very far from the original

Rating: 5/10 (6 June 2017)

The original Beauty and the beast was part of my childhood and I still love it to this day. That being said, I really wanted to like the remake as well. Sadly, it did not come up to my expectations, for everything I saw was merely a visually beautiful shell that did not cover even 50 % of the quality of the 90s classic. The animated film is cinematically and plot-wise better than the live action remake. Some of the scenes were better done and more believable in the animation rather than the live action version(the wolves scene comes to mind as well as the moment Belle finds the rose)The characters are really not well written, especially Watson's Belle who is just really Watson's alter ego and not the Belle I used to watch dozens of times and come to love. Ema's performance comes really weak, especially that the animated character was more emotional and convincing to me. Dan Stevens' Beast's sense of humour was a pleasant surprise, though at moments his behavior was really out of character (prefering Belle to stay in the dungeon, Ms. Potts declaring that he loves Belle, instead of him doing so) and his song was really unnecessary, since his silent suffering over losing Belle in the original was better executed. Gaston was just unconvincing with his at times chaotic behavior, despite Luke Evans being a good actor. Honorable mention goes to Ewan McGreggor, Ian McKellen and Josh Gad, who did well as Lumiere, Cogsworth and LeFou, respectively. The movie delivers in terms of songs and choreography, since it's Disney's specialty, as well in visual effects, but I fear they lost track in telling a good story, given the fact that most of the time it is about characters' social issues, rather than a good old love story(Belle trying to get out of oh, so boring town full of people who are really beneath her and ultimately getting herself into the clutches of the ugly cold-hearted beast, who was taxing the villagers beforehand, so that he can adorn himself with things most beautiful; Belle not keeping her end of the agreement and trying to escape all the time; Beast being cruel because he lost his mother and was raised by an evenly cruel father... the most sensitive theme for some in the movie, which got the movie itself a ban in certain countries, Le Fou's sexuality was well presented, though, with a soft touch in humour in his dialogues with Gaston, and the character switching sides at the end). All in all, if you want to see a classic, that will last for years to come and will continue to inspire, go to the classic!