Le Belle Et La Bete

I just saw the newest Beauty and the Beast and it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. (Spoiler alert.)

To be fair, the original Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite of all the Disney movies. When I saw it (I was a sophomore in high school) I was studying French – we actually watched it in French in French class, if that makes sense – and that fall, I broke up with a boy that I didn’t really like, but I was still lonely and a little depressed, so I felt like Beast. When he roared, it was like a roar I would… roar. At one point when he said, “It’s hopeless.” That’s how I really felt. (Ah… high school.)

Also, when we thought we would design our own wedding invitations, I was going to take a few things from this movie. (Since we’d known each other for 20 years and were getting married at Disney World.) I drew out one of the stain glass windows for the front of the invite and we were going to play with the phrase, “Tale as old as time.”

When I first heard of this redoing, I feared the live action version would just mess up the story too much, but I was wrong. Yes, the special effect characters were a little weird, but they were just a small bit of almost-wrong among a whole lot of right. This version was a credit to the original film

Some of my favorite parts:

• I love with they did with Maurice’s character!  In the original, he was sort of bumbling and convenient. In this one, he was less bumbling and had more behind him. And of course, Kevin Kline was wonderful as him.
• Luke Evans was born to play Gaston. So good and so well developed! It was in the spirit of the original character.
• When the wardrobe attacked from the top level, she still sang that note that was so in character for her. (I looked out for that detail.)
• They reduced Cogsworth’s part, which I liked. He was a drag in the first one.
• They explained some plot holes in the first movie: how there was snow by the castle but not the village, and how the villagers didn’t know about the castle and the beast.
• At the very end when Mrs. Potts and Chip were reunited in their human form, (and it was Emma Thompson who I LOVE), I heard her hug him and say, “Oooh, let me smell you!” That is such a mom thing to do, and I never thought about it, but I would totally miss Wee One’s smell if she and I were turned into dishes for a time!
• The mob song was so much more realistic and good.

And this is just the highlight reel.  I’ll probably go back to watch it again, and find more things I love.

Another review:

Funk’s House of Geekery (Their blog is fun; it’s just a good one to check out.)

What did you think?