As per usual Disney did not surprise me, they did everything like they're now used to, they have agenda and they must finish it. So I was not surprised seeing poc in France at prince's court at the opening scene and among the peasants later, something that was completely impossible, but we live in Hollywood France, it allows such incorrectness left and right. Second one is that LeFou is hinted to be gay. What's the point? And the scene of the final fight of peasants and castle residents with three guys being dressed in women's clothes and one obviously liking it accompanied by the phrase "be free" (they dance with LeFou at the final dance too).
Ugh.. where do I begin? Let's skip the agenda, it is always present and it's nothing new, but the script is a completely different topic, because the overall movie was a big disappointment to say the least. They tried to copy the original and expand it, but made some critical changes, small, but I think they make the storyline into something completely different because of it.
To make things not as unbearable, let's start with something good, things I liked, because there's not much to mention:
- The Castle. The architecture of it is overbearingly extravagant, but it's beautiful. Also the fact that the castle collapses bit by bit because of every petal falling is also one of the few things I think can be liked. All the background and decorations are done beautifully.
- The "Be our guest" scene. Although it's quite hard to make animation characters as vivid in live adaptation, but at least they tried, although you can't really pay attention to Lumiere's facial expressions since the face is so tiny, the rest of it is fiery.
The list of things I didn't like is longer. I think it's better to address them chronologically.
- Opening scene, Prince's ball. Nothing to say, they copied the intro of animation, but made it live action. BUT! They mention that all residents of the castle who were cursed along with Prince, their families live in the village Belle lives in, witch made those families forget that there are more members to their families. Which I think is astonishingly cruel.
- Belle scene and her song. They sing a lot btw, dialogues are rubbish, so they sing a lot. Nothing new here too, basically a copy, except for some reason her house is among others, instead of having this outcast feeling of being separate farm. I can compliment one thing here is that there are many extras and the picture feels full.
- Gaston scene. Why they chose Luke Evans as Gaston is beyond me, comparing Emma and him they look like father and daughter. Are there no actors who can sing, how about just choosing actors and dubbing them? Also they changed him into narcissus with an empty head, while animation Gaston was the brainier one, while LeFou acted like his name. And I think in the animation he was not as straightforward, which wasn't delicated too.
- Belle's father scene. AGAIN SINGING, like two previous scenes were all singing, but now he sings too. Again the same copying of original in its' essence, Belle's father rides away with his gadgets. There is an emphasis on Belle's mother (the expansion), we see her portrait and father works on a mechanic windmill with figurines of him and his wife holding the small Belle.
- Belle's scene. Washing and singing. Does anyone realize that she put her barrel invention into a public place? I'm sure that pool doesn't belong to her and people come and go, but she occupied it for her washing, it's cool she can invent, but did she ever ask if she can put it in there? I doubt it. So even if people acted vile, for the stupidest reason, but I stand by my word. Also I didn't get their reaction to teaching a girl. Another agenda, to show how women were oppressed. But actually boys and girls had schools, not in the classic sense, but they had. Even if most people were illiterate, but they weren't that bad. All in all this scene intended to be "don't let the girls read so they won't get any ideas", but it failed to be that to me.
- But then Gaston finds Belle again, what a stalker, and she says once again that she won't marry him, she storms off and comes... quite far away actually, you can see the village quite far away from the mountain she chose to finish her song. So I imagined her hold on to that breathe and then continue when she reached the top ahahaha.
- Maurice scene. Him going through the woods, suddenly the lightning hits the tree and it falls, leaving only the path to the castle. Here I think they simply copied the French movie I mentioned, but in reverse, Beats's castle was shrouded in eternal winter.
He come to the castle and what a gret architecture there is, it's stunning. And he takes the liberty to get warm and dine, before he's startled by the talking cup, Chip. He leaves, but sees the rose bush and remembers how he promised a rose and picks one. The beast becomes mad and imprisons him for it. On thing I noticed what was very different from the animation, I don't know if they noticed themselves. In animation the beast walks on all four at the beginning, before he starts walking like a human again, which visually indicates progress, unlike movie beast that always walks like a human, but acts like an ass. Philip storms off and finds way home, it all happens in a matter of seconds, so Bell asks him to show the way, what a smart horse. She finds her father and is baffled that he was imprisoned for a rose. HERE LIES THE SMALL BIG CHANGE. He doesn't make it sound small, he tells her he was cursed because of the rose, so it's a big deal for him (wtf). This is important, because it is important for the scene where Belle finds the rose in the west wing, keep it in mind. Belle changes with her father, who promises to get her out and she promises to escape. She's alone and is found by Lumiere, their purpose is very evident from the very beginning and they will mention it not once, they talk that the castle is cursed and to lift the curse the girl must fall in love with the beast (not in front of Belle though, she may know only about the curse) and they sound like their purpose is simply selfish. As if if she had no idea would be lying to her. In the animation it was kept from her, but she guessed it herself, but they didn't overdramatise the situation. The architecture:
- Gaston's scene. The singing again. Attempt at copying the scene from animation. But then Maurice appears and talks about the beast. Gaston agrees to help, but loses his temper when they can't find the way and cruelly leaves Maurice tied to a tree in the woods (like wtf).
