsney, let them build a set.
Kinda curious about Emma Watson's ability to really carry a movie, but I'm a no on principle here.
Nice teaser but it going to be hard for Disney to top one of their true masterpieces of animation
I really love it.
I'm sorry. I can't (with Watson). Don't hate me.
"on a post-it"
Murtada - I cackled, but I refuse to accept that answer because you could never be as awful as Berger
Jaragon - YES on the chandeliers! If MOULIN ROUGE can spend $50M on basically every set, then these movies can do the same and put some exceptional craftspeople to work
Emma is a pretty awful actress and she looks nothing like Belle. I don't agree that this is a flawless casting. The last film of hers that I saw was Regression and she was truly terrible in it. She even said that she didn't have a Minnesotan accent in that movie because the event could happen anywhere in the world. What kind of lame excuse for shitty accent is that?
I think Beauty and the Beast would make money but it would be because of nostalgia, not quality. You cannot have quality when you cast the princess of eyebrows acting as the lead.
I am leaning MAYBE. I don't like the main three leads. Also, Watson was awful in Potter, so saying she has improved (which is not true, imo) is nothing much. I am convinced that she gets this part because she has a bookish image, just like Belle. There are just too many more talented and better looking actresses out there that would kill this role. Someone like Emmy Rossum is perfect, actually. Oh, well.
I don't hate the idea of this, but I hate the idea of all the subsequent Disney remakes this will encourage. Remember when they regularly launched non-franchise, non-fairy tale, live action films instead of obsessing over their own past?
She does that furrowed brows every time she acts, though. The girl has never been a good actress. I love Beauty and the Beast but I dislike the cast. Every time I see her face, I am reminded that she is a tax evader. It's a NO for me.
I am just curious about the animated furniture. How is that going to be translated into a live action movie?
On an Emma Watson related note, I would say I'm neutral as I haven't seen much of her. But those nitpicking about her brows or not looking like Belle, please. Go eat some chicken wings. I did enjoy Watson in The Bling Ring, and she was probably the only Saving Grace of that film.
I'm a yes, if only because of the music, but I am apprehensive.
Of course I'm skeptical. But my hopes are infinitely elevated just for the fact that Rob Marshall doesn't have his paws on this.
Is it really nitpicking? There is a reason why people call her acting eyebrows acting. It's because it's too much that it looks like a parody.
I love chicken wings, btw. The Korean ones are the best. Crap, now I am hungry.
I don't understand the praise by people on this blog for her performance in The Bling Ring. Her acting was stilted and her American accent was horrendous. I also don't remember critics singling her out to praise her. It's a matter of different taste, I suppose, but still, mind boggling.
I don't understand the praise by people on this blog for her performance in The Bling Ring. Her acting was stilted and her American accent was horrendous. I also don't remember critics singling her out to praise her like they praised Brie Larson, for example. It's a matter of different taste, I suppose, but still, mind boggling.
I think I'm a yes. Man, I was so obsessed with the animated film (and the soundtrack) as a kid, I probably could recite the whole thing from memory at one point. Never saw the Broadway show, though.
YES on the prologue music.
YES to the supporting cast.
Maybe on the two principals - they don't do a lot for me, but I'm willing to give them a shot.
Why are people talking about Watson's Bling Ring performance when her Perks of Being a Wallflower performance is right there?
Ewan's french accent sounds TERRIBLE. Otherwise a big yes from me, but will still be nervous. You cannot improve on perfection. Hopefully they will do Howard Ashman proud
apparently, after anne and kristen, it's now open season on emma. oh, internet.
with that much cgi, they've got a helluva nerve claiming it's a non-animated remake
You all can kvetch about the lead as much as you want, but the folks who will turn out for this movie and who don't read this site WORSHIP at the feet of Miss Emma Watson (I live with two of them). I'm talking about every girl (and many boys) from age 2-30, who came of age in the world of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Plus their moms, aunties, and grandmas, and brothers, fathers, and uncles. I predict this will be a massive hit for the studio.
Plus, Dan Stevens has this crazy, rabid fan base composed of the same people who are crazy-for-cocoa puffs over the Supernatural guys.
The original is perfection. I dont Know why remake it. It will coast on nostalgia - some kids who watched it on the cinema back then now have kids of their own and will take these kids to Watch it- and love for the original.
Emma watson is not a good choice. She is not a good actress and who knows how well she can sing. Emmy Rossum I agree would have been a better choice at least she would sing the hell out of this score. Watson esse cast because of her bookish Image and Potter Fame.
Anne Hathaway is the real life Belle to me.
Wow.. this site full of negativity.....i guess those make comment here are expert..
how many movies have you produced or acted in? hmmmmm
Did I miss the part where Emma Watson kicked someone's puppy? She hasn't really been in enough films to leave a huge impression one way or the other. The "Potter" franchise was never an acting showcase for any of the kids, really - it was always the adults/faculty that got to have most of the fun.
I'm a Yes because even if they do *some* justice to the original, it'll be a very enjoyable movie for me.
I don't have high hopes for the principals either, but the real draw is the supporting cast. I'm a NO on McGregor's accent and a YES on McKellen, so put me down as a MAYBE SO.
I probably will see it, but I agree that Ewan's accent sounds as if he should be in 'Allo 'Allo. Except that was meant to be funny. I don't mind about Emma Watson one way or another. I once stood face to face with Dan Stevens, and his eyes are mesmerising. I also met Audra MacDonald last year and she was delightful. I can't wait to see Jacqueline Durran's costumes. That is all.
Echoing the "Ewan's accent sucks!" complaints.
Also, I know Menken wrote some new music - I think two songs? - for this new adaptation.
Once upon a time in a far away land lived a handsome prince in a shiny castle, although he had everything his heart desired the prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind. Then one day an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance the prince turned the old woman away. But she warned him "beauty was found within" and when he dismissed her again the woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize but she had seen that there was no love in his heart and as his punishment she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there. Ashamed of his monstrous form the prince concealed himself in the castle with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. the rose she had offered him was truly an enchanted rose, for it would bloom until his 21st birthday. If he could learn to love and earn her love in return, the spell would be broken, if not he would be doomed to remain a beast for ALL TIME! As the years passed the prince fell into despair and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast....
I saw the movie on Tuesday and highly enjoyed it. The effects were stunning.
I am an illustrator for Azevedo Studios. We strive to make family-friendly videos for kids, including our newest video "Beauty and the Beast Finger Family." We would love for you to check it out and give us your feedback!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_X-Yz57wkNo4xSucD7-rg