Beauty and the Beast (2017) – Film Review

In 2017, the re-imagination of Disney’s animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, eliciting both anticipation and nostalgia, dazzled the silver screen worldwide. The musical romantic fantasy directed by Bill Condon served as an elegant manifestation of traditional animation stepping into the live-action world. However, despite its grandeur, lavish set design and robust performances, the film lacked an authentic identity, partly owing to its reverential obedience to the 1991 animated classic.

It would be an act of imprudence to question the narrative credibility of a story ingrained so deeply in the universal consciousness. Yet, it was necessary to create a slightly innovative touch to make this fairy tale palpably engrossing, especially for those familiar with its animation predecessor. Despite some contemporary elements woven in, it fails to assert any notable creative departure, dampening the magic with predictability.

Embodying Belle, Emma Watson brought forth the necessary characteristics – intelligence, compassion, resilience. However, her performance felt underwhelming. It lacked a sense of compelling depth and emotional elasticity needed for the journey of a provincial girl who discovers her prince in a cursed Beast. Despite these weaknesses, Watson certainly made her character memorable by introducing modern sensibilities into Belle’s personality. This new Belle’s courage and strong sense of agency resound with modern audiences, making the film’s message about true beauty being found within all the more powerful.

Dan Stevens’ CGI-rendered Beast was quite an audio-visual spectacle but regrettably didn’t come across as quite as warm or personable as the original. Though the attempts at imbuing depth through his existential broodings were appreciated, the spectral texture to his persona felt contrived. Yet, it was his endearing, childlike wonder in ‘Something There’ and his anguish in ‘Evermore’ that recompensed for any flaws.

Among the secondary characters, Luke Evans‘s rendition of Gaston is notably superb. His charismatic performance renders Gaston an even more pompous and smug antagonist than the animated original, yet at the same time so irresistibly charming that it provides a dramatic foil for the plot’s progression.

The inanimate-to-animate objects deserve due credit. The meticulously rendered CGI offered impressive spectacles in Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip and others, but sadly lacked the genuine emotion we expected. Their faces, although beautifully crafted, carried an unshakable wooden stiffness, diluting their vivacity. Nevertheless, they held the narrative line well with comic interludes and classic musical numbers.

The extravagant production design unquestionably echoed opulence and fine detailing. From Belle’s rustic village to the imposing, intricate interiors of the Beast’s castle, every set added visual allure to the storytelling. The period costumes adorned by the characters too, painted an effective tableau of 18th-century France. The animated renditions of the beloved songs brought nostalgia, though at times it felt the new versions couldn’t quite hit the heights of the original.

Now coming to the film’s attempts to capture diversity and inclusivity. It subtly threads a subplot involving a gay character, making it Disney’s first. Yet, it could have taken a bolder stance rather than keeping the subplot understated and subtle, almost like an afterthought.

Beauty and the Beast does a decent job at embodying its 1991 animated progenitor in a live-action form. It attempts to add layers to the classic fairy tale, throwing light on backstories and experimenting with diversities. However, these attempts, along with the performances and the digital rendering of the animated characters, suffer from a lack of inherent depth, reducing them to shadow play against the vibrant sets and popular musical numbers. The film could have offered an invigorating rendition of the time-tested narrative by capitalizing on its decision to remodel a loved classic. Still, it faltered due to its excessive reliance on familiarity, thus preventing it from exploring untapped territories in character development and narrative novelty. Overall, Beauty and the Beast makes for a heartwarming watch but sadly doesn’t bloom into the masterpiece that it potentially could have been.