Vapid

Rating: 4/10 (2 March 2019)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is another vapid and overblown live-action remake of a Disney cartoon classic. When I heard that Emma Watson was cast in this, I had my suspicions and sadly they were all proved right on watching. Watson might bear a superficial resemblance to the cartoon Belle, but her lines are delivered in a stiff, stilted manner and her singing voice is no great shakes either. Dan Steven's CGI beast is a little better, but the animated household objects have lost all of their charm from the cartoon.
The film is typical Disney, insofar as it's inoffensive, shallower-than-shallow, and sickeningly sweet. The ending takes sentimentality into new uncharted waters. The whole thing is an ode to the latest CGI effects, with unwelcome computer graphics dominating every moment. Only Luke Evans gives a pantomime performance that could be vaguely described as old-fashioned. Plus Disney continues to champion the usual wrongful stereotypes of physical beauty which really should have gone out in the 1950s.