Arguably the most anticipated event of 2017 was the eagerly-awaited live-action re-make of Beauty and the Beast. Its opening weekend grossed 170 million dollars in North American ticket sales, and I’m happy to say that one of those tickets was mine.
I’ll admit that as a young child my favourite Disney princes was Jasmine (didn’t see that coming, did you?), however that was mostly because she got to have pants and a tiger. Belle was always my close second, though. I saw a kindred spirit in her, with her love of books and dreams so much bigger than her small town. So like many, I made the trek out to the theatre to experience the live-action version as soon as humanly possible.
For all the hype of the past year and all the questionable controversies surrounding it, I was expecting a mediocre children’s movie with plenty of singing. Of course, with Emma Watson portraying Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, and plenty of other big name actors taking part, I was expecting some wonderful acting as well. What I got was exactly what I expected. It was a fun movie replete with overdone gags that adults would groan at but children would find fresh and hilarious. Emma Watson traipses through the story as the strong self-assured young woman we have come to expect from her — though as my friend put it, she was basically playing “Princess Hermione”.
Of course we must touch on the problem of Gaston and his sidekick, LeFou. Disney made headlines when it announced that LeFou would be their first canonically gay character. Most people were mad, whether because they were against having gay people in children’s movies or because they disagreed with Disney’s choice to make the comic relief character the gay one. I am here to tell you, however, that if you are a person who likes to blink, you are very likely to miss the minuscule references. For any who feared the dreaded ‘gay sub-plot’, never fear; there’s been more explicit stuff in Winnie-the-Pooh than was ever hinted at here.
Where the movie truly shone, however, was in the portrayal of the Beast. Dan Stevens pulled off an incredibly heart-wrenching and nuanced performance that was not at all buried by the layers of CGI beastliness. It’s clear to me where most of the film’s CGI budget went, and it was most certainly worth it!
All around, Beauty and the Beast is a classic re-telling of a classic tale that children will love for its magic and adults will love for its nostalgia. So get out there and enjoy it, if only for your loyalty to the wonderful Emma Watson.
Photo Credits: ComingSoon.net, popsugar.con, ignimg.com