Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is the kind of musical in which the songs do not enhance the already very simple story, but rather slow it down. And there are loads of them. Visually, however, it is a really beautiful movie, with a retro charm in the style of the original The Wizard of Oz, and with the prettiest princess, Emma Watson, who looks like she was born for this role. A small spoiler: what I will remember the most from this film is the moment of shock when Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson appeared on screen simultaneously, and I realized that instead of their voices, I had been listening to song dubbed in Czech for two hours. It is hard to refuse a Prague's IMAX ceremony premiere invitation, but that was really the last time I will ever go to see a dubbed film. Nevertheless, the movie has excellent 3D animation (that snow!) and its format is also perfectly suited to IMAX. (15/03/2017)

The remake of the classic Disney animation is a category in itself. Some ideas were executed better here, while others were suppressed. The second half works slightly better thanks to the changes. At times, it is still horrible kitsch, and I mean absolutely horrible, and the casting is dreadful. Especially in the case of Emma Watson, who is indeed the perfect girl next door, but in no way a universal beauty. And Luke Evans? He is simply wasted on such an operetta villain. Fortunately, the theme has been done so many times that there is no reason to despair and outside of Disney, you can choose, for example, the impressionistic Beauty and the Beast, the Czech Beauty and the Beast or the modern Beauty and the Beast, which may look like a Disney clone, but is actually pure French. (01/04/2024)

I've loved the original since I was a child, and I know every scene by heart, so maybe I was too critical the first time I watched this film. At its core, this tale has everything the original has, and then some. Let's start with the songs, Alan Menken created a musical masterpiece in 1991, his songs are captivating and immortal, listening to them always warms my heart. In 2017, he adds a couple of new ones that are also melodic, easy to remember, and that keep the spirit of the original songs. They also added some pretty good new scenes that explain a bit more about the main characters. As for the cast, I was very happy with Dan Stevens, he convinced me of his acting qualities a long time ago and he portrays the Beast beautifully, and they also did a great job translating his real facial expressions to the final beast form – but more of the visual effects later. Emma Watson seemed a bit too stiff at times, but otherwise she handled it well, including the singing. The best is perhaps Luke Evans, who physically and vocally resembles his animated character the most and his antics are very enjoyable. I'm incredibly ashamed that I didn't recognize Ewan McGregor – and I've listened to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack at least a thousand times – he handled the French accent brilliantly. The rest of the cast is just perfect, including Ian McKellen, who will always be a heartthrob of mine. Finally, I'll mention the visuals, which are a chapter in themselves. In the cinema I regretted not having my glasses with me to enjoy the wonderful effects sharply enough. The "Be our guest" scene was the one I was most curious about and it exceeded my expectations – what am I going to go into here, absolutely all the visuals were simply amazing, from the aforementioned Beast, to the village, to the castle decorations, to Bella's iconic dress, everything. (29/05/2017)

I can't help but feel that making a remake of an animated film that is already good and just giving it a visually stunning live-action adaptation isn't enough for me to be truly excited about the film. Beauty and the Beast is not a bad movie, but it's not a great movie either. Plus, the story just ends badly. He should have stayed in animal form. (05/06/2017)

I like fairy tales. But I don't think this was a fairy tale. From the beginning, I had questions about the plot and what was going on, rather than enjoying the movie. Unfortunately, the movie didn't grab me at all, the songs left me unimpressed (and I like musicals possibly even more than fairy tales), and they were at times long-winded, which the rest of the movie was, too. It didn't flow at all, I had to stop it halfway through to browse the internet just to take a break from it. The movie just didn't work at all. How did it even deal with time? I watched it with my guy and he was even more annoyed than I was. Nothing but comments about this and that, even though he's a pretty undemanding viewer. *SPOILER* For example, Gaston's fall... that one was much ado about nothing, they could easily have had him trip and it would have had the same effect. Pretty unsuccessful for me. A weaker 2 stars. (04/09/2017)