Genre: Romance, musical

Yes, the movie of a tale as old as time featuring our favourite song as old as rhyme has been remade! The heart wrenching story of Belle and “Beast” lives on!

This is a story about seeing beauty on the inside and not judging a book by its cover. I don’t really know why you wouldn’t know the plot, which is why I’m not going to mark the following as spoilers:

This story takes place in a small village in France in the 1700s. Long ago, there was a handsome prince who had everything his heart desired, except he didn’t have a heart. He lived in a beautiful castle, threw beautiful parties and only invited beautiful people. His compassion and ability to see past pretty faces was one day put to the test, but instead of passing, he was cursed. He transformed into a gruesome, ugly beast and his many servants were also turned into talking furniture and antiques. Each and every person who lived in the castle was forgotten about. He was given an enchanted rose and if he was not able to find true love (meaning the person also loved him back) before the last petal fell, he and his servants would stay that way forever. The beast had lost all hope, until the beautiful, strange, educated girl of the town, Belle, was taken as his prisoner. After many songs and many lovey-dovey moments, Belle started to realize the beast wasn’t that bad after all.

I thought it was a fantastic movie! The animation for the live furniture was spot on, many well known actors were in the movie and my favourite parts were the musical numbers! The ones that caught my attention were the songs “Gaston” and “Be Our Guest”. The classic scene where all the villagers are in a bar trying to cheer the handsome, strong alpha of the town up (especially LeFou– chill man) was spectacular! The dancing was obviously practiced a thousand times and the voices, especially Josh Gad’s, were really the best part. As for the part where Belle sits at a table and antiques are literally singing to and feeding her, I have to say, I was really impressed with the animation. Sometimes I forgot I was watching a real life action version, but in a good way because it was like watching that song being performed on Broadway! And I really loved Lumiére, also known as Ewan McGregor, because his voice was also one of my favourites.

This version of the movie was extremely longer than the animated Disney version, I even had to take a break in the middle of it. It was also a little darker than the cartoon because Gaston left Maurice (Belle’s father) tied up next to a tree, alone, to be eaten by the wolves. Also, it showed how Belle’s mother died of the plague in the movie after the beast and Belle went to Paris, which was a sad moment. I’d also just like to add that Gaston was a real jerk in this movie and he was much more evil than in the other one; he used LeFou and made him go against his conscious to protect himself from accusations (that were true), then when LeFou needed him he just left him to be crushed by a giant piano.

Speaking of LeFou, something that pleasantly surprised me was the fact that in one of the last scenes where everyone was dancing at a ball, he was dancing with another man! It was refreshing to see a homosexual character in this movie. However, according to The Huffington Post, a theater in Alabama refused to show the movie because of this. It wasn’t even that gay, whatever that means anyway.

Overall, even though at some points there was a bit too much going on, it was a good movie. In the end it looked like someone WAS slicker and quicker (and their neck was thicker) than Gaston after all.

Happy endings are the best! I definetely recommend that you see the movie whenever you can.