In a way, Beauty And The Beast is a much harder project compared to Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty to turn into a live-action movie. And I'm not just talking about the musical factor.
This became very obvious during one of the best moments in the animated movie, the dining hall fantasy number "Be Our Guest". Director Bill Condon and team could not reimagine the sequence that could come anywhere close to the original. What we were left with was a competent vocal performance by Ewan McGregor.
Condon as a director also fell just a bit short when giving notes to Emma Watson, who should have the same wide-eyed wonderment during many of her experiences inside the castle. All Watson did was posed and smiled with the lack of expression.
Also a very unfortunate weak characterization of Belle's father by Kevin Kline, who appeared quite inconsistent a lot of times; going from a weak old man to clear headed and strong in a matter of minutes.
But the CGI characters all looked very good, especially the Beast who blended in to the environment, safe for a few scenes when he had to hold Belle.
The voice acting were top notched, even with the accent most of the actors needed to employ.
But it came down to Luke Evans who stole the show as Gaston. He brought a cartoon character to life but in a realistic way. And in the end he successfully made us despise him.
I also liked this version of LeFou played by Josh Gad. We saw a bit more layering to his character as he was the one who realized what Gaston was doing and was aware as they walked down a dark path.
As for that Disney magic that I always look out for, here it was present during the first number ("Belle") in the village. As well as when we were first introduced to Belle. But it was nowhere as strong as Cinderella, under the more capable Kenneth Branagh.
The original Beauty And The Beast was nominated for Best Picture in the year it was released, marking it the first animated movie to achieve that feat. That's why expectations are high, so high that this adaptation could not equal.
But for what it managed to do, I guess it was good enough to be enjoyable.
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