To say I was disappointed in this Beauty and the Beast live action adaptation would be an understatement. Although the technical aspects were impressive, the performances, particularly for Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, were underwhelming, and the new music was rather forgettable.
Beauty and the Beast
(2017)
Genre(s): Fantasy, Musical, Romance
Disney | PG – 129 min. – $27.99 | June 6, 2017
Date Published: 06/09/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 2.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Belle (EMMA WATSON), a bright, beautiful and independent young woman, is taken prisoner by a beast (DAN STEVENS) in its castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the beast’s hideous exterior, allowing her to recognize the kind heart and soul of the true prince that hides on the inside.
Quick Hit Review: The 1991 animated film is a classic even to somebody who is not all that into animated movies, albeit acknowledging the technical achievements especially from Disney. This Beauty and the Beast adaptation is lifeless, soulless and worse yet, a bore of a film. The casting on the surface was inspiring but really, outside of Kevin Kline, none of them really impressed. Dan Stevens is lost behind some terrible CGI and doesn’t make much of an impression in either form; Emma Watson appears to sleepwalk through her role, can’t sing a lick and looked disinterested and her chemistry with Stevens is terribly absent; Luke Evans nicely hams it up just as cartoonish as his animated counterpart while Josh Gad’s LeFou isn’t very foolish nor worthy of the “controversial” over his character being gay. The rest of the cast that includes veterans Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci lend their voices well enough, lack any real emotion.
On paper, with that cast and a semi-accomplished director in Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Mr. Holmes), as well as being a Disney movie, this should’ve been so much better. For me, I found Beauty and the Beast to be a rather dull picture and when I wasn’t bored, it was tedious to sit through to the point I began getting restless for it to finally end. This live action version does at least attempt to depart from its animated counterpart by adding more back-story for Belle and the Beast as well as new music, none of which for the life of me I can even recall. Add to all that, there’s a new rendition of the Academy Award-wining classic “Beauty and the Beast” as sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend, both fine artists in their own rights but this updated interpretation lacked the emotion of the original. In the end, Beauty and the Beast has fantastic production values and costume designs, to go along with an impressive supporting cast, but despite all that works, it was an overdrawn musical-fantasy that makes you want to revisit the animated version which is a classic rather than ever watch this version, and this is coming from somebody who didn’t hate previous animated-to-live action adaptations like The Jungle Book and Cinderella.
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SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy and embossed slip cover. Inside is a code for the Digital HD copy as well as the standard DVD Copy. Enchanted Table Read (13:31; HD) – Here we get to see the cast and crew read through, and act through, the script. A Beauty of a Tale (27:08; HD) is a behind-the-scenes featurette on bringing the classic animated movie to the live action realm. The Women Behind Beauty and the Beast (5:17; HD) – Actress Emma Watson hosts this featurette as we get to meet the women behind the scenes of the movie. From Song to Screen: Making the Musical Sequence (13:26; HD) breaks down four of the songs, “Belle”, “Be Our Guest”, “Gaston” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Extended Song: “Days in the Sun” (4:08; HD) – Here is the original version of the song. Includes an intro by Bill Condon. Deleted Scenes (6:23; HD) – 8 scenes failed to make the cut but included is an intro by Condon explaining the reasons. Making a Moment with Celine Dion (3:24; HD) – The singer recollects her hit song on the animated Beauty and the Beast and how it changed her life and coming back to work on this live action version. “Beauty and the Beast” Music Video (4:02; HD) is the updated rendition of the classic song sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend. Making the Music Video: “Beauty and the Beast” (2:07; HD) takes us behind the scenes on how the music video was made. Disney Song Selection allows you to go straight to your favorite songs from the movie. |
VIDEO – 5.0/5 |
| Beauty and the Beast sings and dances onto Blu-ray presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. This is a gorgeous looking picture with a nice range of bright, brilliant colors in some scenes mixed with darker tones, especially early on inside the castle. Costumes have excellent pops of colors that come off the screen quite well. |
AUDIO – 5.0/5 |
| The disc has been outfitted with a 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio track. If there’s any movie that would take advantage, it’s this one given there’s a wide range to judge from the musical numbers, which boom through with clarity, to general dialogue-driven scenes to some action-oriented ones, like the fighting toward the end. |
OVERALL – 2.25/5 |
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Overall, to say I was disappointed in this Beauty and the Beast live action adaptation would be an understatement. Although the technical aspects were impressive, the performances, particularly for Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, were underwhelming, and the new music was rather forgettable. But the worst sin: it was so uninteresting and downright boring. The Blu-ray released by Disney offers great video and audio transfers and a fine selection of bonus material. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.