As a long time Disney fan, I will admit that I had my apprehensions with a live-action remake of a Disney classic! I have to mention that I have yet to see the live-action remake of Cinderella and Jungle Book… despite them being available for free on Netflix.
One thing that I have to mention, just to get this out there, that unfortunately, I was sitting 3 rows up from the screen, so there were 2 parts in which anything that wasn’t directly in the middle of the screen was blurry. I had asked someone who had seen this movie twice, once sitting as close as myself, and the next, sitting further back, and I was told that the blurriness only occurred when it was super close.
When it comes to the acting, I have never seen Emma Watson in anything, so really, this was my introduction to her. I felt as if she did look the part and she acted the part as well. One thing that I will say, and this isn’t a shot at Emma Watson, but rather how the character of Belle wasn’t as warm as the animated movie. Obviously this movie did add moments of Belle being compassionate, but it didn’t sink as deep as it did in the animated movie. I also felt that I was being told that Belle was strange compared to the other people in the town, but it just didn’t come across in the way they intended. It just felt like they were ramming it down my throat that she’s different.
As for the Beast, I didn’t mind the CGI used to create the look. I think it fit and it worked with everything else. Who ever the actor was that played Gaston (…or is it 2 T’s?) did a great job. If anything, I actually liked his acting the most. He did such a good job playing the buff buffoon, I found it hard not liking him. I thought that the actor playing LeFou wouldn’t do a good job, but his character added some comic relief and he did hold his own. Everyone else did a good job too! I liked the voiceovers for all the characters that were household items.
I was a bit worried that it might feel like a 2 hour movie, but it didn’t. the plot never veered off the path, and it had my attention the whole time. Obviously I like the animated version more; that’s not to say that this one was bad in any way, its more so the nostalgic aspect to it that gets the extra points.
