Beauty and the Beast: The Live-Action Adaptation

My thoughts after having just watched the original for the first time the day before.

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So I just watched the original for the first time last night. I’m on Spring Break from law school, and I currently have COVID, so here I am. I had plans to do some hiking, but instead I’m here making the best of it and trying to recover before my Constitutional law midterm on Monday. All that’s to say, please excuse me if this is a bit rambly. This isn’t intended to be a deeply analytical review. These are just my initial impressions as someone who isn’t a film critic, but just a person who watched both movies and enjoyed them both. If you want to read my thoughts about the first movie, you can check those out here.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into this.

I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about the Disney live-action remakes. I can’t begin to count how many people claim to have had their childhoods ruined because of the remakes, despite seemingly leading fairly decent and successful lives. After watching this remake, I think my conclusion that people just enjoy being mad at things for no particular reason was reaffirmed ten-fold. This movie isn’t bad. You don’t have to enjoy it, but you don’t have to go around waging war on everything Disney because of it. Personally, I think it was far superior than the original movie. I love animation, and I think it can do all sorts of things that live-action can’t do, so this isn’t a knock on the medium in which the story unfolds. The original movie is gorgeous. Also, my praise for this movie shouldn’t be taken as criticisms of the first movie. I’ll be making some comparisons, but I do believe the original is still really good. It’s more than possible to enjoy one and not the other, or to enjoy both, or dislike both.

Here, the basic premise stays the same. Much of the movie follows the original line by line, shot for shot. Very little is actually changed, but the changes that were made are really effective. Most of what is different about this movie is what was added to the story. These additions add really important context and character moments that enhance what was in the original, and smoothed out a fair amount of its rough edges (though not entirely, as I’ll talk about).

Belle is still amazing. I feel like people probably complained that Emma Watson has a British accent (though I believe she is indeed part French — don’t quote me on that though). I understand that criticism, but get back to me when the cast of Percy Jackson, all of whom are playing the children of GREEK gods, are GREEK. Aside from her accent, she’s perfect in this role. I can’t not associate Emma with Hermione, and I think that character and Belle really compliment one another. When Belle talks about loving reading, and the worlds she’s been able to travel to through her books, I absolutely believe her. The image of Emma Watson reading is never one that won’t make sense.

I think this version of Belle is a little cleverer and more aware than the original. The original is great, don’t get me wrong, but this Belle seemed to understand the power of books a little bit more, telling the man who leant her the books that they make the small town feel big. I still would have liked to see the filmmakers push the idea of the power of books and storytelling a little more, but I could definitely feel that idea just a tad bit more than I did in the original. I also really liked the scenes between her and her father. I don’t remember feeling particularly strongly about their relationship in the original, but I adored it here. There’s some lovely scenes of Belle knowing exactly what items her father needs for his invention and then to pick the lock of the asylum coach. I miss Chip breaking down the door with an axe attached to some sort of contraption, but this was much more emotional and fit these two characters so well. The dad loves Belle, and after what happened to the mother, of course he’d want to keep her close and share his love of inventing with her.

The addition of the mother was also excellent. It also helped connect Belle and her father in a much more emotional way than the original. The father’s fear of losing her is so much more poignant. When you’ve already lost someone important to you, you’re going to do everything you can to stop that from happening again. Thankfully, he does it in a much healthier way than Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. Instead of starting a galactic empire and destroying his friends and relatives, this man will risk sounding like a toon lunatic to assemble a party to go after his daughter. He is selfless, and clearly loves his daughter, and I was rooting for him the whole time. And when Belle sees what happens to her mom and understands why her father is so protective of her, it was challenging to continue watching. It also doesn’t help that I’m currently lying in bed with Covid. Not the 4D movie watching experience I was hoping for.

