Beauty and the Beast

[CameronBornAndBred]

$170 mil opening weekend. I am so happy that wasn't in our Summer contest, because I would have lost out of the gate.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4276&p=.htm

Anyone seen it? Not my thing, but I'll watch it when it hits video.

[Olympic Fan]

$170 mil opening weekend. I am so happy that wasn't in our Summer contest, because I would have lost out of the gate.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4276&p=.htm

Anyone seen it? Not my thing, but I'll watch it when it hits video.

It would have cost me a win in the contest had it been included.

Yes, I would have voted for it ... but then I would have left off my fifth choice -- Sing -- and that would have ruined by picks.

[wavedukefan70s]

The family girls went to see it.boys went to john wick.

[wilson]

I saw it with my wife over the weekend, and we loved it (although we're pretty much automatic suckers for classic Disney fare). It's pretty boilerplate stuff...transfer the old story to the new format. Some occasionally laudable, occasionally awkward moments in the ongoing quest to recast the classic princesses as modern-ish women, and the production design is usually lavish, but with some moments of CGI cartoonishness too.
Overall, you know whether or not you're in the target audience for this film, and if you're in that audience, then you'll like it.

[freshmanjs]

We thought it was pretty good, except for Emma's obvious autotune

[IrishDevil]

My wife and I saw it Friday and thought it was generally pretty good. I agree with the comment that you probably already know before you see it whether you will enjoy it. I enjoyed both the original movie and the theater production, so it was an easy call for me. IMHO, there were a few great spots, many good spots, and a couple of weak spots.

Vocals:

- Good: Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, and Luke Evans (who knew? Solid, solid voice). Emma Thompson's voice did not wow like those three, but she absolutely nailed the Grandmotherliness, for lack of a better word, of the Angela Lansbury original rendition of the signature song.

- Decent: Dan Stevens - was fine in his duet, nothing special in his solo in the new beast song

- Bad: Emma Watson. They produced and auto-tuned the heck out of her voice and she still couldn't hang with the rest of the cast. Fortunately, Belle is not the most important vocal role in the movie, but it was still very distracting.

Music:

- The old stuff is still great. The updated Gaston song and Be Our Guest were both fantastic. I like the updated Tale as Old as Time as sung in the movie, but could do without Ariana Grande on the pop update. Plus, I think they had Celine Dion sing a song for the closing credits, just to twist the knife and remind us of just how good that original pop rendition was.

- The new music did not quite measure up, but it was passable. I thought the Beast's solo number before the finale was particularly underwhelming.

Performances:

- Good: Ewan McGregor's bad french accent was not as distracting as I thought it would be, Ian McKellan had little to do but was still a marvelous Cogsworth, Josh Gad was a superb La Fue, but Luke Evans absolutely stole the show as Gaston. Kevin Kline was also a wonderful, understated Maurice, though he also wasn't asked to do much.

- Decent: Dan Stevens was limited in motion capture as the Beast, but I don't think Andy Serkis need worry that Stevens will be taking his mo-cap roles any time soon. In the little time we saw the Beast in human form, Stevens was unremarkable. Emma Watson was also just so-so. Much of the second half of the movie just required her to emote in response to something that most likely was not physically present, but I would have thought that her time as Hermione Granger would have prepared her for such moments. Also, the moment when Belle meets the Prince, rather than the Beast, for the first time was not hampered in this same way, yet still lacked any real connection or chemistry between the leads, and thus any real power for me. I am left thinking that Watson, given her lack-luster performance and inability to sing, was simply a stunt casting.

Story changes (potential spoilers below):

The story changed a bit this time around, and I thought most of those changes were fairly successful. They toned down Maurice's tinkering and made him more of an artist, while giving Belle more tinkering/inventing, as well as a moment of teaching another village girl to read. They also give Belle a longing to learn about her mother, then the story explains what happened to her. This gives nice depth and a more modern sensibility to a character who was previously just a pretty prize and bookworm who learned to love a beast.

