Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 American musical romantic fantasy following the adoption of the love story between a monstrous-looking prince and a beautiful woman.
There's a complicated jumble of gender politics at hand, and any attempt at modernizing the dynamic is more of a random piling on rather than a thoughtful incorporation.
The only believable reason this classic was remade was for love of money, but it does look fantastic doing it... the original animated film is still your best bet.
Disney has ripped a jewel out of its casing and set it in something far more elaborate; the effect is garish rather than nostalgic, frustrating rather than memorable.
If Disney keeps cannibalizing itself, reenacting their animated hits like they're nothing more than karaoke videos, the Mouse House will eventually become its own cursed forgotten kingdom.
What Beauty and the Beast rises or falls on is the love story, and here, allowed to slow down to let in intimate moments, the movie catches fire. It's an exhilarating gift.
Ian McKellan makes a fine, melancholy Cogsworth the clock, but the rest of the enchanted servants come off hammy and campy, while Kevin Kline seems lost as Belle's father and Luke Evans turns alpha male Gaston into a bigger cartoon than the original.
All the hit numbers... Emma Watson is charming as Belle; and the enchanted servants are voiced by the likes of Ian McKellan, Emma Thompson, and Ewan McGregor. But seeing it will probably send you back to the original animated movie for refreshment.
