Beauty and the Beast (Live Action)

Release Date: March 17, 2017

Watch Date: March 14 – March 16, 2023

 

    You might immediately notice, if you’ve been paying attention, that this movie is out of sequence and not during our ten days of rotating picks. So what happened?

    Well, for a few days Bob was sick, and my job was boring. So what are you going to do? Disney+ has a group watch feature for a reason, so why not take advantage of it on my breaks and entertain ourselves? Since we couldn’t really talk during the film in the way we usually do, it seemed smart to pick a film that we were both familiar with, but because we didn’t want to pick something we were really looking forward to watching together, why not pick the live action version of it?

    See, there’s logic to what we do.

    This movie is more true to the musical than the film, and I’m okay with that. The musical made some good additions. It gives the Beast a song, which he richly deserved, and gives Belle some more character than just ‘smart girl who lives in a little town full of dummies’. I’m very for that. Both additions are great, and the new songs are just as lovely and ear-wormy as the original film.

    This may not have been the first in the live action remakes, Cinderella and Jungle Book I think came out before this, but this is the movie people remember. When you’re talking about live action Disney remakes, this is the film that feels like the earliest in the set, this is the film that’s made it so Moana, and Lady and the Tramp, and Dumbo and Peter Pan are all getting fresh new coats of paint. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. But this is the version of the universe we’re living in so we better get used to it.

    I try to look at these as the grown up versions of the films I loved as a kid. They’re not “for kids” in my mind, though I couldn’t quite tell you why. They’re for the adults who grew up with the animated films and want to have new life breathed in to something they love. So I don’t take it as seriously as I do the animated versions, they’re extra, they’re contextual additions, they’re not canon, and they’re certainly not canon to how characters should be portrayed in Disneyparks and on Disney merch. Sorry, I like the design Lumiere and the Beast and Cogsworth had when I grew up. Nothing wrong with it. I just don’t want to buy something with a realistic candlestick on it, or have my picture taken with a realistic monster. Just not my thing.

    There’s nothing wrong with this film, and plenty right with it, it’s just not the version I grew up loving. It’s still good though, and in the canon of the live action animated films – which is a sequence of words I hate writing let me assure you – it’s probably one of the best. Of course I haven’t seen them all, so my opinion may change over time.

    For now, though, Beauty and the Beast remains a tale as old as time, and one I’m sure I’ll find an excuse to put on again.