Last Saturday, I made my way to the Cinemark theaters at River Hills Mall to catch Beauty and the Beast with one of my friends during its opening weekend. To be completely honest with you, I wasn’t all that excited. At least, not as excited as she was. My friend was practically squealing with joy once we entered the theater. On the other hand, I was just curious to see how the movie would be interpreted from the classic Disney animated version. Personally, my excitement stemmed from the fact that I would sit in the new cinema lounge chairs for the very first time. But, that’s a different story.
Anyways, Beauty and the Beast was never one of my favorite Disney animated movies. I consider those to be Mulan and The Lion King. I never saw the live action remakes of Cinderella, Maleficent, or The Jungle Book. Honestly, I still have yet to watch them. I made an exception for Beauty and the Beast because the trailer looked intriguing and overall it looked beautifully done. I also needed to see how Emma Watson would be as Belle. While I love, love, love Emma Watson as an actress, I never really saw her as the perfect actress to play Belle. And, of course, I really needed a break that Saturday night from the hours of homework I had to complete beforehand.
As soon as the movie started with Emma Watson singing the opening chords of ‘Belle’, I immediately knew that I was in for a treat. I never knew Emma Watson’s singing voice was so sweet and lovely and the song had such a great energy to open the movie with. The beginning thoroughly introduced us to the characters from Belle’s village and showed the audience how much she desired to explore outside of her provincial life. I thought the animation of the characters within the Beast’s mansion and of the Beast himself was beautifully done. It was so incredibly realistic. My personal favorite scene of the movie was when Lumiere sang ‘Be Our Guest’ as everyone welcomed Belle to dinner at the castle. It was absolutely magical and I had a grin on my face the entire time. By the end of the movie, I was assured completely that Emma was the right choice for Belle and Dan Stevens was the right choice to play the Beast. I couldn’t think of any other people that would have made this movie feel as special as they did. Overall, the whole cast was great. The scenes between Belle and the Beast were very emotional, and the part right before the Beast transformed back into the Prince was very heart-wrenching. Obviously, there was a happy ending and it wrapped up the movie perfectly.
I give this movie two thumbs up, many golden stars, and a standing ovation. I absolutely loved it. So much so that I’ve been listening to Disney songs nonstop this week on Spotify. It started with the movie’s soundtrack, then onto Mulan, and now I have a whole playlist full of Disney classics. Basically, what I am trying to say is please go watch this movie. It provides a magical escape from the stresses of real life and will be worth every penny of that overpriced weekend movie ticket. I’ll be seeing it for the second time tomorrow…and probably for a third time later.