Beauty and the Beast

The Disney film was done so well. The reviews were negative and made this film out to be something that it wasn't. This film is better than any review has ever made it out to be. A few extra songs and some more back story is all that has been added so where the rants and reviews came from I have no idea unless they were watching a totally different version of the film that I didn't get to see.

With all the reviews focusing on Emma Watson I want to start off talking about the other Emma. I will review Watson's performance but first I want to talk about Emma Thompson as Mrs. Pot. It was always going to be hard replacing Angela Lansbury because even though the voice of Mrs. Pot was in many ways her voice it still takes a lot to pull it off convincingly and sing with that accent. We knew that Thompson could sing because she sings a little in 'Saving Mr. Banks' but I didn't know that she could sing like that. Underneath the accent was a very good voice that she was trying to conceal a little. With three different versions of Tale as old as time being played in the film I don't really understand why she was trying to conceal how good her voice was but it is the mark of a true singer when they can still sound really good underneath an accent like that. Only when she turned back into a person did I realise who it was, I was clueless until that point and normally I don't have a problem with recognising her in any film.

Ewan McGregor was another one that I didn't recognise. Singing in a French accent was even more impressive than singing in a lower class English accent. I know that he can sing, i've seen Moulin Rouge but I didn't know he could hold that accent whilst singing and furthermore, I had no idea who it was until the credits came up. Alongside Ian McKellen, as the candlestick he was superb. Everything that made the Disney film magical was still there but with better technology and skills and the addition of McKellen, who is superb in everything that he does, the film that so many people fell in love with as a child just became a film that adults can fall in love with as adults. This film is one step more than the Disney.

Emma Watson was obviously Emma Watson but she played the part well and it suited her. Her voice was so surprisingly good that I actually believed that she was lip singing for a while until she sang something that just sounded like her speaking voice. People that felt like there was a feministic twist on this character are mostly wrong. She is learning from her father and she is slightly stronger than the original character but she isn't any stronger than the original character could have been. Her Belle is perfect. The emotion is so much stronger in this film than before and instead of looking pretty and not doing much else she is the complete package. I wouldn't give her an Oscar for it but I will give her the praise that she deserves because she deserves to be making a lot more films and she needs to make good decisions over films and roles because she can act and sing- it's all there for her if she wants it.

Luke Evans... he is starting to make a name for himself and his voice was equally surprising. I would be amazed if he hadn't had some form of vocal training in his past because there was vibrato in his voice but not enough to sound totally operatic. The Girl on the train was released in November and his character had a darker side than the character of 'Bard' but we can't say that we didn't see him taking on an evil role at some point and he was superb. Again, I don't think that he would win an award for his performance but I don't think that it is the right character to earn an award. He is another one who should only go up and make a huge name for himself.

The rants about Lefou being gay- we disagree and as we review gay films on this blog it's not a homophobic disagreement. The character doesn't know who he is, he is in awe of Gaston and doesn't truly believe in himself. He wants to be as good as Gaston but doesn't feel like he ever will be and he is loyal to Gaston. It isn't until the end that he realises who he is and what he wants. If you want to see his character as gay then feel free but I think that it was fairly clear which two men were the gay couple at the end. If the film is trying to embrace equality then they did it and they did it in the best way and that is by not making a huge controversial statement. Yes, they could have had a different ethnicity for any of the main characters but it wasn't like there were only 'white' actors in the cast. Whatever reason you think that you have to not go and see this film you're probably mistaken and will only understand that or receive clarity when you see it for yourself.

Beauty and the Beast is magical. I think that some people were put off by 'The Jungle Book' because this film was labelled as 'live action' but that was only true for the beast and it made it more real and more magical. Seeing the hall come to life, the dresses, hearing the music, it took you to a different place that many films fail to do. For a while you could forget that you were in the cinema and you could actually believe that you were a spectator. For the people with childish imaginations that always wanted to be Belle you could actually see yourself in that golden dress with Emma Thompson singing and you dancing. More than two thumbs way up for this film. I've learn a lot abut the characters and appreciated the magic that was always there.
Watch out for Dan Stevens (the beast) (A walk among the tombstones, the fifth estate) it was hard to judge his performance because of him being a beast but he was still as good as the original beast.