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| Disney's Beauty and the Beast (2017) |
There had been two Disney movies in my childhood I would say really shaped me. One is the Little Mermaid (1988), which I will probably talk about in more detail when the live action drops. The other was Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Belle was particularly special to me in my later teens as it was the time when I really began noticing how different I was. Instead of going out with other people my age, I preferred to stay in the library during recess and after school before the school bus took us home.
Belle is very important to me for more than just her beauty, she helped me remember that being the way I am is alright. My love for books, my pursuit of cleverness and wit and simply being different. That is why out of all the adaptations Disney has done lately, I knew I would be especially passionate about this one.
Story and Details
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| Above: Belle (1991) Below: Belle (2017) |
Both stories began with a narration of how the curse first began. While in the original was very vague about its setting, from the clothing and architecture the story was obviously set in France which is a wonderful nod to their original source material. The traditional story was written by a French writer, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and its original name was La Belle et la Bête.
Once upon a time, there had been a prince who was a lover of all things beautiful. He was selfish and abused his wealth so he could always surround himself with beautiful things and beautiful people. One night, he was visited by an old woman who asked if he would allow her to stay and take shelter from the storm and in exchange she would give him a rose. The prince laughed and commanded her to leave. However, this old woman turned out to be a beautiful enchantress, as punishment for his greed she decided to take away what he so treasured ---- beauty. His and everyone around him. His castle became surrounded by darkness, the people in his castle became the beautiful objects he adored and he --- became a hideous beast.
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| Above: Prince's portrait (1991) Below: Prince and family's portrait (2017) |
Another nod to its traditional story in the new movie is found in the Prince's family portrait. You might notice how reminiscent it is to portraits made around the time of its conception. The story was first published in 1740 and if you compare it to paintings around the time of Marie Antoinette (this detail is important, please note) in the mid-1700s, the styles are very similar.
We then go to tell the story from the standpoint of a girl from a nearby village called, Belle. She was known for her beauty but much too odd to associate with with her ability to read and unconventional ways. The villagers had very archaic beliefs and did not believe in the education of women beyond taking care of a household and husband.
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| Above: Gaston admiring himself (1991) Below: As above (2017) |
Belle's father is Maurice, the eccentric inventor, leaves for a fair to sell a beautiful music box he made. When asked what she wanted him to bring back for her, she asked for a rose and nothing else. On his way to the fair, Belle's father takes a wrong turn and was suddenly chased by a pack of wolves. He barely escapes behind the gates of what at first appeared like an abandoned castle. At least he thought it to be abandoned at first.
Inside, there were signs of life such as a warm fire and food prepared for him as if by magic. At first he didn't seem to mind the unusual phenomena, that is until he saw a teacup speak. He quickly ran for his life, but as he left he saw roses in the garden. Not wanting to disappoint Belle, he stops to pick a rose from the garden. This does not go unnoticed by the Beast. In fury, he imprisons him in his castle. His horse did manage to escape and somehow managing to return home to Belle.
This is another nod to the traditional story. The scene is not in the 1991 version, but you will find in the traditional story.
Belle was alarmed when her father's horse returned without her father. She decided to follow her father's footsteps and go after him. This led her to the same castle. Once there, she finds her father in a prison and very sick. She tries to free him despite her father pleas for her to run. The Beast catches her tries to frighten her away. As frightened as she was, she bargains with him and exchanges her father's freedom for her own. He agrees and her father was sent away.
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| Above: The Wardrobe with Belle (1991) Below: The Wardrobe, Madame de la Grande Bouche (2017) |
She was introduced to another enchanted item, Madame de la Grande Bouche, who took the form of a wardrobe who was tasked to take care of her. Unfortunately, she could not stay awake long enough to do so.
Belle had no plans of staying a prisoner though and had planned on escaping.
The Beast was later convinced to invite her down to share a meal with him. Unfortunately, she was understandably not very cooperative. This infuriated the Beast and said, "if she doesn't eat with me, then she doesn't eat at all."
