#2015's cinderella is the only movie where the romance and the prince were actually even more vital

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

Tbh, the princes in the Disney Princess LA remakes don't have a reason to be there anymore. They have been rendered useless in these stories since now there seems to be a much heavier focus on the independent and tough aspect of the princess, which is why the romance no longer has a place in them the way they used to back then. You can cut them out and these movies will still work. They are only included because they were part of the original movie, but when you take the more recent princess movies into account and what they are now about, which is along the same lines as the LA remakes, their presence is pretty damn unnecessary.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I Saw Beauty and the Beast

And I have Opinions.

Firstly, I should say that I do have a huge attachment to the original movie.  I think it’s a masterpiece, probably Disney’s best work second only to The Lion King.  (Even then, it’s a very close second.)  I was always going to see this, even if I really didn’t want to, because the original is one of my mom’s favorites and I have a ten year old sister.  I’m going to see all of the live action movies; it’s becoming a tradition to go to them with my mom.  

What I expect out of these movies, tbh, is Experience First, actually solid movie outside of the nostalgia second.  While I think that the 2015 Cinderella was beautiful and great in its general fairy tale loveliness, I don’t feel like it really expanded on the original in any way or bettered the story.  The 2016 Jungle Book, conversely, darkened and matured the Disney story and honestly made it more enjoyable for me.

Beauty and the Beast wasn’t going to be as good as the original--nor was it going to improve upon it.  I think that acknowledging that you are seeing this movie as a visual spectacle and nostalgia bomb first is REALLY IMPORTANT in terms of enjoying it.  I wasn’t going to pay $8 and not enjoy it, you know?  I wasn’t gonna be the bitch who sat with people who don’t critique every bit of pop culture and rain on their parade.  For people like my mom who are seeing this because it’s a nostalgia bomb...  You’re going to love it.

And I kind of did too.

There are things I can critique to death, and they’re valid issues.  First and foremost--it’s too early to remake a masterpiece of this nature.  It will be too early when The Lion King is remade.  Cinderella and The Jungle Book (I don’t count Maleficent as a remake tbh because... it’s a separate animal for me and I dislike it) were working with very old material that is in many ways dated.  There wasn’t much story to either of the originals.  The original Beauty and the Beast is dated in some aspects that this movie tries to expand on or improve, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill--but it’s still a movie made in 1991.  By then, Disney had learned that it needed to expand upon its romances, it needed to add character development, it needed to make an actual story, not just a visual fairy tale.  So what the earlier movies missed, Beauty and the Beast already had.

Emma Watson is fine.  That’s how I’d put it.  She’s not doing anything great performance-wise, we all know her singing voice isn’t there.  (I didn’t go here for the singing, tho.)  The thing is that she’s pretty much a placeholder.  The “feminist Belle” angle is honestly kind of overplayed in the media.  Belle does invent a washing machine thing, she doesn’t wear a corset, but for the most part she’s kind of a placeholder character.  It’s fine.  She’s not MY Belle, but she’s not offensive.

Dan Stevens, I think, made the Beast a bit more his own.  He ain’t the Beast I fell in love with in the original, but I still like him a lot.  He feels more like an actual prince--snotty and a bit of a literature snob, evidently (the best parts of the romance where when he and Belle sparred over books) and honestly just super Dan Stevens-y.  I was like, Cousin Matthew, wtf happened?  It worked for me, it worked for my mom, my little sister spent the entire movie going “the beast is BRIT-ISH” so... there was more of a departure here, and I liked it.  I like the idea of these movies being more their own thing than trying to replace the original thing, you know?

The side characters were great, imo.  I know a lot of people don’t like the CGI--for the Beast, we aren’t where we’re supposed to be yet. I’ll give you that.  I got used to it, though.  (However, the scenes in which he sang threw me off.  “Something There” should have remained sung in their heads, imo.)  The servants, I liked.  They didn’t look like their 2D counterparts; but the movie was going more for a feeling that they were actually turning into “dead” furniture, which I appreciated.  It’s another separation, and if anything, this movie could have done with more separations.  That way, I wasn’t comparing it so much.  Lumiere was great, Plumette was adorable, Emma Thompson is PER-FUCKING-FECTION DON’T @ ME ON EMMA.

Gaston basically stole the show.  We knew this would happen.  The Le Fou thing would have been so much more enjoyable if they hadn’t mentioned it?  Like, Bill Condon, he’s obviously gay and Tumblr probably would have loved his clear gayness HAD YOU NOT SAID THAT HORRIFIC THING ABOUT “EXCLUSIVELY GAY MOMENT”(S).  That wasn’t even the gayest moment of the movie???  Like???  Anyway, I always thought that Le Fou was gay, he just got more character development in this movie.  Gaston is what mattered in that plotline anyway.  We all walked out of the theater talking about how great Luke Evans was, how fantastic he sounded.  My mom isn’t even into musicals and she was going on about how fab Luke Evans was; it was that obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing.  I wish his career was bigger.

The Dress.  Okay, so the dress Belle wears at the very end >>> the yellow dress.  We know this.  The yellow dress should have been so much better.  But tbh, I don’t blame Emma Watson for that.  I know it’s become popular to say that she RUINED THE DRESS ON HER OWN but... If she did have creative control, which I don’t think she did to the extent that people think she did, that’s the fault of Disney.  This is a huge movie for them.  If they allowed Emma Watson to go over the costume designer’s head, that’s because they let her do it.  Anyone could have looked at that dress, said, “Sorry Emma, but that’s not what we’re going for” and told the costume designer to start over.  It’s not like we’re dealing with a Movie Star here, it’s Hermione and she’s still rising.  With all that being said, I think it looks a lot better in motion.  The bodice leaves much to be desired and it could have been much better, but the skirt flows in a really lovely manner.  Should it have been better?  Yes, but I was pleasantly surprised by its movement.

The bits that really stand out in my mind are things like the opening.  Firstly, because Dan Stevens was in a David Bowie getup and I think we were all Very Unsure Of Where Our Vaginas Stood On This.  (I was... good with it...)  But that was an aesthetic moment that was sumptuous and over the top and its Own Thing.  It felt like real 18th century France on crack, and I appreciated it.  I just don’t know why THAT was so cool-looking, when the Beast’s transformation was so... lowkey... compared to the original.  That was where I felt they could have gone bigger.

Also, could have had Belle and the Beast make out more but that’s just me.

Was it as good as it could have been?  No, but I don’t think that was ever possible.  You can’t top the original, just like they aren’t going to be able to top the original Lion King.  They probably won’t even be able to do Mulan justice, because even though that’s probably not on the level of BatB or TLK, it’s too soon.  The film industry hasn’t progressed as much since the 90s as it has since the 50s and 60s.  You can’t put a fresh spin on movies that are still, relatively speaking, still fresh.  Especially since 2D animation hasn’t progressed much since; visually, there’s definitely an old style to Cinderella and The Jungle Book, but Disney hasn’t released a 2D movie since The Princess and the Frog--and that was after a long break beforehand.

So; I advise you to go in with realistic expectations, acknowledge that this is a movie you enjoy for the visuals and the nostalgia.  But also--hold Disney to higher standards.  Artistically, it isn’t where it was in its Renaissance of 1989-1999.  And it’s never going to get back to that place, or surpass it, unless people hold it to a high standard.  These remakes are fun, and I’m going to keep watching them; but I’m acknowledging that for Disney, these are cash cows, not artistic endeavors.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something special about seeing it onscreen.