The best Disney movie

Note: The topic has been changed. This debate is now about whether the original or remake of Beauty and the Beast is better, not about the best Disney movie. I don’t think there’s a way to change the title though. Thank you for your opening argument, Con. Before getting into my own points, I’d like to respond to some that you made. You say that the new Beauty & the Beast was automatically better because it used live actors, and “Animated movies don't show as much emotion as real life”. First of all, I wouldn’t exactly call the 2017 version “real life”, since most of what you’re seeing on the screen is computer-generated. But aside from that, it depends on the movie. I think most of the acting in the remake is bad, but that’s just my opinion. Still, saying that all live-action movies are better than all animated movies is a flawed point to make. I don’t think hearing about Belle’s mother added anything to the movie, and actually made it worse. Let me explain. Do you remember how they got to Belle’s home in Paris? The Beast had a magic book which he said allows you to travel anywhere in the world, instantly. Well...why didn’t they use that more?! When Belle wanted to get back to town to save Maurice, she hopped on a horse rather than popping that book open. Seriously Belle? I thought you were smart, gurl. Besides, knowing that Belle’s mom died of the plague doesn’t change the story one bit. Keep in mind that 1991 Belle was a very feminist character, and when she got the opportunity to escape, she took it. And by the way, I agree with you that LGBT+ is an important cause, and it’s a good thing that Disney is beginning to take a stand on it. But in the movie there was like...nothing. Lefou’s crush on Gaston is only hinted at. When I saw the remake, I was shocked at how few gay moments there were, since the media was making such a big deal about it. One last thing. Gaston leaving Maurice to die presented a bit of a problem: Lefou just goes along with it. Disney clearly wanted to make Lefou a nicer and more kind-hearted character in this version, so what’s he doing taking part in murder? If he’s willing to let somebody die just to please his crush, that makes him a lot less likeable. Now I’ll make a couple of my own points. I love the original Beauty and the Beast, I think it’s one of Disney’s most perfect movies. It runs at less than an hour and a half, which is nice and short enough to get the story across. The remake is over two hours. Why is a movie that changes so little so much longer? The new scenes are just padding; very few of them add anything to the story or characters. Next, an issue I touched on before: the acting. The original had a flawless voice cast, plain and simple. Now a lot of the actors in the remake were fine, especially Kevin Kline as Maurice and Luke Evans as Gaston. But my problem is with the two main leads. Emma Watson as an actress is...okay. Nothing special. Here, she’s like a robot. Not for a second does she look invested in this story. And her singing...well, I’ll get to that. She doesn’t have any chemistry with the Beast. Nothing in her voice or facial expression shows that she cares about this CG monstrosity, while Paige O’Hara’s voice in the original actually sounded like she gave a damn. And as for the Beast. He looks awful. Apparently they had shot the scenes with really good makeup and a costume, but they painted over that with computer generation anyway. Dan Stevens also sounds disinterested, not nearly as cool or commanding as the original Beast. Other than that, the CG is mostly fine, except the castle servants look terrible, almost scary. You can barely see Lumiere’s face and his accent sounds vaguely Mexican. Mrs. Potts looks weird, Cogsworth looks scary, and that wardrobe thing looks like it crawled out of the pits of Hell. Living inanimate objects work in a cartoon, but not here. Finally, they mostly ruined the songs, which were all great in the original. “Gaston” was stretched out too much and wasn’t as hilarious as the original, and “Be Our Guest” didn’t have impressive visuals at all. Even the Broadway musical had a better version of that song, and it doesn’t have the benefit of CG! And you say it was a good thing that they added new music, but I don't remember a single number. I think the Beast sang one that was kinda forgettable? What matters is quality, not quantity. And finally, back to Emma Watson. That girl cannot sing at all. It was painful to listen to, and she’s very obviously auto-tuned. I wouldn't hate this movie nearly as much as I do if I wasn't distracted by terrible singing. That concludes my first argument. Now back to Con!