Sterile stuff, I'm afraid....

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2020)

A little like "Into the Woods" (2014) this is a technically ambitious attempt to reconcile animation and live action with an excellent cast. Again, it works spectacularly as a piece of cinematic innovation - but has no spirit. We know the story: a vain Prince is cursed by a sorceress to remain shut up, hideously disfigured, in his castle until the spell is broken by true love's tear. "Belle" (Emma Watson) does well to keep this almost Ziegfeld-esque extravaganza on track. She manages to avoid the amorous intentions of Luke Evans as "Gaston" before ending up doing the prisoner swap for her father in the castle of the Prince - an extremely well made up Dan Stevens. The additional voice cast line up is great - Kevin Kline, Sir Ian McKellan, Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci. The songs are reprised from the 1991 version of the story but without the charm and mischief of their original iterations; they are just too precise and dare I say "professional". The technology has now super-subsumed every element of the process to the point that it is almost clinically delivered. The characters and story are still great, but please, Disney, leave something a little rough around the edges for us....