At first, I was skeptical about them redoing Beauty and the Beast as a live action movie. Naturally, I was worried they would screw everything up. But soon I heard Alan Menken was once again composing, Tim Rice signed on to write lyrics and finally, the cast was announced. It was so top-notch, I got excited.
I decided to go see the movie for my birthday, which was two weeks after it opened. I put on my Belle t-shirt and my Beauty and the Beast watch necklace. (Which needs a new battery). Then we headed down to the theater and watched the movie.
SPOILERS as old as time…
Once upon a time in a fairy tale version of France, a prince (Dan Stevens) lives a lavish lifestyle in a beautiful palace. He has several servants who wait on him, keeping him dressed in the latest fashions, and help him as he throws lavish balls. The prince is surrounded by several beautiful women all vying to be his bride, but none seem to ever catch his eye (“Aria”).
The ball is then interrupted by a beggar woman who asks for shelter from the winter storm in exchange for a single rose. The prince turns her away and she reveals herself to be a beautiful enchantress. As his guests flee, she curses the prince and he takes on a beastly form. She curses his household and the castle, erasing all memory of them from the people. She leaves the rose and if he fails to find love before the last petal falls, he’ll be doomed to remain a beast forever. It leaves only one question:
Who could ever learn to love a beast?
We then meet Belle (Emma Watson), an intelligent bookworm who is an oddity in her little town of Villenueve—as declared by the people of the town (“Belle”). She has caught the eye of local war hero Gaston (Luke Evans), who wants to marry her because she’s the most beautiful person in town. His friend LeFou (Josh Gad) tries to help him, though he doesn’t think the match will be a good one.
Belle returns to the house she shares with her father Maurice (Kevin Kline), who is working on some clocks as he sings of the past (“How Does a Moment Last Forever?”). She asks him if she’s odd and he tells her that she reminds him of a woman everyone else thought was odd…until they all wanted to be just like her. Belle knows he’s talking about the mother she barely remembers. He tells her that while a small town might mean small minds, it also means she’s safe. He then gathers up his clocks and gets ready to head for market. Belle asks him to bring her a rose, which she asks for every year, and he promises before leaving with Philippe.
As Maurice makes his way to town, a storm starts up and lightning strikes a tree. It blocks his path but reveals one he has never seen before. He goes down it and is confused when it starts to snow, despite it being summer. That’s when he’s attacked by wolves and has to flee for his life.
He finds safety on the grounds of a dilapidated castle and as Philippe gets some oats, Maurice goes off to explore the building. Though he doesn’t see anyone when he enters, he hears music coming from nowhere and then finds a complete feast waiting for him. However, as he eats, Chip (Nathan Mack) slides up to him and then talks. Maurice calmly stands…
…and then flees for his life. He grabs Philippe and they head toward the gates. But Maurice stops, spotting a beautiful white rose. Remembering his promise to Belle, he tries to pick one. At that point, the Beast ambushes him and takes him prisoner for stealing.
Left to her own devices, Belle creates a device that will allow her to do the laundry and still read. A young girl is also by the well where everyone does their laundry and Belle calls her over, teaching her how to read. This is scandalous—it’s bad enough Belle is a girl who can read—and the villagers turn on her. They toss her laundry into the street and she heads home, dejected.
Gaston, though, intercedes and appears to help her. It’s all part of his plan to ask her to marry him. She turns him down flat, though. Gaston won’t be deterred, warning Belle what happens to women who don’t marry and whose father dies. He points to Agathe (Harriet Morahan), who begs on the street. While Belle understands this possibility, she still turns Gaston down and slams the door in his face for good measure.
Once he’s gone to lick his wounds, Belle re-emerges and sings about how she wants so much more from this life (“Belle [Reprise]”). Philippe then runs up to her and she realizes he’s alone. She grabs some things and rides him to where Maurice is, determined to help her father.
Belle enters the palace and follows the sound of her father’s coughing until she finds him in a prison. He pleads with her to take Philippe and go back to the village but she wants to get him out. The Beast stumbles upon her and tells her why her father is locked up. She reveals the rose was for her so she should be the prisoner in his stead. The Beast considers it but Maurice refuses, so Belle asks for a moment to say goodbye to her father. It is granted and the door swings open. Belle hugs Maurice before pushing him out, taking his place. The Beast has Maurice thrown out of the castle.
Meanwhile, Gaston is moping over at the only tavern in town. So LeFou recruits the entire town to cheer him up, which they are only happy to do for their war hero. And they do it in song (“Gaston”)! It’s a rousing show-stopping number with more dancing now, quite like the stage show. During this number, the audience starts to get the hint that LeFou might feel more than friendship and hero-worship for Gaston. He even tells the Bimbettes (Sophie Reid, Rafaelle Cohen, Carla Nella) to give up on their hopes of landing Gaston.
