A tall, mysterious beast is encountered by a somewhat naïve young woman and then in effect held hostage in his palatial dwellings. Whilst this may seem like the plot of Fifty Shades of Grey, we are in fact, in the world of Disney!
In Bill Condon’s re-imagining of the classic, Oscar-winning 1991 animated feature of the same name, Emma Watson plays Belle, across from the frankly excellent Dan Stevens as the titular Beast, be he buffalo, werebeast or bear; who knows?
In the story as old as the hills, Stevens is allowed a brief reprieve in the opening scenes to show off his typical Downton Abbey good looks before he is magicked into beast form for the crime of…being a d***. He is to stay this way until he learns to love, and be loved in return. Thus, enter Watson as Belle; a happy-go-lucky, determined bookwork who enters the lair of the beast to free her father (the excellent Kevin Kline) who wandered in as a scatter-brained mistake.
Belle actually appears relieved to be locked up with the beast, her previous days spent being pursued by a preening Luke Evans as Gaston in a very Pepe Le Pew fashion, the wannabe bachelor being tailed by Josh Gad as LeFou, who is shown to be, in a relatively coded fashion, gay. You may have happened upon this particular nugget before seeing the film, however it has ended up causing the film a ‘cinema non grata’ status is a few rural American states and several countries…the times we live in.
Maurice & Belle, played by Kevin Kline & Emma Watson
Literacy gets a big shout-out for being cool in the film as well, with Belle being drawn to Beast due to his a love of Shakespeare getting her a little hot under the collar, or large floaty dress, whichever. It takes her a little longer to get used to life in the palace, what with the singing and dancing furniture – inanimate objects have a habit of doing that in Disney movies. Thanks to computer wizardry and retaining the same excellent Alan Menken songs, Ewan McGregor sings and swans around as a candlestick, Ian McKellan as a clock, Audra McDonald as a wardrobe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a feather-duster, Stanley Tucci as a piano, and Emma Thompson as a teapot (she sings the title song Angela Lansbury warbled for the ages in the original). Despite all the energy they expend in their frenzied Busby Berkeley-inspired rendition of “Be Our Guest,” the animated version far exceeds it in a quality even a $160 million budget can’t buy: charm.
What Beauty and the Beast rises or falls on is the love story, and here, allowed to slow down to let in intimate moments, the movie catches fire. Hobbled by a motion capture process that forced him to walk on stilts and wear a huge muscle suit covered in Lycra, Stevens goes beyond the call of family-musical duty to give us a flawed human being instead of a special effect; his is a Beast worth saving. Those are his eyes gazing down with passion at Watson’s Beauty, his voice choked with genuine ardor. The magic however, both literal and Disney is a little absent across the too-long 129 minute feature. That said, take the performances of several big names in the human world, and add their impressive abilities to the flick and we’re left with something very different to the original feature, something that feels more relatable, human and rather exciting.
Why not come down to one of our stores and check out the new range of 2017 TV’s to do this feature justice when the BluRay is released?
Author: Steve, Southgate Store
