After watching the original film the other day, the nostalgia from the animated ‘Beauty and the Beast’ came at me with full force, since I hadn’t seen the film since I was a kid. And I loved it. Obviously, I watched the original in preparation for the live-action remake, which I saw for free and a day early with the aid of my good friend Will. I could say that everything is better when it’s free but in this case the remake is that good I’d pay a few more times to see it again.

Disney really got this live-action remake right. Last year’s ‘The Jungle Book’ was a delight, but I was disappointed with the lack of nostalgic elements the film had to offer such as many of the songs, which is fine, maybe that was me wanting too much of a film that was trying to re-establish itself. For some reason, here I was worried that the director (who directed the last two Twilight films, so I was a bit nervous for this) would play too heavily on the nostalgia, and it wouldn’t be original at all. Luckily, the film balances this, and it works very well.

So you all know the story, Belle (Emma Watson) an odd but beautiful girl ends up trapped in a doomed castle by the Beast (Dan Stevens) a cursed Prince, who kidnaps her father Morrice (Kevin Kline) after he trespasses. Belle swaps places with her father and hatches a plan to escape, but ends up becoming attached the the Beast, and the two form a bond that may break the spell set upon the Prince and the rest of the occupants of the castle. Classic Disney.

Yeah, I loved this one, despite being worried. The set design and costumes are beautiful, some of the best I’ve seen since last year’s ‘Fantastic Beasts.’ The style is very reminiscent of the original but in live-action it looks wondrous. And that’s just for starters. The choreography, and as such the musical numbers that this is featured in are terrific and really well done, for being a proper Disney musical it was an absolute highlight indeed. The script is well written and fixes some plot holes and adds bits in that were missing from the original, keeping old and new fans up to date with whatever needs to be done. The CGI isn’t bad either, Luminere, Cogsworth, Mrs Potts, Chip etc all look absolutely fine and are probably the best characters to watch, especially during the castle fight scene. The ‘Be Our Guest’ scene is full of CGI but well done at the same time. A lot of time and effort has clearly gone into it. And of course the Beast, which was to be a practically made costume at first, doesn’t look awful either, and we can tell it is Stevens under the effects - so that’s not so bad at all. I will say that there are a couple of editing problems the film suffers with, just some decisions that I didn’t agree with.

Now the characters are what really make this film. Stevens is charming as the Beast and has a whole lot of personality added to the character in comparison to the original, and you can tell Stevens is loving his time as him. Luke Evans isn’t to the level of the original Gaston but still a fantastic choice to play him. Charming, witty and very charismatic. Josh Gad is also a treat to watch, and my favourite character, Luminere (Ewan McGregor) is just awesome. His french accent is kept all good throughout and was just so loveable. And I might I say, a damn good singer too. But here’s the thing that lets the film down for me… Emma Watson. She’s not a bad actress in the slightest but in this she’s very, well… plain. Compared to the exuberance of the rest of the cast, she falls pretty flat, and only has character when she’s ‘singing’ really. Yeah, there was some bad lip syncing in this at times, if you look closely. She just didn’t have the heart of the original Belle and let it down for me. I’m not sure if the script or her is to blame, but she isn’t amazing, to me anyway. 

But alas, I can’t talk down on this film too much and its hard to criticise because I enjoyed myself so much. A full of heart remake that is kept alive as it has ever been by its terrific cast and very well done filmmaking. I can’t recommend this enough, and it’s definitely one of my favourite movies of the year so far. Part of me feels as though this succeeds the original in some ways, and vice versa. Although I suppose there is no beating the original, a tale as old as time.

8/10