Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Directed by Bill Condon

Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad

Author

This is a quality production. The story is deep and well-told, the effects are all motivated and realistic, and the musical numbers are well-choreographed and shot. The live-action retelling is new territory, but tis is one of Disney’s best.

Watson does a great job. Overall, it’s a great cast, with a great reveal of all the actors at the end. I just wish the prince/beast didn’t look so much like Trey Parker.

It’s got many of the common Disney plot devices. An innocent young woman yearning for more, archetypal villains, a magic mirror, a majestic castle, and the classic moral lesson to avoid judging by beauty alone. I have a larger plot question, though. Why does this Enchantress act poor and cast a spell on the prince in the first place? Seems like a bitchy thing to do. What’s to stop her from picking victims all across the French countryside and casting similar spells on unsuspecting victims over and over again? The consequence of telling a full, structurally sound story is the long running length. At over two hours, I wonder if it’s too long for a kids movie.

If you want to get picky, the accents for these characters that are supposed to be in France are all over the place. Some are English, some are American. It’s really only a few of the inanimate objects that have French accents, and fake ones at that. Mix in what seems to be German architecture.

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