Also, by allowing Beast to be the one to show Belle what happened to her mother, the story enriches his relationship with Belle, lends sympathy to his character, and makes the romance feel a little more motivated and little less Disney. The story lends further sympathy to the Beast by giving him a backstory that echoes Belle's (his mother died when he was a boy, as well, but his father was cold and unloving) and explains his behavior.

This new version also fixes the most glaring problem with the original by changing the onset and nature of the curse. In the original, the Beast was cursed for 10 years, yet when he regains his human form, he is certainly still a young adult. When cursed, therefore, the prince was in fact something like a child regent, yet is punished severely for not allowing a stranger into his house. His parents are not mentioned at all, only his failure as a boy to let a stranger into his house. Disney wisely recasts this, making the prince an unloving, superficial, adult ruler at the time of the curse and adding that all the folk he ruled, including the family of the prince's staff, were also cursed to forget the existence of the prince and his household, which allows the curse to take far less time. The unjust and overly severe punishment of a child is no more, and all those poor, tormented souls who wondered where Mr. Potts was, or otherwise where Chip came from during a 10 year curse, are finally at peace.

One of the most interesting changes they made was making Gaston a bit darker. Another legitimate criticism of the original was that Gaston, while a chauvinistic buffoon in his pursuit of Belle, seems to lead the attack on the beast in a genuine effort to protect his village from a perceived threat. Gaston dies, therefore, not as a wicked villain brought low by his own evil (like Jafar, Scar, etc.), but, in a sense, as a somewhat well-intentioned but mistaken hero. In this rendition, Gaston tries to kill Belle's father when he refuses to bless Gaston's plans to wed Belle, then lies and forces La Fue to lie to cover his attempt up, plus still tries to lock up Maurice in an asylum. This makes Gaston's death at the end much more deserved and provides a nice patch, while giving more scenery for Luke Evans to chew.

Relatedly, the new rendition puts a romantic twist on La Fue's relationship with Gaston, rendering La Fue's companionship a half-unspoken and fully unrequited love and making Gaston's abuse of La Fue even more reprehensible. This both further villifies Gaston and motivates La Fue to have a change of heart ultimately and fight on the side of the Beast's household in the final battle. It garnered some attention for PPB reasons, but I thought it worked well within the story, was a perfectly logical extension of what is seen in the original, and let Josh Gad do more with the role.

All in all, a worthy remake. No one need pay for 3-D, though; let me make that mistake on everyone else's behalf.

[Doria]

Will probably wait until it comes to Netflix or Amazon (or similar service). I did like the Disney movie, but it doesn't seem to be that divergent from the original, so I don't feel the need to see it in theaters. Glad to hear you guys mostly enjoyed it, though, as I do like the cast. (I am loving Dan Stevens in Legion on TV right now, so I was curious about how he'd do, but it sounds like it's a basically workmanlike performance.)

[elvis14]

I saw it this weekend at Raleighwood with my wife and daughters (age 15 and 13) as well as my sister in law and her 3 girls (age 6, 4, 2). I liked it. All the girls really liked it. It was a good solid remake and I enjoyed it but that might be because I was surrounded by all those young ladies I care so much about. IrishDevil's review is fantastic, BTW.

[YmoBeThere]

$90 million in weekend #2. B&tB could surpass most of the Harry Potter efforts. How does this impact Emma Watson's ability to negotiate at the time of her next movie signing?

[Deslok]

$90 million in weekend #2. B&tB could surpass most of the Harry Potter efforts. How does this impact Emma Watson's ability to negotiate at the time of her next movie signing?

She definitely has the current it status. Between UN speeches and all that outside her film career. Her starring role in Beauty and the Beast and the upcoming The Circle, she's forecast to be the top gpaid actress this year. She very quickly has accumulated enough clout for personal projects.

[niveklaen]

My daughter enjoyed it. I did too. My ear is not very refined so I was not put off by Watson's singing. I was disappointed that they made Gaston more cartoonishly villainous - I like it more when you can see the legitimacy of both sides of a conflict.

[luburch]

I was finally able to catch a screening last night. Thought it was really well done. Can't say I have any major complaints.

[YmoBeThere]

Looks like it has a decent shot at hitting a billion plus in worldwide gross. I hope Emma is getting a good percentage.