Beauty and the beast

Year of release : 2017

 

Run time : 2h9min

 

Genre : Fantasy / Musical

 

Cast : Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor.

 

 

The movie is based on Disney's 'Beauty and the beast' and on Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 'Beauty and the beast' .

 

One night,while the vain and selfish prince holds a party, the gathering is visited by an old beggar woman who offers a single rose for shelter. The prince and his friends laugh at her, and the woman proves herself to be an enchantress.

 

She puts a spell on him and the people at the party, turning him into a beast,as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside, and the guests as furniture and other objects,as they enabled his behavior.

The rose she offered him was bewitched,and gave the prince an insight into the time he had left. If he learnt to love and be loved by another,by the time the last petal fell, everything will return to normal. If not, the guests will turn into real furniture and objects,and the prince into an animal.

 

Belle is seen as a weird girl in her village because she likes to read (and when her father invents things she already knows what he needs,so she's smarter than him!),and her father is an inventor,whom they consider crazy for it.

Gaston wants to marry Belle because she is the most beautiful in the village (according to him),matching his beauty.

 

Belle's father leaves, and Belle asks for a single rose from his travels.

Belle's father loses his way, and although June, turns cold and he ends up in winter! He and his horse are chased by a pack of hungry wolves,and he runs into the castle.

He doesn't stay long,as he gets scared by the furniture,and on his way out he takes a rose. The beast reveals himself from behind the rose bushes,and puts him in prison for it,for if he was cursed for not accepting a rose as payment, he sees him stealing a rose as a terrible offense.

 

The horse finds his way back to Belle,and being a strong,independent woman,she immediately gets on the horse,asking it to take her to her father.

She finds him imprisoned,and when the beast appears, and tells her to leave for he is his prisoner now, she asks him to let her talk to him for the last time. When the beast opens the door for her, she switches places with her father,her idea,not anyone else's! Any woman of that era would do such a thing in such a situation!Trading her father's old life for her young life! Yes,girl power!

 

Let me write that again,in case you missed it : Belle has the amazing idea of trading places with her father,literally throwing him out of the prison,taking his place! This was a ridiculous scene,as in those times it was dangerous for a woman. What came to mind at the time when I was watching it was a similar scene from the Russian movie The Duelist. In The Duelist, there's a scene in which the men end up fighting,as they are jumped when they open the door to their carriage. The woman who was in the carriage with them (a princess),remains seated, scared,looking like she wants to make herself invisible,afraid to move or make any noise, hoping the men will ignore her. That is a normal reaction from a woman in such a situation,especially in that era! Whatever a man can do to another man, they can do much worse to a woman!

 

After, she finds herself say,the beast imprisoned her! Nobody imprisoned you,you stupid b!itch! You imprisoned yourself!!!

 

Lumiere and Cogsworth offer her a room,which Belle is trying to escape from. She doesn't do it,as the servants put a show for her.

 

Back in the village, Gaston is upset Belle won't accept his marriage proposal. His buddy is trying to make him feel better,with a musical number. Which works.

 

Belle's father comes back,and Gaston offers to help. Seeing the forest road is a dead end, Gaston gets bored with him,and hearing he is against him marrying Belle,he ties him up to a tree,leaving him for dead.

 

Belle and the beast start getting along,and the servants hope she's the one to break the spell.

 

I thought the movie was better handled than the cartoon when it comes to the reasons why the people of the castle were cursed too.

The relationship between Belle and the beast was handled better,also,the way it blossomed,both reading,and finding they have things in common,bonding through that,Belle liking his company because they had what to talk about, and he didn't think her weird,or anything like it ,because she could read or because she was smart .Belle sees in him her equal,someone who understands her,and sees past his appearance.

 

I liked the fact Gaston is not abusing his sidekick the way he did in the cartoon,and they are buddies. He also felt more fleshed out,as he is not as unlikeable. He has moments when he seems a good person(like when he helped Belle's father-I honestly thought they were gonna make him good!) but then turns very narcissistic and vain,talking to himself in the mirror.

 

The Enchantress also has a bigger role in the movie.

 

The world they created was beautiful, the castle breathtaking, the village, picturesque, the clothes were beautiful.

 

The actors were good,and had beautiful voices.

 

The CGI was good.

 

As you know, I don't like musicals,so they kinda loose me in that department. They kept some of the songs,while they added others(even the prince has his own song). I don't know who invented musicals, and how did they come up with the idea for them,as people in real life don't start singing to each other when they want to get their point across!

 

The movie is a Disney original,and can be found on Disney platforms.

 

Rating : Could have been a contender !