Best live-action so far

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2017)

Beauty & the Beast - We find ourselves with yet another live-action Disney remake. These have been hit or miss for me so far, with Maleficent being the worst example of their recent retellings. In watching the trailers for Beauty & the Beast, I was finding myself let down more and more with each one. If Maleficent was the CTRL + ALT + DLT of its original story, this was shaping up to be just a Copy/Paste. I had cooled on the idea of seeing it, but then I remembered- I review movies. ;)
Right out of the gate the movie is every bit its predecessor, but it does eventually find opportunities to offer unique moments. After all is said and done it ends up being an excellent blend old and new.
Of the old, it has word for word exchanges from the original, with even some of the same blocking. The characters transfer over seamlessly and it had the same grand moments with 'Be Our Guest' and the ballroom dance scene. I do have to say, however, that the dance from the original still takes the cake. The way the camera was sweeping around, in a cartoon mind you, was just something that had never been seen before.
Of the new, we're introduced to two more songs this time around. I thought the Beast's new solo was incredible and I played it again when I got home. The movie of course is mostly live-action, but there are quite a few CGI-only scenes peppered in. I was impressed with all of the animations, except for the Beast himself. While the other elements seemed to have weight to them, his face felt very cartoonish and flat. With how the Jungle Book excelled in its animation, this felt like a bit of a step back.
Obviously there was all the commotion about Lefou before the movie came out. I'm not sure why they felt it necessary to do a press release about it rather than just having the character be who he was, but it was of course fine. About as subtle as a hammer, but fine. And if you thought the original Lefou didn't hold a torch for Gaston, you might want to watch it again.
Beauty & the Beast has all the 'feels' of the original and then some. The music is a major part of that, but the fact that all of the actors showed up with their A-game contributed as well. But if you want to go see it and then try to tell me you didn't like it- be my guest :) 8.5/10.