{"id":519,"date":"2017-08-01T16:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T22:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=519"},"modified":"2017-09-10T15:58:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T21:58:32","slug":"movie-beauty-and-the-beast-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/01\/movie-beauty-and-the-beast-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Beauty and the Beast (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BeautyBeauty and the Beast<\/strong><\/span>
\nYear: 2017
\nRating: PG
\nLength: 129 minutes \/ 2.15 hours<\/p>\n

When it comes to the Disney live-action remakes, there are a few things to consider. While some plots are drastically different from their originals, like in Maleficent<\/em> (2014), others gained plots that were light or non-existent, like in The Jungle Book<\/a><\/em> (2016). When it comes to adapting Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (1991), the fact that it received a nomination for the Best Picture Oscar speaks volumes of the story that already existed. Consequently, little has changed with the general thrust of the live-action remake, but it added many details that helped to round out the plot.<\/p>\n

Not only was Belle\u2019s (Emma Watson) past explained a little better, but the turning point in her relationship with Beast (Dan Stevens) was much more natural than it was in its predecessor. I will also admit that the ending, while still the same outcome, carried a much larger emotional impact (something closer to that of Tangled<\/em> (2010)). Furthermore, the visuals in this version were quite stunning, especially in the musical numbers (most notably on \u201cBe Our Guest\u201d). CGI certainly has come a long way in 16 years. Instead of appearing anthropomorphized, each of the house servants could easily be mistaken for the furniture and accouterments found in such a castle.<\/p>\n

While all of these improvements made for a fantastic, nostalgic film, I couldn\u2019t help but think that it\u2019s nothing new. The original 1946 French version (of which there was a brief cameo in the \u201chand-held\u201d torches at the castle) was groundbreaking in its practical special effects. Similarly, the 1991 animated film was one of the first to integrate 2-D and 3-D animation. So, what did the 2017 version have? As far as I can tell, the only \u201cnew\u201d element was that of a slightly ambiguous homosexual character that you\u2019d probably miss if there wasn\u2019t a huge controversy surrounding it.<\/p>\n

A visually-stunning update to a tried-and-true story, I give Beauty and the Beast<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beauty and the Beast Year: 2017 Rating: PG Length: 129 minutes \/ 2.15 hours When it comes to the Disney live-action remakes, there are a few things to consider. While some plots are drastically different from their originals, like in Maleficent (2014), others gained plots that were light or non-existent, like in The Jungle Book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[658,657,349,7,656,89,13,213,8],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-movie","tag-658","tag-657","tag-349","tag-animated","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","tag-live-action","tag-movie","tag-musical","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":676,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}