Meanwhile, Gaston and Le Fou were hainging around at the local pub. He was still furious by Belle's refusal. Le Fou and the other man cheered him up though by singing him praises and cheering him on. Maurice suddenly arrived to seek someone who would be willing to help her save the Belle. The whole town thought he was insane when he spoke of the Beast. While most of the people dismissed his claims, Gaston hoped to win Belle's affections and hand through Maurice. So he and Le fou went out with the old man to look for Belle.
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| Above: Lumiere performing "Be Our Guest" (1990) Below: As above (2017) |
Still believing that she would be the one to break the curse, Lumiere wanted her to feel like she was a guest. Cogsworth thought differently. Their master wouldn't be happy if he found out that they were disobeying his orders.
Of course, you could always trust Lumiere to only do what he wants. She was treated to dinner and a spectacular display by Lumiere and the enchanted items of the castle.
After dinner, Belle convinced Lumiere and Cogsworth to show her around the castle. They mention how she the West Wing was off-limits but instead of turning her off, it only made her want to take a look more. After losing her tour guides, she sneaks up the West Wing herself.
She found a room in disarray, but that was not what drew her attention the most. At the center of the room was a beautiful rose. It was unlike any rose she had ever seen. It tempted her to touch and she tried to. She was stopped by the appearance of the Beast who was furious of her invading his privacy and potentially destroying whatever hope he had of becoming human again.
He shouts at her to leave, scaring her in the process. She does not waste any time and runs away. However, she doesn't go far though. She was attacked by the same wolves that had attacked her earlier. In a stroke of luck, the Beast comes and rescues her.
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| New Scene: Belle and the Beast with an enchanted book |
The book takes them to her childhood home in Paris and finds a plague doctor mask and knew that the plague was how her mother had died.
Going back to Maurice, Gaston and Le Fou, Maurice tried so hard to recount his steps returning to the castle. Unfortunately, the path seemed to disappear. Not that it mattered since Gaston just thinks he is crazy. He simply wanted to make a good impression to Belle's father so he could marry Belle. Maurice discovers this and told him that he would never win his daughter. In his rage, he abandons Maurice tied to a tree in the woods despite Le Fou's hesitation. If he had not been saved by the village hermit, he would have been dead. When Gaston and Le Fou returned to the village, he convinced everyone that Maurice needed to be in an insane asylum for believing in an imaginary beast.
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| Above: Ballroom scene (1991) Below: As above (2017) |
Wanting to make Belle happy, the Beast presents her with another enchanted item, a magic mirror that allows you to see what you want to see.
She wished to see her father. She finds that her father had been accused of insanity and was about to be taken to the asylum. With a heavy heart, the Beast sets her free so she can go to rescue her father. He gives her the mirror as a gift.
Belle raced back to the village, still dressed in her beautiful ball gown. Once at the village, she proves the Beast's existence with the mirror. However, this only scared the villagers and with a push from Gaston , this convinced the villagers to attack the castle for their own safety.
After locking Belle and Maurice in the truck, the villagers left for the castle. Maurice's ingenuity helped them escape and Belle raced to catch up. When she arrived, the villagers were already at war with the residents of the castle. There was no sign of the Beast as Belle's abandonment depressed him.
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| Above: Belle during the last battle. Below: As above |
Karma shot back and this leads to Gaston's demise. Unfortunately, this did not change the fact that the Beast was dying.
Below, the servants had won the battle and was about to celebrate when they notice that they were becoming more and more inanimate. They knew they were close to losing themselves.
He dies just as the last petal on the rose falls and Belle confesses her love for him. The strange hermit who rescued Maurice earlier appeared and magic began to fill the castle. The hermit turned out to be the enchantress that cursed him from long ago. The castle was returning to its original beauty, the cursed residents returned to their original forms ... and the Beast?
He became a handsome prince. It was a happily-ever-after. Belle found someone who understood her. The Beast learned that with understanding and a good heart someone could find love ... even a Beast.
Characters
I absolutely love all the characters in this movie and if I really had the time and the space, I would talk about them all. However, I know I can't, so I will keep talk about the characters I have most to talk about.
