Beauty and the Beast live action; Think Disney missed the mark

[KBLovedDisney]

Probably am going to catch a lot of flack for posting this, but I just watched the live action remake of the Beauty and the Beast film. Here are my thoughts:

The castle set was amazing! The dark side of Disney came out and it was beautiful.
The new songs were ok. They added a somewhat new sense of nostalgia.

However...

The whole remake of a classic with using the original songs and trying to incorporate them into a live action form for some reason did not feel right in the film. The previous live action versions of other classics did much better (Maleficent and Cinderella). IMHO, I believe the reason the other live action Disney classic films did better were because they were more of a different take of the original stories and also (this is a big also) that there were NO musical numbers in the other films.

I understand that the other films weren't true remakes of the classics, but I think when Disney tried to do a complete remake of Beauty and the Beast, it felt lacking. Lacking in that they tried to make it more fantastical and over shot it somewhat and the singing...

Again, the new songs were good, but "Belle" sounded like she was singing into a can the entire film (not to mention somewhat auto-tuned). Probably wouldn't have hurt if they dubbed her singing. (Sorry Emma.)

Ok, so there is my critique on that. Feel free to agree or argue. All opinions welcome.

 

[Disney Lover Addie]

Probably am going to catch a lot of flack for posting this, but I just watched the live action remake of the Beauty and the Beast film. Here are my thoughts:

The castle set was amazing! The dark side of Disney came out and it was beautiful.
The new songs were ok. They added a somewhat new sense of nostalgia.

However...

The whole remake of a classic with using the original songs and trying to incorporate them into a live action form for some reason did not feel right in the film. The previous live action versions of other classics did much better (Maleficent and Cinderella). IMHO, I believe the reason the other live action Disney classic films did better were because they were more of a different take of the original stories and also (this is a big also) that there were NO musical numbers in the other films.

I understand that the other films weren't true remakes of the classics, but I think when Disney tried to do a complete remake of Beauty and the Beast, it felt lacking. Lacking in that they tried to make it more fantastical and over shot it somewhat and the singing...

Again, the new songs were good, but "Belle" sounded like she was singing into a can the entire film (not to mention somewhat auto-tuned). Probably wouldn't have hurt if they dubbed her singing. (Sorry Emma.)

Ok, so there is my critique on that. Feel free to agree or argue. All opinions welcome.

Well, to be honest, I thought that Belle's (Emma's) voice was extremely auto-tuned.

But, overall your review seems fair, I mean that is what rotten tomatoes is saying about BATB live Action too.

 

[Disneyfanman]

Aside from the auto-tuning (which i was aware of but didn't really mind), I loved the film. The more that I have seen it, the higher my opinion has become. Some of my fondness comes from the new songs, particularly Evermore, but in general I just felt like they got it right. Enough different and enough the same. My wife however, felt as the OP did.

I have been startled by how much I have liked the live action remakes in general.. I thought they were a terrible idea, and then I found myself liking them very much. This includes the Jungle Book, Cinderella, Pete's Dragon and B&B. I admit I am uber-worried about Mulan.....and horrified at the idea of Lilo and Stitch. Mary Poppins however, (directed by Rob Marshall and music by the team that gave us Hairspray)......bring it on! Disney is going to ride this particular horse until it drops, but I will keep going.

 

[Disney Lover Addie]

Yes, it does have amazing CGI

 

[KBLovedDisney]

I want to live in that castle. That was probably my favorite part of the entire film was the enchanted castle.

 

[Disney Lover Addie]

I want to live in that castle. That was probably my favorite part of the entire film was the enchanted castle.

Literally same

 

[Princess Leia]

Probably am going to catch a lot of flack for posting this, but I just watched the live action remake of the Beauty and the Beast film. Here are my thoughts:

The castle set was amazing! The dark side of Disney came out and it was beautiful.
The new songs were ok. They added a somewhat new sense of nostalgia.

However...

