A dazzling remake of the ‘tale as old time’ – Hermione is all grown up!
The long-awaited live adaption of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ came to UK cinemas on Friday, and it was not a disappointment! The production value of the film was awe inspiring and, being a huge fan of fairytales, I obviously fell in love.
I appreciated the development of the storyline as a whole, especially the backstories of Belle and the Beast, which added a new dimension to their characters. My favourite little touch was the inclusion of Belle’s request for Maurice to bring her back a rose when he leaves her, an idea (among others) that came from Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s original story.
The cinematography was itself beautiful (excuse the pun!) with most shots smoothing seamlessly into the next. However, in particularly dark scenes, the camera angles rushed around too quickly for me, causing a somewhat blurred visual. Yet, the overall attention to detail more than made up for this. As for ‘the dress’, it was simply breathtaking. It complemented Emma wonderfully and is the clear highlight of the ballroom scene. That scene, in particular, was one of those moments that made me miss dressing up as a child to play a princess for the day.
Unfortunately, we agreed the film did go on a little. Although the soundtrack is sublime, I think the length could have been shortened with fewer songs, even though I accept it’s a tricky task because so many iconic tracks came out of the 1991 cartoon. Even after saying this, I can’t deny enjoying the new ‘Days in the Sun’. Being an ever-patriotic person, I also loved that the cast was mostly British and that their vocals were not manipulated into false American accents. For me, it gave the film a more authentic and necessary sense of naivety.
To summarise, this film is unsurprisingly a pleasure to watch, whether you’re a hardcore Disney fan or a newcomer to this story. I’d encourage anybody to give it a watch. For me, it’s worthy of 4.5 stars.
Click here to listen to the soundtrack on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/7G8bd7tRpGwEHYZ5lwyswo
Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvW_L8sTu5E
Edited by: Jessica Greaney
Sources:
http://movieweb.com/beauty-beast-2017-disney-emma-watson-video-posters/
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/music-and-animation/beauty-and-the-beast-1991.html