The movie opens in Baroque France with a selfish prince (Dan Stevens) hosting a dance in which he is the only man on a dance floor crowded with two dozen or so young lovelies. It is then that an old crone bursts in and demands lodging, offering a rose as payment. The prince scoffs. She requests again and he tosses the rose aside. The crone transforms into a beautiful enchantress who curses the prince to ugliness until he should find someone who will love him. Oh, and all your servants get to share in your curse because... they should have prevented you from being such a brat! Even you, Chip! Uh huh. On top of that, the enchantress has a lasting appearance which I do not recall in the original. She shows up repeatedly - in disguise - and is present when the curse is broken.
The live-action version attempts to expand the story, usually for the worse. We learn that Belle's mother died of the plague in Paris. Also Beast's father is responsible for making his son a selfish scion in his own image after Beast's mother died. Thus, Beast is kind of blameless for his situation. Oh, and Beast joins the motherless Disney character club with Belle. LeFou, Gaston's sidekick, is gay and, to press the point, he dances with another clearly gay man at a ball where both have a sly smile. Also, it is strange to see how racially integrated 18th century France was. Yes, it is fantasy but then why try to emulate the style and technology of a real historical period? If a live-action Mulan comes to pass, I doubt such ahistorical casting will be made to satisfy the diversity police.
The characters mostly failed to make the leap to live action. The Beast felt a lot less intimidating than he should. He's all roar and no bite. When it comes to a fight, he always finds himself at death's door but for Belle's intervention. Really, how did he survive this long? A doddering father in the mold of Geppetto works much better in a cartoon than live action. Maurice (Kevin Kline) comes across as a bumpkin and a fool. Gaston (Luke Evans) is truly cartoonish, wanting to marry the prettiest girl, speaking to himself in mirrors, and just over the top narcissism. That's good shorthand characterization in an animated feature but poor form in live action.
Belle (Emma Watson) starts out perfect and remains perfect. She has read every book in town (and is apparently the town's only literate woman), invents a washing machine, knows what tool or part her clock-maker father needs before he does, dismisses Gaston's amorous advances with relative ease, and boldly risks the roads alone to find her missing father. There is no character arc for her beyond the love story. Even there, she is mostly won over by the library. So much is made of Beast needing to break the curse and Belle wanting to save the servants who are doomed to become inanimate objects that any chemistry and love between Beauty and Beast is incidental.
Fun to watch but generally overrated. By explaining the background, trying too hard to expand the story, and failing to account for a different presentation, it has failed to capture the heart of the original.
Belle (Emma Watson) starts out perfect and remains perfect. She has read every book in town (and is apparently the town's only literate woman), invents a washing machine, knows what tool or part her clock-maker father needs before he does, dismisses Gaston's amorous advances with relative ease, and boldly risks the roads alone to find her missing father. There is no character arc for her beyond the love story. Even there, she is mostly won over by the library. So much is made of Beast needing to break the curse and Belle wanting to save the servants who are doomed to become inanimate objects that any chemistry and love between Beauty and Beast is incidental.
Fun to watch but generally overrated. By explaining the background, trying too hard to expand the story, and failing to account for a different presentation, it has failed to capture the heart of the original.
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