If You Liked The Original....

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2017)

I saw "Beauty and the Beast", starring Emma Watson-My Week With Marilyn, the Harry Potter movies; Dan Stevens-Legion_tv, Downton Abbey_tv; Luke Evans-The Girl on the Train, Fast & Furious 6; Josh Gad-Pixels, Love & Other Drugs and Kevin Kline-Ricki and the Flash.
This is a live-action remake of the classic 1991 Disney film, which was in turn, based on a French fairy tale. If you have fond memories of that 1991 story then you should enjoy this version. It is a musical so it contains new versions of those loved songs from the original, plus it has a few new songs, too. The story is pretty much the same-don't judge a book by it's cover-but it is also filled out more. For instance, in the original, the origin of the Beast is told in narration at the beginning of the movie, but here, it is actually shown. Emma plays Belle, Kevin is her father Maurice, Dan is the Beast, Luke is Gaston and Josh is his faithful sidekick LeFou. Oh, I should mention that before the movie was even released, there was all kinds of talk about there being a gay character in the movie and people being upset about it-I even heard some people were going to boycott the movie. It's all ridiculous. The character in question is Josh/LeFou and things are only hinted at that he likes Luke/Gaston. Nothing ever happens between the two in any sort of gay fashion so you can relax. These rumors are usually started by people that haven't even seen the movie in the first place-which irritates me to no end. Anyway, like I said earlier, if you liked the original, then you will probably like this one, too. It's rated "PG" for action violence, peril and frightening images and has a running time of 2 hours & 9 minutes. I enjoyed it and would buy it on DVD.