Beauty and the Beast
I’ve always been a closet Disney fan. The Little Mermaid is perhaps my favorite and Beauty and The Beast has always been a second tier movie for me. I mean it is good and I liked the movie but it didn’t touch me in a special place. That came out a little more perverted than I intended but it’s true. I just never got into it. I can’t tell you why. I tried multiple times to like it and until last Monday I’ve always been slightly curious why people hold it with such reverance. Again it is good but it was just a movie with a singing teapot and some memorable songs. Just not my cup of tea to pardon the pun. That is until I saw the live action remake of Beauty and The Beast.
The story is a well known tale. Belle is an outcast in her small french village. She is devoted to her father and loved (albeit more for status than actual love) by Gaston, the mouthy loud braggart in love with himself. Her father is caught in a storm and seeks refuge in a castle occupied by a cursed prince/beast and his household staff. When Belle seeks to rescue him, she takes his place as the beast’s prisoner to spare her father. Soon they begin to fall in love and just in time, for if the beast cannot find love, the beast and all the houses inhabitants will be stuck in their present forms for all time. Emma Watson (Hermione in Harry Potter and Sam in one of my favorite movies The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is Belle and she plays her as a feminist in a time where feminism might as well have been witchcraft. She is her own woman and doesn’t need a man to make her whole, just her books and her hope to one day travel and see the world. Watson is a very smart woman and very good performer. Singing the songs, she holds her own and creates a three dimensional character that displays both a love of her small town and the intense desire to escape it. That chance comes in the form of the beast.
There is no real new ground plowed here. If you’ve seen the animated Beauty and The Beast, you are gonna know the beats. The Candlestick Lumiere (played by a game Ewan McGregor) and the old clock Cogsworth (Played by Ian McKellan) play their parts as their counterparts did. Yet the mobile inanimate objects really seem to come alive. The motion capture technology used and the creation of real objects magically animated on screen is well magical...in a way it wasn’t in the animated feature. I was dubious of Disney’s desire to make live action movies of their books. The Jungle Book was done previously but it was this film that captured me enough to make me want to see the final feature. I’ve often been caught off guard by movies I think won’t be magical and turn out to be very magical (Sing Street is the most recent film) but Beauty and The Beast gave me pretty much what I thought it would. A feature live action of the cartoon and yet watching this, I found myself more drawn to the characters and invested in the story. The songs popped and found the emotional sweet spot. I gotta say, this movie is just a treat and worth the admission.
Mr. Unhappy sez: A tale as old as time and a story magical enough to make an old unhappy bastard smile... I’m not as lyrical as Mrs. Potts.
The story is a well known tale. Belle is an outcast in her small french village. She is devoted to her father and loved (albeit more for status than actual love) by Gaston, the mouthy loud braggart in love with himself. Her father is caught in a storm and seeks refuge in a castle occupied by a cursed prince/beast and his household staff. When Belle seeks to rescue him, she takes his place as the beast’s prisoner to spare her father. Soon they begin to fall in love and just in time, for if the beast cannot find love, the beast and all the houses inhabitants will be stuck in their present forms for all time. Emma Watson (Hermione in Harry Potter and Sam in one of my favorite movies The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is Belle and she plays her as a feminist in a time where feminism might as well have been witchcraft. She is her own woman and doesn’t need a man to make her whole, just her books and her hope to one day travel and see the world. Watson is a very smart woman and very good performer. Singing the songs, she holds her own and creates a three dimensional character that displays both a love of her small town and the intense desire to escape it. That chance comes in the form of the beast.
There is no real new ground plowed here. If you’ve seen the animated Beauty and The Beast, you are gonna know the beats. The Candlestick Lumiere (played by a game Ewan McGregor) and the old clock Cogsworth (Played by Ian McKellan) play their parts as their counterparts did. Yet the mobile inanimate objects really seem to come alive. The motion capture technology used and the creation of real objects magically animated on screen is well magical...in a way it wasn’t in the animated feature. I was dubious of Disney’s desire to make live action movies of their books. The Jungle Book was done previously but it was this film that captured me enough to make me want to see the final feature. I’ve often been caught off guard by movies I think won’t be magical and turn out to be very magical (Sing Street is the most recent film) but Beauty and The Beast gave me pretty much what I thought it would. A feature live action of the cartoon and yet watching this, I found myself more drawn to the characters and invested in the story. The songs popped and found the emotional sweet spot. I gotta say, this movie is just a treat and worth the admission.
Mr. Unhappy sez: A tale as old as time and a story magical enough to make an old unhappy bastard smile... I’m not as lyrical as Mrs. Potts.
If you like Emma Watson you should see.... The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Perks of Being a Wallflower is the story of Charlie, a freshman with a horrible secret. Through his friends Sam (Watson) and Patrick (Justice League's Ezra Miller) he is brought out of his shell and facing the terrible things that have happened to him as well as fall in love. It's a coming of age story that is true and honest and filled with horrible moment...you know like real life. This movie never fails to unearth emotion and feeling in me and gave me the epic line "You accept the love you think you deserve." Such a smart, touching story. I try to show it to anyone I know. Truly one of my favorite movies of all time.
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