From fairy tale to animation to musical to movie-of-musical

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2017)

There has been not a few publicity attention-grabbers, intentional or otherwise. I like to get them out of the way first.
1. Emma vs Emma. For La La Land, I can visualize Watson to be just as good as Stone and therefore yes, she probably missed an Oscar. For B&TB, however, Stone may not quite reach the level of spirited defiance that Watson either possesses innate or nurtured through the ten years of Hermione-ism.
2. The gay scene(s). Sorry, I must have blinked and miss them.
3. The scene paying tribute to "The sound of music". If what we are after is a similar temperament for adventure, Gigi (1958) would be a better example than Maria.
4. Emma Thompson is no match for Angela Lansbury. Myth, totally. If you have heard Lansbury's inadequate singing in "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983) you'll see. Even for the title song of B&TB, Thompson is noticeably better than Lansbury.
For musicals, one would be hard pressed to find music that are better than Andrew Lloyd Webber's or lyrics that surpass Alan Jay Lerner's. As a musical, B&TB does not have the stuff to justify a claim to anything more than average. It was quite a while ago when I saw this musical in Broadway and that was a re-run. The only number I remember is the very lovely title song. Watching this latest movie version, therefore, I cannot even tell which are the four new songs written specifically for the movie. They are mostly pleasing to the ear, but that's about it.
I mentioned earlier that Watson can be an equally good Mia while Stone may come slightly short as Belle. This I consider to be an unreserved compliment that Watson deserves. Playing the Beast is the unrecognizable (expected, in makeups) and not-entirely-recognizable (even without makeups)Dan Stevens. I am talking about one of the best-liked characters in "Downton Abbey", Matthew Crawley. In B&TB, the dashing prince is only cameo. As the Beast,even behind the torturous makeup, Stevens delivers soul trapped with the Beast. Sings well too, as "Evermore" testifies to. Luke Evans takes a holiday from his heroic portrayal of the guy who shot the dragon in the Hobbits trilogy to deliver the part-comical, part-despicable Gaston. Josh Gad is the mandatory, and somewhat campy, sidekick. Best among the in flesh-and-blood support character is Kevin Kline playing Belle's father Maurice. With an Oscar to show, acting for Kline is no issue. You may forget he can sing too as well demonstrated in "De-Lovely" (2004) and above-mentioned "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983). Less noticeable than the love story but equally affecting in this movie is the father-daughter rapport. Note how, in the opening scene, Belle seems to be reading Maurice's mind and hands him the tools he needs. Later, the sentiment is reprised in the lock-picking scene. The chemistry between Kline and Watson holds its own when compared with that between Stevens and Watson. Just one more to mention is Hattie Morahan as the Enchantress. Those who have seen her in "Mr Holmes" is unlikely to forget her as the mysterious woman in the unsolved (until the end of the movie) case.
Now, to the voice-backing characters (with brief cameos in flesh-and-blood). More odd couple paring here. Ewan McGregor as Lumiere the candlestick and Ian McKellen as Cogsworth the clock are delightful with, respectively, over-the-top French accent and well timed gruff jabs. McGregor also delivers respectable singing even if they do not remind you of his romantic crooning in "Moulin Rouge" (2001). Equally delightful is the musical pair Stanley Tucci as the maestro-turned-piano and Audra McDonald as the singing wardrobe. Last but not least is aforementioned Emma Thompson as the maternal tea pot, best icing on the cake you can find.