Maurice comes in, begging for help to rescue Belle from the Beast. The townspeople are certain that he’s gone mad but Gaston offers to help. He figures it is a way to marry Belle—“rescue” her or at least help her father and maybe she’ll fall down at his feet. He and LeFou take Maurice out of the tavern.
In the palace, Lumiere (Ewan McGregor) frees Belle and says that she doesn’t have to stay in the cell. Cogsworth (Ian McKellen) is surprised but goes along when Lumiere reveals this is part of his plan to hopefully break the curse. They lead Belle to her own bedroom, giving her a tour. In this, though, the Beast doesn’t ban her from the West Wing—Lumiere and Cogsworth mention she can’t go there.
They are also upfront about the castle being under an enchantment, though they don’t tell her how to break the curse. She addresses one of the hairbrushes in the room she’s given but is assured it’s just a hairbrush. Madame de Garderobe (Audra McDonald) wakes up and is thrilled to have someone to dress, calling Belle a princess. She insists she’s not and is not thrilled with the outfit she’s given. Lumiere and Cogsworth leave her alone and Belle starts plotting her escape.
Gaston, LeFou and Maurice ride through the forest to find the castle. However, the tree has been restored and the path covered again. So Maurice gets confused and Gaston gets fed up. He loses his temper and LeFou has to calm him down—by making him remember the war. Maurice asks why Gaston helped him and Gaston says it’s because he wants to marry Belle. Maurice replies that Belle would never marry him so Gaston punches him and then ties him to a tree, left to be eaten by the wolves. LeFou has some doubts about this but leaves with Gaston.
Next, they work on the Beast, trying to get him to be nicer to Belle. He’s reluctant but they convince him to ask her to dinner, hoping they’ll be able to connect and fall in love. However, Belle is not in the mood to dine with her jailer and is busy tying blankets and fabrics together to create a rope. Fed up, the Beast declares that if she doesn’t eat with him, she doesn’t eat at all.
Agathe, the beggar woman from the village, finds Maurice. She unties him and leads him to her little shelter in the woods, giving him some food and tending to him.
Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson) and Chip go to cheer up Belle. She spots Belle’s blanket rope but doesn’t say much, except offering her some tea before she goes. She then also convinces Belle to come down to dinner, insisting the master didn’t mean the bit about her not eating. Lumiere prepares a major theatrical event, which please Maestro Cadenza (Stanley Tucci), Madame Garderobe’s husband. Even though he’s losing keys, he can still play.
And thus we got “Be Our Guest.” It was just as grand and amazing as it was in the movie, with a few new nods (including a brief musical one to “Cabaret” and a visual one to “Moulin Rouge”).
After the show, Belle is sent off to bed. However, she wanders into the West Wing. There she finds the rose and reaches out for it. The Beast jumps in, yelling at her to get out. She wastes no time in racing out of the palace and jumping on Philippe, riding away.
However, she runs into the pack of hungry wolves. She tries to fight them off but the Beast comes to her rescue. He chases them off but is injured in the process. Belle sees her chance to escape but she knows she can’t leave him out there. So she takes him back to the palace, ready to tend to him.
Gaston and LeFou return to the tavern, ready to spin their tale about how they had to leave poor Maurice when he started ranting and turned violent. Except they find him sitting in the tavern, alive and well. The bartender asks Gaston if he really did leave Maurice tied to a tree to die. Gaston lies and makes it sound like they got separated, unable to rescue Maurice. He gets LeFou to back him up, though once again it is clear he is fighting his conscience while doing it. Gaston decides that he needs to handle Maurice once and for all.
At the castle, Belle tends to the Beast. She asks the servants, including Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), why they are so loyal to him if he’s so awful. They reveal they blame themselves for how he turned out. He lost his mother at a young age and his father wasn’t the kindest person out there. They believe they could’ve done something to keep him from going down the path he did. This surprises Belle and she starts to see him in a new light.
Meanwhile, all the servants sing of the days when they were human and wonder if they’ll experience them again while Belle considers her changing worldview (“Days in the Sun”).
The Beast recovers and hears Belle quoting Shakespeare. He reveals that he is familiar with the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon and shows Belle his library. In this version, he actually reads and says he’s read most of the books (there are some in Greek). He lets Belle have full access to the library and the two start bonding over being bookworms, amongst other things as they start to become friends (“Something There”).
As they grew closer, the Beast shows Belle a special book the Enchantress gave him. He tells her to picture anywhere and the book will take them there. They end up in a little apartment in a windmill in Paris, which Belle reveals was her childhood home. The Beast discovers a doctor’s mask and realizes her mother died of the Plague. Belle has her answers and she mourns her mother as well as her childhood before heading home with the Beast (“How Does a Moment Last Forever [Montmarte]”).
