Movie Review: Beauty and the Beast

I’ll be honest, Beauty and the Beast wasn’t a movie I thought I would be interested in seeing. And then as I learned about the full cast and started to see the trailers my interest grew. When I was growing up I was a little too old to fully enjoy the Beauty and the Beast animated movie but I remember watching it several times while babysitting and the most recently with my children.

What got me excited about screening Beauty and the Beast was really the cast, what a great collection of amazing actors. Of course Emma Watson as Belle is a great fit but the rest of the cast plays such an important roll. I particularly love Dan Stevens as the Beast, even with all of the computer animation that transformed him into the beast his mannerisms and facial expression are portrayed wonderfully and help capture the humanity of the Beast. Instead of seeing Beast as a creature you see him as a man trapped inside the beastly body.

What makes this movie different from the original animated Disney classical is that it takes us further into the store of Belle and her family. We also learn more about the Beast and how they develop throughout the story. There are several scenes and songs that are not in the original but fit seamlessly into the classic scenes you love.

Often when animated movies are made into life-action movies I’ve found that they are overly dramatic and intense but there was a fine balance in this movie that still makes it appropriate for children.

I love Ewan McGregor as Lumiere singing “Be Our Guest” and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts. But I think my favorite character was Luke Evans as Gaston, he does a wonderful job making you kind of like Gaston but also really hate the true monster he really is.