What's new

Beauty and the Beast (2017) (1 Viewer)

SamT

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
5,824
Real Name
Sam
Just watched this. I did not enjoy it as much as I was expecting. If I remember correctly, probably Disney's first misfire of animated to live action. It was not as good as The Jungle Book or Cinderella. It lacked something....magic.

The problem might be that they did not take a risk and tried to make the exact same thing as the animated. The problem is that the animated has superior vocals and sounds and the movie could never have that with non-singers. And since this entirely depends on its musical numbers, they fail.
 

Tino

Taken As Ballast
Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 1999
Messages
23,568
Location
Metro NYC
Real Name
Valentino
Misfire? Ha. I think Disney is pretty happy with this "misfire". :lol:

Pretty much disagree with all your points Sam. The only aspect of your opinion I agree with is the original film had better vocals.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,599
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Just watched this. I did not enjoy it as much as I was expecting. If I remember correctly, probably Disney's first misfire of animated to live action. It was not as good as The Jungle Book or Cinderella. It lacked something....magic.

The problem might be that they did not take a risk and tried to make the exact same thing as the animated. The problem is that the animated has superior vocals and sounds and the movie could never have that with non-singers. And since this entirely depends on its musical numbers, they fail.
Well, I guess our agreement on films lasted for just one film as I don't agree with any of your points in regard to this film. Matter of fact, I actually liked Beauty and Beast more than La La Land.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,599
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Misfire? Ha. I think Disney is pretty happy with this "misfire". :lol:

Pretty much disagree with all your points Sam. The only aspect of your opinion I agree with is the original film had better vocals.
Over 500M domestic and almost 1.3B worldwide. Yeah, I say they're pretty happy with this so-called "misfire".;)
 

SamT

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
5,824
Real Name
Sam
Where was that supposedly controversial moment? Because I didn't spot anything.
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,426
Location
The basement of the FBI building
Where was that supposedly controversial moment? Because I didn't spot anything.
LeFou being gay was a point of controversy. Personally, I think that controversy was more of a media hyped story to get website clicks than a real thing for the vast majority of people. Sort of like the racist dopes that said they were boycotting Rogue One because it was 'anti-white'- it was a handful of people and the media blew it up like it was a major movement so they could have something to write about that day.
 

Johnny Angell

Played With Dinosaurs Member
Senior HTF Member
Deceased Member
Joined
Dec 13, 1998
Messages
14,905
Location
Central Arkansas
Real Name
Johnny Angell
LeFou being gay was a point of controversy. Personally, I think that controversy was more of a media hyped story to get website clicks than a real thing for the vast majority of people. Sort of like the racist dopes that said they were boycotting Rogue One because it was 'anti-white'- it was a handful of people and the media blew it up like it was a major movement so they could have something to write about that day.
Rogue One was anti-white. WTF did that idea come from? I'm very white and didn't think anybody was "anti" me at at. Sounds like a group off trolls were promoting that idea.
 

Adam Lenhardt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2001
Messages
26,971
Location
Albany, NY
Walmart had the Blu-Ray for this on sale for $9.96 as one of its Thanksgiving/Black Friday doorbusters, so I picked it up. It's the first one of these live action remakes of Disney animated classics that I've seen; I've been pretty cynical about the very idea. But I figured that for less than the price of a movie ticket, I had nothing to lose.

I was completely enchanted from beginning to end. It's the first movie in a long, long time that brought me to that place that the big screen musicals of the 1950s and 60s do. The cinematography, the art direction, the production design, the choreography, the editing; everything worked together perfectly. The staging of "Belle" reminded me of the Danny Kaye Hans Christian Andersen. How refreshing to have a film with bright, naturalistic colors again! And then, once we get to the castle, it becomes pure fairy tale.

I just found out this film is going to be 129 minutes long compared to the 92 minute animated version. No way I see this film without reading reviews from those that viewed it first as I usually hate remakes of great films that extend playing time by over 30 minutes. Sitting through long musicals isn't something I usually enjoy unless it's something like West Side Story or The Sound of Music.
This is the first live action adaptation of a cartoon that didn't feel padded or bloated in the slightest. I remember seeing the Jim Carrey/Ron Howard Grinch and how interminable that felt.

If I had one complaint, it's that I wish they'd taken some of the runtime devoted to the CG acrobatics of the climax and used it to flesh out the Pride & Prejudice-esque courtship of Belle and the Beast earlier in the film.

I found that this version addresses some of the plot holes that the animated version had such as how nobody realized that the local prince and all his servants went missing, and if Belle even had a mother.
The greater detail of the running time and the live-action production also give us a better idea of when the movie is set. Based on the doctor's costume and the history of the plague in Europe, Belle's mother almost certainly died in the Paris outbreak of 1668. That would put the events of the bulk of the movie about a century or so before the storming of the Bastille. More recent than I would have expected, but far enough in the past that we can still accept an enchanted castle in some remote forgotten corner of France.

Took my mom to this today in IMAX 3D, and we both really enjoyed it. At times, the CGI felt excessive, and it was not as impressive as the CGI in Disney's 2016 version of "The Jungle Book," which set a new high bar for both passing for real and surpassing the animated classic in terms of storytelling.

For "Beauty and The Beast," at times I wanted much less CGI, and I actually checked out/disengaged from the film during "Be Our Guest," as it just felt to me like it was there because it was in the animated version. Big ol' CGI fest on the screen left me checked out.
For the most part, I thought the CG was used in exactly the right amount. I loved the staging and execution of "Be Our Guest". And after a couple decades of dead-eyed CG creations, the Beast's eyes managed to convey a Dan Steven's performance.

