Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 American musical romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon. The film is a live-action remake of Disney's 1991 animated film of the same name, itself an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 18th-century fairy tale. The film premiered at Spencer House in London on February 23, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States in standard, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D formats, along with Dolby Cinema on March 17, 2017.

Plot
An arrogant prince is cursed to live as a terrifying beast until he finds true love. Strangely, his chance comes when he captures an unwary clockmaker, whose place is then taken by his bold and beautiful daughter Belle. Helped by the Beast's similarly enchanted servants, including a clock, a teapot, and a candelabra, Belle begins to see the sensitive soul behind the fearsome façade. But as time runs out, it soon becomes obvious that Belle's cocky suitor Gaston is the real beast of the piece instead of the actual Beast.

Why It's Not Beautiful

 * 1) It basically furthers Hollywood's ideology of "everything old is new again" by remaking this film.
 * 2) The story is way too similar to the original 1991 film. The new scenes and songs don't add much to the plot and are just there to escape the similarities. It basically feels more of a copycat rather than a remake.
 * 3) Emma Watson is a terrible casting choice for Belle. While her performance is generally okay, it's her singing that's a problem, as she was so clearly autotuned.
 * 4) *Ewan McGregor's singing is also terrible; in addition, he tries way too hard to use a fake accent for Lumiere but ends up sounding annoying.
 * 5) *Another thing is, since Emma Watson is British in reality, she is playing the role of a character who is possibly French as the film was set in France like the original 1991 animated film. The 1991 version also had Belle speak in an American accent (aside from scenes where she pronounced French names with a French accent as heard in the musical number "Madame Gaston") prior to being voiced by an American actress, making it inaccurate to the original source material.
 * 6) **Why didn't they even think of using an American actress to play Belle's part instead of using a British actress of all people?!
 * 7) Beast's character design is butchered, as he looks barely like the original Beast. He more looks like Faun from Pan's Labyrinth or Stranger from Oddworld.
 * 8) *Also, he and his servants' character designs all look ugly and hideous, and fall away under the uncanny valley.
 * 9) The characters' personalities come across as unlikable throughout the film and barely act like their animated incarnations:
 * 10) *Belle went from a quirky but nice, fun-loving, cheerful, patient, and polite action girl who isn't a pushover into an overly defensive, tomboyish, and arrogant snob who rarely ever smiles, all for the sake of shoehorned "female empowerment" on the part of actress Emma Watson.
 * 11) *The Beast is a much bigger jerk than he was in the animated original, which makes him and his character development in the remake far more difficult to be rooted for.
 * 12) * LeFou isn't funny at all, unlike the original who was used as comic relief. He is basically a filler character who serves no purpose at all in the film.
 * 13) *The Enchantress, who is given a larger role in the film, comes off more like an amoral psychopath who practically triggers the entire events of the film from start to end, right down to the infamous jump-the-shark moment where the film officially gets to flip it's middle finger to the original 1991 film is where she undoes the Beast's curse near the end of the film before Belle confesses her love for him, which makes the Beast's character development throughout the entire film completely pointless.
 * 14) High overuse of CGI, especially for the enchanted objects and the wolves.
 * 15) *While the visuals are gorgeous, it is highly repetitive and distracting from the story.
 * 16) Many of the new songs in the film are shoehorned just to distract from the poor writing, and they just feel boring.
 * 17) A scene where LeFou dances with a man for two seconds is just there to pander to the LGBT community, which caused a ton of controversy and the film to be banned in some countries.
 * 18) There are numerous stupid decisions and some plot holes throughout the film, mostly at attempts at trying too hard to fix plot-holes from the original 1991 film, like how the enchantress at the beginning now erases the memories of the other guests. Nostalgia Critic criticized and mocked the choice with "And that’s how we solved that plot hole, but fear not. We will have many more to confuse you."
 * 19) *Speaking of stupid decisions, many scenes from the original film that are re-used in this film are butchered beyond belief; for example in the infamous library scene, the Beast arrogantly shows off the castle library to Belle after the latter recites Romeo and Juliet much to the former's chagrin, in stark contrast to the original film where the Beast gifts Belle the castle library out of compassion and affection towards her, which made the Beast come off as far more unlikable in this film.
 * 20) Belle and the Beast spend less time with each other in the film, and their emotional scenes are shorter than in the original. For example, when Belle finds the rose in the West Wing and the Beast arrives, their argument only lasts for 7 seconds, while the original was 30 seconds long! The original argument was more than 4 times longer than in the remake!
 * 21) * Consequently, this results in both Belle and the Beast's romance having terrible chemistry, unlike their animated counterparts.
 * 22) Belle's signature ball gown is a massive downgrade compared to the original, as it looks more like a cheap modern-day prom dress as opposed to a super-stylized traditional ball gown from the mid-18th century, due to its lack of details. The main reason why the ball gown was designed this way was because Emma Watson refused to wear a corset for stupid feminism reasons claiming that it was 'sexist oppression against women, ignoring the fact that corsets were normal as a support garment back in the mid-18th century, the time period this film is set in.
 * 23) The scene where Beast is killed by Gaston is worse than in the original, as it is made to look like Gaston just shoots him from behind 2 times with a gun instead of stabbing him brutally with a knife. In addition, this film has Gaston plunging from the castle because the bridge he was standing on crumbles and collapses, unlike the original film when he falls from the castle after stabbing the Beast after losing his balance.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The visuals are very dazzling to look at.
 * 2) The new songs, while shoehorned, are still great.
 * 3) *Even the Beast's song, Evermore, is very magnificent, despite being out of place.
 * 4) Beautiful cinematography, especially for the castle.
 * 5) We get somewhat decent backstories to how Belle’s mother died and how the Beast turned into a jerk.
 * 6) The idea that the Enchanted Objects would turn into unanimated objects if the curse wasn't broken in time adds drama and tension to the film, whereas this wasn't mentioned in the original film and nothing seemed to indicate that the Beast's failure to break the curse would kill the servants (even though it was planned).
 * 7) Despite LeFou's flaws, he is at least less of a Butt-Monkey than he was in the original.
 * 8) *Beast servants are still likeable and are pretty fun characters.
 * 9) *At least The Enchantress undoes the curse which repairs the crumbling castle, revives the Beast and restores him and his servants to their human forms.
 * 10) Despite Emma Watson's bad casting choice, her performance was pretty good.
 * 11) *Also some of the other actors good performances.
 * 12) Nice production values.
 * 13) Good costume design (expect Belle's signature ball gown)
 * 14) Some versions might have cut out the scene where LeFou dances.
 * 15) The ending isn't too bad.

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Reception
Despite Beauty and the Beast receiving generally positively received by critics, with many praising its faithfulness to the original animated film, as well as elements from the Broadway musical, performances of the cast (particularly Watson and Stevens), visual style, musical score, songs, costume design, and production values, though criticism was drawn toward some of the character designs, its excessive similarity to the original and the lack of chemistry between the lead characters, hence the remake has been considered by many to be inferior to the original 1991 film.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 374 reviews, with an average rating of 6.69/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With an enchanting cast, beautifully crafted songs, and a painterly eye for detail, Beauty and the Beast offers a faithful yet fresh retelling that honors its beloved source material.". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

The original voice actor of Mrs. Potts and the writer of the 1991 film, Angela Lansbury and Linda Woolverton disowned the film.