Rekindling Magic is Harder Than it Looks

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2017)

One could argue Beauty and the Beast is Disney's most beloved property of all-time. The 1991 animated classic is legendary, with its iconic score and captivating story becoming a staple in pop culture. It's a risky move to slap a remake onto such a profound piece of movie history, but, outside of a few hard bumps in the road, the risk of Beauty and the Beast (B&B) seems to be worth the reward.
Right out of the gate, most remakes are going to be scrutinized for its ability to walk the thin line of honoring the original story, while incorporating new, fresh narrative details. It's no easy task to accomplish. We hear constantly how remakes will honor the original while bringing new ideas to the table, and quite often, it doesn't pan out. Beauty and the Beast is not so much an exception to that history, more than it's acceptable. The age-old tale of B&B is still undoubtedly the main story focus in the modern take, but sprinkles of new plot structure weave through the film, for better or for worse. The 129 min run time topples over the original's 84 min, adding extra scenes, mainly in the first act, to try and liven the character development of some of the film's lesser known characters outside of Belle and the Beast. This is where I felt the film was at its weakest, however. Sure we need introduction to the main story, setting and characters, but it's not until Belle is actually in the Beast's castle that the movie starts to become more interesting. Once we're in the castle, focusing on Belle, the Beast and the objects occupying it, the movie picks up, becomes more intriguing and more endearing. The overall pacing can be described as OK. B&B struggles to tell a rock solid three-act story like it's 1991 counterpart, but if you can get past the added run time, the classic Beauty and the Beast tale is still oh-so-charming.
The '91 original was a pioneer in animation, boasting one of the more recognizable camera shots in all of animated film history during the ballroom scene. 2017 brings an entire new world of animation and CGI, and whether you like it or not, B&B utilizes it to the extreme. The budget was a clear green light for massive CG visuals, most notably the Beast himself whose design, while at first a little unappealing, eventually grows on you. But the heavy dose of CGI littered throughout the film is tough to accept, even though it is a remake of a fully animated film. I have no problem with how the SFX looked, the movie was visually wonderful, but the sheer amount of it is hard to ignore throughout the entirety of the film.
On the audible side, the iconic B&B score was on full display here. I'll get into more detail about that shortly, so for now, I'll say that the excitement and charm of the score is present, but not always quite as enthralling as the original. The mixing is often unbalanced during the musical numbers boasting numerous people, and it's undeniably hard to recapture the pure wonder of Angela Lansbury's original performance of "Tale as Old as Time", but B&B does the song enough justice with Emma Thompson's performance. The big budget brings assumptions to how well the film will look and sound, and it honestly looks and sounds just great. But there are inconsistencies that hold B&B back from getting to the level of the original.
There's been mixed feelings towards the casting choices for the film, namely mega-star Emma Watson in the lead role as Belle. The bulk of the negativity towards Watson seemed to be in her inability to sing at the professional level you'd expect from a movie such as B&B. While I'll admit it's true that the vocal performances from Watson, along with several other actors, are weak for the standard Disney set in 1991, the overall performance given by the main cast was good enough to warrant the stamp of approval. Watson is solid in the lead role, while Dan Stevens does his best with the screen time he was given as Beast. My stand outs, however, have to go to Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor as Cogsworth and Lumiere respectively. While their time on screen is also too limited, their chemistry was spot on, providing the perfect comedic relief and giving great performances during the famous number, "Be Our Guest". I also enjoyed Luke Evans as the main antagonist, Gaston, but not so much his more-focused-on partner, LeFou, played by the over-hyped Josh Gad. The change in LeFou's character was welcome in the film, but it was the forced screen time and dialogue for the character that just took too much away from what was important to the film's story.
Disney captured lightning in a bottle in 1991 with the original, now legendary Beauty and the Beast. It's not fair, or maybe not possible, to bash it's remake, seeing how the films are similar on many grounds. I had many moments enjoying B&B and would happily watch it again. The story was close enough to the original to pass as enjoyable. The acting, while hurting in the vocal department, was splendid and the chemistry between certain characters was delightful. What B&B lacks is the simplicity of its predecessor. The added story elements, which created the longer run time, and CG- heavy atmosphere leave a dent in the crafting of the film's 'soul', if you will. The musical score just couldn't hold up to the original, and that is such an enormous part of what makes B&B so special. Beauty and the Beast tries hard, maybe too hard, to stand out from the original film, creating a respectable, often enjoyable remake of a iconic film, but even so, comes nowhere near the level of what was seen in 1991.
7/10