With them getting closer, the Beast invited her to share a dance. The servants help them get ready and they dance the night away in the ballroom as the Beast works up the courage to confess his true feelings to her (“Beauty and the Beast”).
After the dance, the Beast and Belle talk. He asks if she’s happy and she answers if someone can truly be happy if they aren’t free. Ouch. She reveals her father taught her how to dance and that she misses him. The Beast shows her his mirror, letting her look at her father. Belle realizes that he’s in trouble and the Beast lets her go to help him.
She rides away from the palace as the Beast watches her. He reveals he let her go because he loves her but no one knows if she loves him back. The Beast accepts his fate and acknowledges how Belle changed him (“Evermore”).
In town, Gaston has arranged for Maurice to be taken to the asylum for the insane. Maurice protests his sanity but everyone questions it because of his rants about the Beast. Monsieur D’Arque (Adam Schiller) has him in his padded wagon as Belle rides up, still in her ballgown. She uses the mirror the Beast gave her to prove that her father is not insane but sparks a mob who proceeds to head to the castle after throwing her in the padded wagon as well.
Gaston leads a mob of villagers to the Beast’s castle, ready to kill him. LeFou wonders who the real monster might be (“The Mob Song”). Meanwhile, Belle and her father have a talk. She reveals that the Beast was really kind and that he befriended her. She shows him her old rattle to prove she had traveled to Paris and knew the truth. Maurice realizes he needs to let Belle grow up and is able to free her so she can rescue the Beast.
As the villagers enter the palace, the servants defend it. Everyone is surprised to fight living furniture but they deal with it. Mrs. Potts spots the forgetful man Belle greeted earlier in the movie and reveals that he’s her husband, Jean Potts (Gerard Horan). The thing he kept forgetting was his wife and child because of the enchantment. LeFou ultimately turns on Gaston after hearing his “friend’s” real opinion of him and has a heart-to-heart with Mrs. Potts in the middle of the battle.
Gaston finds the Beast, who doesn’t see the point in fighting back. Not that Gaston minds. It’ll just be all that much easier for him. But when Belle returns, the Beast finds his strength and truly challenges Gaston. When Gaston pleads for his life after the Beast got the upper hand, the Beast lets him go and reunites with Belle.
(During the fight, the little boy behind me told his father: “I knew the Beast wouldn’t be defeated so easily.” And I’m like, oh, dude, you are watching the wrong movie if you think the Beast is the bad guy. But then again, I’m pretty sure the movie lost him during the middle because dad had to keep shushing him and then he kept kicking the chair next to mine. Dad didn’t get the memo that maybe it was time to leave with the kid and that this movie was not for him).
Anyway, a line in the song “Gaston” ended up being foreshadowing. He sang how he would sneak up on his prey and shoot from behind. Gaston shoots the Beast from behind before the castle crumbles beneath his feet, the last petals on the rose falling. Belle gets the Beast inside and he says his goodbyes. She cries as she pleads with him not to leave her and confesses her love for him.
The last petal falls and one by one, each character turns into a common household object and lose their humanity. All stand in the courtyard together, victorious in defending their home but apparently not in their war against the curse.
Agathe steps up to the table with the rose petals. She watched Belle’s declaration of love and gathers the petals up. Blowing them, they change into a gold dust that engulfs the Beast. It lifts him up and transforms him back to the Prince, reviving him at the same time. He turns to Belle, human now, and they share a kiss.
(Let me just state the obvious now: Agathe was the enchantress).
The magic spreads over the castle, rebuilding it and restoring it. It then turns all the servants back into their human forms (or dog forms). They are happily reunited with each other as well as their prince as the villagers return as well. Their memories are restored and they realize who they were fighting. Mr. and Mrs. Potts are reunited as is Cogsworth and his wife. It’s pretty clear it’s not a happy marriage, at least on his part.
Everyone dances around the ballroom as they celebrate. Maurice paints the scene as both Madame Garderobe and Mrs. Potts sing (“Beauty and the Beast [Reprise]”). Belle asks the Prince if he would be okay with growing a beard and he growls. The two laugh as LeFou ends up dancing with one of the men of the village. It seems everyone is due for a happy ending.
So, how is this when compared to the original? Pretty damn good. It adds in more backstory for the Beast and Belle and clears up a few things. Apparently, the original movie was supposed to happen over several months but the passage of time was not really well conveyed. So everyone was confused about why it was snowing at the Beast’s palace or how LeFou didn’t freeze waiting for Maurice to return. This helped that.
Disney was smart to bring Alan Menken back for the music and I’m glad he worked with Tim Rice again as well. They kept the original songs and the new songs were beautiful. I still love “If I Can’t Love Her” from the musical but “Evermore” is just as gorgeous.
The costumes were beautiful and the scenery gorgeous. It was perfect to me. I just loved it.
If you haven’t gone to see it, go! You’ll love it, whether you were a fan of the original or not.
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