- Be our guest scene. Quite spectacular in general when they sing (which I liked), but there is a big difference when beast approaches her bedroom to offer to dine with him, movie beast sounds so flacid and a huge ass, it's as if he's forced to act good because they need to lift the curse. Many of the acting and dialogue scenes suck tbh. Unlike animation when beast roars.
(what a huge contrast)
The dialogues in the animation are way more delicate and logical, the Beast acknowledges that he was thinking she might lift the curse, but he's been a Beast for so long, so ugly and repulsive, which are shown through her reaction, he has such fiery temper too and it's hard to change even if someone by your side gives you advice, so he felt hopeless
Unlike the movie Beast who just walks off. And later continues to act like an arrogant ass. Where should love come from? - Belle's scene in the west wing. She asks "why are you good to me", "master is not that awful".. he is, the way he was portrayed is awful, you want to slap him. But this is why I say this scene doesn't work. In the animation Belle is scared off by the beasts's roars since she had no idea what she had done wrong, she had no clue that the rose is THAT important. But because movie Belle KNOWS, the scene looks different. Overall it has no tension and she sees the rose right away
and reaches out, but he finds her and she storms off. But if she's not deaf she should be aware that the rose matter a lot. It also matters that she did not lift the glass cover of the rose. But this is the replica of the scene with wolves.. Question: where did she get the horse, Maurice should have taken it, non? It's not shown, animation used a cursed carriage at least. - Saving Belle from wolves. Another copy-paste but why every scene still lacks some emotional tension, it's been bothering me a lot. Not to mention another expansion of the character when Belle says that they did nothing bad but they were cursed along with him and Mrs Potts gives explanation or justification of Beast's character, that he was brought up into a waste by his father and all the servants didn't stop it. Like they shouldn't, they're servants and enchantment works different ways, may not need justification. Another singing. So much singing. But this is where their relationship should take a turn. He still acts like an ass.
- The Library. Comes really random, because Belle redas by the sickbed and shares that she likes Romeo and Juliet and he acts like it's cringe that there are better ones, when she asks she takes her to the library, she is surprised, but it doesn't come as a touching scene that he wants to present her with a whole world, he does this in passing and then.. leaves her alone. I'm shook. Dialogues are trash here imo. So they continue to co-exist and the book is like a mascot of every scene. And of course she sings again. God, by this time I'm tired of their singing, but it's better then dialogues, but it comes so awkward. Here I don't understand why two items became three and he had a book which allowed him to travel anywhere. They come to the mill (she sings again) which was shown in miniature at the beginning, their first home and she finds out that her mother was sick so her father took her away. Unnecessary sappy information.
- Confrontation. Maurice, who was saved by Agathe, woman living in the woods, confronts Gaston for attempted murder, but Gaston couters and accuses Maurice by being mad, so suddenly there's a carriage from bedlam, which is surprisingly fast.
- Dance. The dance scene. Belle shares that she misses her father, after all it's impossible to be happy without freedom (you have a whole castle, no a cell though), so he allows her to see her father and finds he's in troubles and like in the cartoon he let's her go. She takes the mirror away.
- Confrontation, continuation. Belle's arrival doesn't really change that her father's being taken away, even though she shows the Beast. Honestly the mirror is so tiny, you need vision 100/100. Gaston uses it to frighten the villagers and again it lacks tension, like they are so scared all of a sudden, it's as if there is a switch that sprints them to immediate action of "kill the Beast". Belle is arrested with her father, though they don't leave and the guy responsible for their ride just.. walked around ahahaha With Gaston and villagers singing they take torches and storm to the Beast's castle... where the Beast is brooding and singing.
- The Fight. Underwhelming compared to the pure comedy of animation, but also weird. I'll repeat it, but part of the villagers are a family to those who work in the castle, like Mrs Potts recognized her husband, but he did not recognize her of course. LeFou is ditched by Gaston and changes sides haha Belle rushes to the castle after she and Maurice open the lock. Somehow the crowd is eventually easily scared and flees the scene. Except Gaston of course. He finds the Beast and.. shoots him. They fight, one or another has upper hand, but when beast finds Belle he has more will to survive. His confrontation with Gaston ends up him giving Gaston a chance to survive, but Gaston, as a trashbin he is, shoots Beast again.. and again. I like how Belle basically stood beside him. Gaston's fall is self-inflicted, he stood where the castle crumbled.
- The Finale. Well, the Beast finally acts human and says good-bye (like many other resident who feel the changes in the castle) when Belle confesses she's in love. And the only one who staid, Agathe, waves her hand and the Beast changes back to his human form. And they left that stupid scene "It's really you" where Belle acts uncertain if it's her Beast. As if they're collectively blind, dumb and deaf. Portraits of the Prince were way more handsome than he is. Everyone transform back and everyone acts wild and somehow villagers all come back, a full crowd. Sappy scene of recognition. Why the garden reminds me of Versailles beats me. Hugs and more hugs and they dance at the closing scene. Everyone looks more clean and presentable lol.And that's it. It's over.
What can I say at the end? It's that all live adaptations were a flop, but since Disney have so much money they'll continue to make these movies. The screenwriter made changes that were detrimental to the movie, so it became more crude. Maybe many were fascinated by it, I weren't. At least the animation did a much better job at handling the characters and the overall development. Sometimes I feel sorry for all the people who made the picture look so beautiful, everything was so vivid, but it can't take away from the impression that those changes to the script and scenes left a certain mark of incomprehension.