Gaston remained great, though I think this is where the animated version excels in my mind. I think this film still did a great job of highlighting just how horrible this guy (and toxic masculinity) is, but there’s something lost in the Gaston song when Josh Gad shows the bitemark on his stomach versus seeing the animated Gaston leap into a pile of people and bite one on screen. The animated version is so ridiculous and over the top and blatantly horrible that it was probably really challenging for the filmmakers to create a similarly repulsive and cartoonish Gaston. They get the main point across beautifully, that this isn’t someone anyone should aspire to be, and that we really need to teach future generations to be better than this, but I think the animated version achieved a level of odiousness that can’t be beat.

Gaston’s sidekick, Lefou, is probably the character who changed the most. I can’t say that one version is better, because they truly feel like different characters. This new version has a crush on Gaston, and I love it. It’s also so great that he is played by the guy who voices Olaf the Snowman from Frozen. It’s so funny seeing him following Gaston around, clearly trying to be noticed and to make Gaston like him, only to be proven time and time again that Gaston is a terrible person who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. It’s really brilliant storytelling and character development, and helps to further push Gaston’s character. I cheered when Lefou finally realized Gaston was never going to fall for him and told Mrs. Potts that he was changing sides.

Now…the Beast. If you haven’t read my review of the original, I really didn’t like the Beast. He was also toxic, just not as much as Gaston. I also thought that the fact that he fell in love with someone as beautiful as Belle didn’t seem to make up for him being so terrible to the enchantress in the beginning of the movie. In the live-action version, I think he’s less toxic, but I think the second point still stands. People should be treated with kindness and respect no matter what they look like. It shouldn’t matter that they’re secretly beautiful on the inside. The error on the Beast’s part isn’t that he was cruel to someone who was secretly beautiful, it was that he was cruel to someone. I don’t know how falling in love with Belle acts as atonement for that.

Despite that, I do think this Beast is more sympathetic. He doesn’t seem as bad, and there’s a fair amount of additional scenes between him and Belle that show a kinder heart than we initially believe him to have. I love the scene of him and Belle walking as she reads to him. The idea that they could love each other makes more sense. His own love of books is expanded upon, he seems more caring and compassionate. The magical book that he has that can transport him anywhere was a brilliant addition. He can see the world, but the world can also see him, so he can’t do much out there. Even in a big city like Paris, he’s still a beast. It was cruel, but so interesting.

And I can’t fault the Beast for not being able to read Greek, as I also need to practice my own Greek. Greek school was not my favorite.

I don’t necessarily love the designs of all the household appliances and furniture, but I thought they were excellent characters with a lot of personality. Thankfully, the filmmakers made Lumiere and Plummet less creepy. I also had no idea Lumiere was Ewan McGregor until I read the credits, but now that I know that, I can’t not hear a hint of Obi-Wan in his lines.

There are two other things that I really liked about the castle servants. In the original, I don’t think they necessarily turn into unmoving versions of themselves forever if the curse isn’t broken. Here, it felt like the stakes were a little more impactful, and it was sad seeing them all turn and have to say goodbye to their loved ones. These characters felt more real to me, and I felt for their loss more than I did in the original. And that gets me to my second point — I love that the townspeople come back to the castle. It seems like there was some memory spell keeping them away and keeping them from remembering that they had lost loved ones as well. It was wonderful seeing them all reunite with the servants who worked at the castle, and then seeing them invited in. That was one of my big criticisms of the original, so it was nice seeing it play out differently here.

I think the last thing I wanted to mention was Agathe. She’s the enchantress, and she apparently stays in the area this whole time. She goes to the tower after the last petal falls from the rose, and she decides to reverse the curse anyway. I don’t have any strong feelings about that either way. I guess it’s cool to see that she can change her mind and reverse the curse, but I still don’t think the Beast learned his lesson. Agathe comes across as even more sympathetic than the Beast, and as having a greater character arc.

But that’s about it. What did you think of the live-action movie? Let me know in the comments. And let me know if there are any other Disney movies that you enjoy that you think I should watch.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Consider checking out my podcast, “Determination, Deliberation, and Dragons.” My friends and I workshop original stories, analyze books and films, and interview authors and other creative people.