Directed by:
Bill CondonCinematography:
Tobias A. SchliesslerComposer:
Alan MenkenCast:
Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian McKellen, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
"Beauty and the Beast" is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle's enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast's hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within. (Walt Disney US)
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Reviews (12)
I like fairy tales. But I don't think this was a fairy tale. From the beginning, I had questions about the plot and what was going on, rather than enjoying the movie. Unfortunately, the movie didn't grab me at all, the songs left me unimpressed (and I like musicals possibly even more than fairy tales), and they were at times long-winded, which the rest of the movie was, too. It didn't flow at all, I had to stop it halfway through to browse the internet just to take a break from it. The movie just didn't work at all. How did it even deal with time? I watched it with my guy and he was even more annoyed than I was. Nothing but comments about this and that, even though he's a pretty undemanding viewer. *SPOILER* For example, Gaston's fall... that one was much ado about nothing, they could easily have had him trip and it would have had the same effect. Pretty unsuccessful for me. A weaker 2 stars.
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The remake of the classic Disney animation is a category in itself. Some ideas were executed better here, while others were suppressed. The second half works slightly better thanks to the changes. At times, it is still horrible kitsch, and I mean absolutely horrible, and the casting is dreadful. Especially in the case of Emma Watson, who is indeed the perfect girl next door, but in no way a universal beauty. And Luke Evans? He is simply wasted on such an operetta villain. Fortunately, the theme has been done so many times that there is no reason to despair and outside of Disney, you can choose, for example, the impressionistic Beauty and the Beast, the Czech Beauty and the Beast or the modern Beauty and the Beast, which may look like a Disney clone, but is actually pure French.
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It will probably be a hit and little girls will like it, but I have a feeling that the world would function without any problems without the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. Emma Watson is great, the special effects are opulent, and the production design is fantastic, but due to its excessive running time, the film starts to lose its breath in the middle and doesn't have much to tell. Yes, there are the familiar songs, but half of them are only there because they were in the animated version. And the cute talking furniture stops being entertaining after a few minutes, and when the candelabras, teapots, and clocks take up the entire space in front of the camera, it becomes quickly tiresome. A huge digital mess. But it is still a proper romantic fairytale that actually offers exactly what you expect from it. Cinderella has more likeable characters, The Jungle Book is funnier and more thrilling, but I probably never expected more from a live-action Beauty and the Beast than what we got in the cinema. So in the end, it's probably okay. And Luke Evans is amazing.
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Nice production design, solid visual effects and the adorable Emma Watson are the end of the pros for me. There are too many songs for my taste and I liked more or less only Ema's, the rest didn't really impress me. It's watchable, but the material is so stale that it has nothing to surprise. 60%
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Beauty and the Beast is the kind of musical in which the songs do not enhance the already very simple story, but rather slow it down. And there are loads of them. Visually, however, it is a really beautiful movie, with a retro charm in the style of the original The Wizard of Oz, and with the prettiest princess, Emma Watson, who looks like she was born for this role. A small spoiler: what I will remember the most from this film is the moment of shock when Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson appeared on screen simultaneously, and I realized that instead of their voices, I had been listening to song dubbed in Czech for two hours. It is hard to refuse a Prague's IMAX ceremony premiere invitation, but that was really the last time I will ever go to see a dubbed film. Nevertheless, the movie has excellent 3D animation (that snow!) and its format is also perfectly suited to IMAX.
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