She wasn't my perfect Belle and it is not because of the singing, but I thought she was fine. I think of it as her own take on Belle because she feels very different from the original Belle to me. Both are readers, however, there are different types of readers and depending on what type she is this will play big part in Belle's character. The original Belle felt more like a dreamer sort of reader, however, Emma's Belle feels like she reads for knowledge which is probably brought on by her inventor father.
This difference I believe is both a gift and a curse as people will either hate that she is so different from the original source material, or appreciate that she isn't a carbon copy of the original and brought something new to the movie.
I was actually a bit lost how to begin since it wouldn't be fair to base his acting as the Beast when it was mostly CGI and he wasn't on screen long enough as the Prince to say anything of him as that character either, so I decided to write about how his character was written.
While I think I will always love the original Beast more, I can't help but like the writing of this version. I think it is clever how they had made showed so much of its French origins through the lavish lifestyle of the French royalty from costumes and hair to their castle decorations.
I actually like the Beast's singing voice more than I thought. I think he did well acting with his voice but I can actually still tell that singing isn't his specialty. I don't think it is too bad though. Part of me still wished they got someone like Ramin Karimloo for the role, but I do understand that the needs in movie media is different from that on stage.
When I heard about this casting, I was also worried that he looked neither like the Ewan McGregor I know, nor did he look anything like Lumier from the 1991 movie.
In the 1991 version, my favourite part had been "Be Our Guest" and I had high expectations for the live action version of this song. I also wondered how they were going to do it since it is was so over-the-top. I had my doubts he could pull it off, mostly because of the voice.
I didn't have to worry much after all. It still became my favourite part of the movie and while Ewan doesn't really sound like the Lumiere I remember, he is on point when it comes to his charm. If I were to nitpick though, I didn't really feel the chemistry between him and Plumette as much as I would have liked when they returned to normal. However, I could hardly say it is their fault with the little screen time they had after they did.
Music
Belle
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| Belle in the song, Belle. |
The original song was sang beautifully by Paige O'Hara. This time, it was sang by Emma Watson and as I mentioned before, she is not a singer and it shows.
I appreciate that though the scenes are practically a copy-paste of the original, Emma's Belle is not (Not really anyway). However, it is still painful for me to listen to her sing. The autotune is so obvious and I have a moderate dislike for the autotune. The autotune not only made the song sound robotic (Vocaloids sound like the have more emotion) and it made the song boring.
Be Our Guest
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| Lumiere and Belle in Be Our Guest |
I know Ewan McGregor can sing. I have seen him sing in Moulin Rouge and Down with Love and he is good. I unfortunately did not enjoy him singing this song though. I am not sure if it is because the song doesn't fit him or because the original was just that good and for those who know it well makes his version pale in comparison.
Costume
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| (Left to Right) Initial sketch and the original movie Belle. |
In the original movie, I had no opinion about the outfit. It was simple and decent, but she still managed to make it look elegant.
When I first saw the sketch, I was definitely very skeptical. They had similar outfits but I was not sure Emma could pull of Belle's sort of elegance. Emma is elegant but she moves with more confidence that the former Belle.
There is a lot more going on in Emma's outfit, but I suppose that is to be expected. They avoided making it look like a costume and more like what girls like her would wear in her circumstance.
Overall
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| Beauty dines with the Beast in an illustration by Anne Anderson |
Is it the best Beauty and the Beast adaptation though?
I personally don't think so. Technically, this movie is an adaption of an adaption. It resembles the animated movie more than the original story, though I understand that it was trying so hard to be both.
If I was looking for accuracy, I would go for La Belle et la Bete (1946). However, it is not a film for people who are not a fan of black and white films. I do not think this film is as bad as some critics say. I agree that the singing can be pretty awful but I don't discount the effort to they made to introduce the story to a new audience still appeal to old fans of the original animated movie.
I think I would have loved this a lot more if I never watched the animated version. Honestly, I like it for what it is, an homage to both the animated Disney movie and the original story.
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