Beauty and the Beast 2017: My Thoughts and Comments (spoiler free)





   You know that you really want to watch a movie when you sit for five hours through all the glitches, halts, and messy internet bandwidth to view it. As soon as I heard that Disney was about to release a live-action Beauty and the Beast film, I told my family, "I have to watch it." Now I have not only seen the movie,  I have listened to the soundtrack uncountable times and can almost list the entire leading cast from memory.

 Aidan, Christianna, and I watched it online. For every five seconds that we watched of the movie, there were ten seconds of loading... loading... loading... We still enjoyed watching it, though! There were a ton of funny film stills every time it was stuck and we could voice our opinion about the plot, special effects, or acting during the pauses.


I was immensely pleased with every casting decision, especially Ewan McGregor (Lumiere), Ian McKellen ( Cogsworth), Luke Evans (Gaston), and Emma Watson (Belle).


  If you are expecting the new movie to be completely different and separate from the cartoon, you might be disappointed. Not that the plot is a mirror image, but it does have plenty of similarities.  I was pleasantly surprised by the new songs that the movie had (Evermore was my absolute favorite!).

Another thing that I loved about the movie (they did this in the live action Cinderella movie as well) is that you actually find out a little bit more of Belle's past: who her mother was, why she isn't in Belle's life anymore, and so on.






 Every time Belle is in some sort of danger or there is a climax, she grabs this ever-present stick and smacks or threatens whatever is in arm's reach... every time. Soon we could predict it and say, "No! Not again with the stick!" (then we had to make fun of it for a long time while the movie downloaded)

The special effects were great; I especially love all of the castle's servants in their magical form. It was realistic, but still had the 'magical' flair in the design.



Other than doing it to please his sister, my brother (who wished to remain anonymous)  said that he liked the new movie because the characters were more alive and the movie was, "less Disney Princess-afied. Also Gaston's guns were done well. And there is mild violence.  The castle was more realistic with the battlements and the songs were sung well."  So if you are a guy, maybe you can watch it for those reasons....  😉

  One negative element in my opinion is that they made Gaston's sidekick, LeFou, gay. Seriously, I only noticed this because I knew before I watched the movie that they had done this. If you are looking for it, you might notice it, but otherwise it is very low-key. 

  In short, I really liked the movie for its music, acting, and beautiful effects and set design. It is an excellent movie (and as my anonymous brother mentioned, not overly "Disney Princess-afied."). I loved the story of Beauty and the Beast from the start. Belle's self-sacrifice of putting herself in her father's place and learning to love someone not because of their physical appearance are powerful themes that I think were very well portrayed. 




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