Disney gets it right with a tiny little twist that got extreme conservatives in a twist.

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2017)

There are plenty of changes in the movie version of the Broadway version of the hit animated classic, the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar. It's a colorful blend of live action and computer generated effects where everything seems alive as opposed to painted. Belle is played by the attractive, if not typical a Hollywood beauty (Emma Watson), certainly no pushover for the obnoxious Gaston (Luke Evans). When her eccentric father (Kevin Kline) ends up under the clutches of beast Dan Stevens, Belle offers herself in place of him. His beastliness must vanish, and that falls to Belle to guide him to change, not because he simply has to in order to reverse a curse, but because he wants to out of love for a good woman.
This jumps off the screen from the start, far less pretentious and over the top as similar fantasy tales that dominate the screen a bit too much. Each character is believable, and the modern twist concerning Josh Gad's LeFou, subtle in its insinuations, but scandalous because of press headlines drawing both praises and boo's. While some of the new songs for Broadway have been dropped in favor of new songs (giving new songs Oscar potential), all the favorites of the original movie are there, staged brilliantly as if they were flying off the stage of the Palace or the Ambassador, its Broadway homes.
The household staff, turned into household items which reflect their personality, are a highlight with a delightfully warm Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Ewan MacGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellan as Cogsworth and Audra McDonald as Madame Garderobe. "Be Our Guest" is lusciously staged, and I wiped my eyes quite a bit, both in the beauty and the beast's twin soliloquies and the title song. While I loved and missed the beast's song from the Broadway version cut from the show, the replacement is equally as moving. This should create an instant classic that I hope gets past the controversy and becomes a major smash.