Beauty and the Beast
2017  PG  FANTASY  2h 9min
CAST— Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson
MUSIC— Alan Menken  DIRECTOR— Bill Condon  BASED ON— La Belle et la Bête (story), by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

     Sacre bleu. The magic has returned in a splendid way in this beautiful remake of an already classic Disney film. Beautiful yet down-to-earth Belle, a young woman much more interested in the exploits of classic literary characters than in her handsome stalker whom the town idolizes, loves her eccentric father more than anyone. But when the family horse returns riderless after what should have been a simple journey she follows the horse’s lead and discovers that her father is being held prisoner in an isolated, mysterious, downright eerie estate lorded over by a hideous (and cranky) man-beast. Belle manages to take her father’s place despite father’s pleas. He promises to rescue her and is hastily forced from the estate. Well the villagers just laugh at the seeming ramblings of a lunatic. Meanwhile, Belle is beginning to learn a bit of the history of this miserable place, which was once a beacon of fun and frivolity, until one night, as the somewhat cold lord of the manor was cruel to an old crone (actually an enchantress). She cursed the palace and all who resided therein to a life of beastly proportions: the servants were to live out their lives as animated inanimate objects, but the real curse fell upon the master of the house, who was transformed into a monstrous beast. Only the love of a woman could reverse the all-encompassing curse. In the present Belle is making friends with all manner of oddity but can she even begin to make nice with, much less fall for, a horrendous beast? The film (gasp!) actually manages to live up to (but never quite surpass) its glorious source material. Whereas the 1991 version was actually a quite simple tale, here the filmmakers believe that bigger is better and, for once, that isn’t a bad thing. But as a suggestion one might wanna view the two films back to back, as the grandeur of both actually complement each other. A rare effect indeed in the world of film.
OUR RATING— *** ½
ORIGINAL— Beauty and the Beast (1946/1963/1991)