The whole remake of a classic with using the original songs and trying to incorporate them into a live action form for some reason did not feel right in the film. The previous live action versions of other classics did much better (Maleficent and Cinderella). IMHO, I believe the reason the other live action Disney classic films did better were because they were more of a different take of the original stories and also (this is a big also) that there were NO musical numbers in the other films.

I understand that the other films weren't true remakes of the classics, but I think when Disney tried to do a complete remake of Beauty and the Beast, it felt lacking. Lacking in that they tried to make it more fantastical and over shot it somewhat and the singing...

Again, the new songs were good, but "Belle" sounded like she was singing into a can the entire film (not to mention somewhat auto-tuned). Probably wouldn't have hurt if they dubbed her singing. (Sorry Emma.)

Ok, so there is my critique on that. Feel free to agree or argue. All opinions welcome.

Yep. Yep yep yep. Jungle Book has been my favorite adaptation of the bunch so far (though I also liked Cinderella). I thought the film had a great cast (all hail Audra McDonald), but it fell really flat for me. That’s why I’m worried about The Lion King- amazing cast, but the film could fall short.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

Yep. Yep yep yep. Jungle Book has been my favorite adaptation of the bunch so far (though I also liked Cinderella). I thought the film had a great cast (all hail Audra McDonald), but it fell really flat for me. That’s why I’m worried about The Lion King- amazing cast, but the film could fall short.

I was actually quite impressed with the new Jungle Book. The story was excellent. Disney did very well there. My favorite adaptation so far has to be Cinderella (and I seriously want a swarovski crystal shoe just like hers!) Maleficent was great, but I still haven't seen the new Pete's Dragon. Don't think a lot of advertisement went into that one. Disney seems to market movies differently.

And yes! I am extremely nervous about the Lion King. Really hope they don't flop with that one. That was and always will be my favorite Disney movie.

Saw it when it first came out in theaters when I was 8. My parents must have took me like 5 times to see it...

 

[epcotWSC]

I'm going to necro bump this thread. I finally watched the remake last night. The music was fine, and honestly wasn't my biggest issue with the film. Although, I will say that Emma Watson as Belle was not my choice to begin with and I wasn't crazy about her. She did a fine job acting, I just don't like her singing voice for the main role and I also don't think she's pretty enough to be Belle. Heck, in the opening sequence I mentioned to my wife that one of the three girls who always fawns over Gaston is way prettier than Watson (she agreed).

My biggest issue with the film was some of the major changes they made to the plot. I don't care if they change things around, but some of the changes really deflated the impact of some of the scenes. The biggest example for me is the West Wing scene. There were two things that they completely changed. One is that when Belle is looking at the painting of the prince, in the animated movie when she's trying to figure out what it is, the glow of the rose acts as a mechanism to stop trying to figure it out and distracts her to get her over there. In the LA movie the painting and the rose as very far apart (and there's no glow). Later in the LA movie Belle is straight out told that they're cursed and that the beast is a prince. In the animated film, Belle never explicitly is told this although she may have an inkling. Next Belle goes to the rose and beast comes and yells at her which makes her run and leave the castle. In the animated movie beast is especially angered because he explicitly told her not to go there. In the LA movie she's only told this by Lumiere and Cogsworth. In the animated movie Beast at least had more reason to be angry than just being a raging moron.

Of course, this goes back to the fact that it's not Beast who gives her the nice room because he's smart enough to realize that she may break the curse, instead dismissing it completely in the LA movie... and even still in the animated movie Belle immediately gives herself up for her father and then beast throws him out without her saying goodbye, another weighty scene. In the LA movie Belle says goodbye to her father and then tricks him into locking herself up. Not so much weight here.

Various things of this nature throughout the LA movie that seemed like change for the sake of change. I did like most of the actors and the sets/cgi were quite fantastic. I did think it was strange that LeFou just "switches sides" so quickly just because his side seems like it's losing. What would have happened if Gaston won the battle? I also won't bother going into the historically inaccurate things that were added into a movie that's supposed to depict 18th century France to please the SJW crowd since it's a fantasy movie, I'll let that nonsense go.