shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2017-03-22 07:33 am
shallowness) wrote2017-03-22 07:33 am
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Updated tale as old as time
I went to see Beauty and the Beast (2016) with baggage - I saw the original movie at an impressionable age, adore it and used to have a Belle icon on my lj (I had an OUAT!Belle icon too, for that matter). It felt as though most of the rest of the audience hadn't been born when the first film came out, although I'm sure they grew up with it, or Emma Watson as Belle.
Thoughts: while it mostly wasn't necessary, which is the test you're going to apply to an iconic film, nobody disgraced themselves.
Number of Harry Potter jokes I made (to myself) - 5. number of The West Wing jokes I made - 2, number of Downton Abbey jokes I made - 0. There's also a previously in Sense and Sensibility through-line, but perhaps that's inevitable when most of the cast are Brits.
The best bits: I thought Luke Evans was practically perfect as Gaston. 'Be Our Guest' was the only thing I wanted to applaud after. McGregor is irresistable as Lumiere, even with the whiff of fromage and he was clearly having a ball bouncing off McKellan's Cogsworth. And the design: from the details of Belle's house, to the wolves, to the bird motif for Plumette and the other feather dusters/servants, it is gorgeous. And the echo of the rose in Belle's gown!
Other bits were good but not as good as in the original, which I rewatched a few weeks ago and am clear-eyed about its imperfections e.g. Emma Thompson sings better than I expected and is lovely but she simply isn't Angela Lansbury and Mrs Potts's character design didn't quite work for me. Other bits were less good, but Emma Watson and Dan Stevens can sing although not like the original Belle and Beast could SING.
And then there were the changes, which are there from the beginning of the adaptation. Intellectually, I could understand why they felt they had to, some of it was because of the translation from animation to 'live action', but a lot of it didn't add much. I did like bringing in Belle wanting a rose, even if the backstory it led to was a bit weighty, and the enchantress (they could have expanded her role), but making the servants culpable for the Prince's awful behaviour - well, I can't see how Chip and the dog can be accused of that, and the additional music isn't up to the heights of the original soundtrack.
So, in total, my reaction is mixed.
Thoughts: while it mostly wasn't necessary, which is the test you're going to apply to an iconic film, nobody disgraced themselves.
Number of Harry Potter jokes I made (to myself) - 5. number of The West Wing jokes I made - 2, number of Downton Abbey jokes I made - 0. There's also a previously in Sense and Sensibility through-line, but perhaps that's inevitable when most of the cast are Brits.
The best bits: I thought Luke Evans was practically perfect as Gaston. 'Be Our Guest' was the only thing I wanted to applaud after. McGregor is irresistable as Lumiere, even with the whiff of fromage and he was clearly having a ball bouncing off McKellan's Cogsworth. And the design: from the details of Belle's house, to the wolves, to the bird motif for Plumette and the other feather dusters/servants, it is gorgeous. And the echo of the rose in Belle's gown!
Other bits were good but not as good as in the original, which I rewatched a few weeks ago and am clear-eyed about its imperfections e.g. Emma Thompson sings better than I expected and is lovely but she simply isn't Angela Lansbury and Mrs Potts's character design didn't quite work for me. Other bits were less good, but Emma Watson and Dan Stevens can sing although not like the original Belle and Beast could SING.
And then there were the changes, which are there from the beginning of the adaptation. Intellectually, I could understand why they felt they had to, some of it was because of the translation from animation to 'live action', but a lot of it didn't add much. I did like bringing in Belle wanting a rose, even if the backstory it led to was a bit weighty, and the enchantress (they could have expanded her role), but making the servants culpable for the Prince's awful behaviour - well, I can't see how Chip and the dog can be accused of that, and the additional music isn't up to the heights of the original soundtrack.
So, in total, my reaction is mixed.