The only part where the CG felt excessive was at the climax, where even this movie devolved into an action setpiece. The conflict between the cursed household staff and the villagers with torches mostly worked for me because of the inventiveness of the staging and execution. But the tussle between Gaston and the Beast on the rooftops left me cold. The less, extravagent more direct staging of the same scene in the animated version was more effective; sometimes less is more.

Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline and Josh Gad were all very good. Oh, and the so-called controversy about this movie was anything but. Has no one watched The Simpsons in 30 years? This had Smithers written all over it.
Yes, the slightly more explicit rendering of LeFou's homosexuality is in keeping with how most of the characters' motivations are fleshed out a bit more with the extra runtime. At the start of the film, he's as drawn to Gaston's masculinity and confidence as the village maidens. But Josh Gad brings a wonderful self-awareness to the role, as Gaston's massive shortcomings and flaws become harder and harder to overlook.

His decision to side with the servants against the angry villagers is rewarded later with a blink-or-you'll-miss-it moment where he gets a dance with the one villager who had been quite delighted to be dressed and made up as a woman by the waredrobe.

Watson and Stevens were both VERY good. She was a little awkward in her movements...but she brought something intangible to the role which made Belle...human(!).
This was the biggest thing I wrestled with watching the film. On one hand, she was easily the weakest singer in the cast. With every musical number, you could feel the technology and audio engineering kick in to assist her.

But on the other hand, I can't think of any other actress of her generation that possesses the qualities essential to bringing Belle to life. She has that star quality necessary to carry a major motion picture, and embodies all of the (at times contradictory) qualities that make Belle: razor-sharp intellect, fierceness and courage, and yet also a wide-eyed innocence.

If only 2017 had a Marni Nixon.

I wasn't fond of some of the lighting choices, or the transition elements from plot point to plot point.
I thought the lighting was perfect. It captured what my imagination conjured when listening to fairy tales as a child. And I liked how the scenes faded to black after the major musical numbers, like the curtain drawing closed for scene changes. I'm not always a big Bill Condon fan, but he was the perfect choice for this.
 
Last edited:

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,599
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Adam,

Yeah, this film was longer than the animated version, but I really enjoyed it. It was a couple of weeks ago that I watched it again in 3-D as I made some OLED 3-D adjustments I was testing out. I agree with you about Emily Watson. Also, there is a sweetness to her portrayal. As to no Marni Nixon, I think there are singers out there that can be comparable, but the studios prefer not to employ them for whatever reasoning.
 

Mike2001

Premium
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
998
Location
LA South Bay
Real Name
Mike
Whew Adam, quite a post! Funny you say that this is the first live action adaptation of a cartoon you've seen that didn't feel padded or bloated in the slightest when you haven't seen any of the earlier Disney remakes. I recommend you try their Cinderella remake. That one worked better for me than this one did.
 

cinemiracle

Screenwriter
Joined
May 1, 2015
Messages
1,614
Real Name
Peter
Well, I guess our agreement on films lasted for just one film as I don't agree with any of your points in regard to this film. Matter of fact, I actually liked Beauty and Beast more than La La Land.

I also loved BEAUTY AND THE BEAST- watched it several times. I absolutely hated LA LA LAND. as did three of my friends. Two of them couldn't watch more than the first 15 minutes on dvd.. All of us adore musicals as our favourite genre but LA LA LAND was boring .I watched it a second time a couple of months later in case I may have like it better , but I didn't. Truly the most overrated musical ever made.Forgettable music.
 

Adam Lenhardt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2001
Messages
26,971
Location
Albany, NY
Whew Adam, quite a post! Funny you say that this is the first live action adaptation of a cartoon you've seen that didn't feel padded or bloated in the slightest when you haven't seen any of the earlier Disney remakes. I recommend you try their Cinderella remake. That one worked better for me than this one did.
It's going on the list!

I saw the recent touring production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella with Douglas Carter Beane's 2013 book. Didn't care for the modern, politically relevant updates. They stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
 

TJPC

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2016
Messages
4,820
Location
Hamilton Ontario
Real Name
Terry Carroll
It is criminal that so many 3D blu rays are not available in North America. 3D in my opinion greatly enhanced BATB. I of course had to order mine from Britain.
 

Edwin-S

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2000
Messages
10,000
It is criminal that so many 3D blu rays are not available in North America. 3D in my opinion greatly enhanced BATB. I of course had to order mine from Britain.

What is criminal is that I had to pay C$120 for Valerian and Planes: Fire and Ice in 3D, thanks to Di$ney and Lion$gate failure to put out domestic 3D releases of those films.
 

Josh Steinberg

Premium
Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2003
Messages
26,271
Real Name
Josh Steinberg
That seems unusually high - I just pre-ordered Valerian in 3D from the UK, and the disc was 15 pounds, which translates into about $20. Throw in another $5 for shipping,and I had this for well under $30 US.
 

Edwin-S

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2000
Messages
10,000
I know what the problem was now. The regular 3D blu is region B/2. It is priced about where you said it was. I had to buy the steelbook, which is region free. The SB version is ~38 pounds. Planes: F&I was about 35 pounds. Add in shipping and taxes plus the exchange rate between the Canadian toilet dollar and British pounds and the costs add up quickly.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,624
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top