Pretty but lifeless retelling

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 2017)

There is a trend going on right now with Disney films, that they are redoing their animated classics in live-action – Alice In Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Jungle Book and now the latest in this trend Beauty And The Beast. This one was going to be difficult for me because the 1991 Disney film Beauty And The Beast is one of my favourite films of all time.
So how do I feel this film? Honestly I spent the first half being pretty annoyed as it was just carbon copy with minor changes, but I just accepted it by the time I got to the second half and just pretended I was watching a play of the movie instead. But then I have to admit there was one really great scene that got me emotional towards the end. Not enough to make me love the film, in a way it highlights my biggest problem with the film, I'll get to it later and don't worry I won't spoil it.
The majority of it is pretty much a copy of the 1991 film, they might as well have used the same storyboards. The problem though is not so much that it redoes the same scenes, it's that they get lost in translation, not enough effort is put in to create the same feelings. I lost count over how many cut-to-blacks this film has.
Visually this film is really nice to look at. Many of the sets are well designed, the castle especially with all the little details. However the environments of the locations aren't well explored that you notice at times that it's shot on a sound stage. The CGI effects for the Beast is not that great, I don't understand why they couldn't use prosthetics, you could've saved legendary make-up artist Rick Baker from his early retirement. The best CGI goes to the animate objects, sure the designs were pretty creepy this time but I did buy them as genuine moving objects – the mechanics on the clocks look realistic and the teapot and cup look like real china. Be Our Guest was a visually stunning moment.
The acting all-round was more or less on the same level, they are great actors but the issue I have is that I'm always aware that they are playing the parts. I don't see Belle in this film, I just see Emma Watson playing Belle in this film and it's like that for everyone. It seems like all these big named actors were putting on performances for theatre instead of an actual film. It's kind of bad that I think the characters in an animated film feel more like real people than the ones played by real people. I don't care how much they expand on their backstories or how many additional character-building moments they are given; if they don't act natural I'm not going to be invested in them. They're never boring however, you can tell everyone had a lot of fun making this, so at times they share that enjoyment with you. The strongest performances are from Kevin Kline as Maurice and Josh Gad as Le Fou, I guess that helps that their characters are the most different from their animated counterparts, they're less goofy and are a little more realistic. The singing is not the greatest either, not Russell Crowe or Peirce Brosnan levels of bad, but not good compared to the singing in the original. The best singing comes from Audra McDonald, whom is a soprano but she's not given enough to sing.
In terms of what this added (again not to spoil the film), there are about four new songs added which were good I will admit, I could see these fitting into theatre productions quite well. There are some really good additional scenes like when Maurice and Belle work on a music box together and they mention her mother and a pretty unpleasant scene with Gaston and Maurice. There's a scene that could've taken this film in a unique direction, unfortunately it doesn't go anywhere and adds nothing except to try and expand on Belle's past which kind of ruins the subtle moment she had with her father at the beginning. Then there is the big scene towards the end that made me tear up, it was a real heart-breaking scene. It was built up quite well and when it happens it lets it play out. Very clever and by far the best scene they did in this film. So why is the best scene it's biggest problem? Because it's a moment that does not involve Belle or the Beast and it made me realise I how much didn't really care about them here. I love Belle and the Beast, they are awesome characters because in the original they are allowed to be characters. They have genuine emotions that you feel in all of their scenes and you feel their chemistry even in scenes without dialogue. Here despite being 'more developed' they feel still feel shallow, again it's because they don't feel like real people and their chemistry is non-existent.
I apologise that I keep making so many comparisons to the original but it's very difficult not to. This film keeps reminding me of the original, it keeps redoing it but not as well with minor changes and additions that aren't strong enough to let this film stand on it's own merits. Honestly, this film only works for me as like seeing a stage theatre version of a film you like. In fact if you watch this film without seeing the original, you'd probably think you are watching a stylised film adaptation of a musical play like 2004's Phantom Of The Opera. If you bare that in mind you'll enjoy this just fine, it's not bad by any means but it won't stand the test of time. The 1991 movie however is a timeless classic.