by Michael P Coleman
A tad of trepidation accompanied me to a recent screening of Disney’s newest smash, Beauty and the Beast. The original 1991 animated feature (we’re grown-ups, after all, so it’s not a “cartoon”) was a stunner, the first animated film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, and the reason animated films now have an Academy category that’s all their own.
I worried needlessly: the new Beauty and the Beast is an unadulterated masterpiece. It succeeds on almost every level, only falls short a couple of times, and actually surpasses the original in a handful of key aspects.
First, let’s talk about Emma Watson’s Belle. I had trouble believing that Hermione from the Harry Potter franchise could convince me that she was one of Disney’s most engaging princesses. Again, I was wrong: within minutes, Watson made me forget Hermione altogether. In hindsight, I should have known she’d be able to handle the CGI-intensive role, as she spent over a decade perfecting her gaze into a green screen in eight Harry Potter smashes.
Watson starts out a little shaky, but finds her footing quickly and by the time she scales that hillside singing “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere,” you’ll agree with me that Julie Andrews doesn’t have much on her. I completely fell in love with Watson’s Belle at the exact moment that the Beast did, as will every other father of a daughter. I won’t give the moment away, but have a tissue ready. And Watson absolutely nails that critical scene at the end that precedes Belle’s “happily ever after.”
Watson and Condon conjure up a new aspect and image in this new Beauty adaptation that’s been ignored or missed by other critics. When Belle rides up on her white horse, Philippe, to save the day, as she does two or three times during the film, the image effortlessly reverses over a century of Hollywood’s positioning of men in that critical “hero” role. It’s an image that I won’t soon forget — nor will any girl who sees this film.
Speaking of flipped images, it was great to see this Beauty’s French village being inhabited by a few people of color. I don’t think there was a single African American in the 1991 animated film, but this one features several in the ensemble and two in major roles: Broadway star Audra McDonald as the wardrobe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as a feather duster. (If you’ve seen the original, those character descriptions won’t seem odd to you at all!)
All of the updates and changes to this version work, in fact, including backstories given to not only Belle and the Beast but to Gastón and Le Fou, who was widely reported to have been a part of a major ¨gay moment” in this new movie. It´s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that´s barely worth talking about…so I won´t.
Gastón and Le Fou are, however, two of the hilarious standouts of the film. I think they should be given a spin-off movie. I even have a title for it: To Le Fou, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar.
In the singing department, Watson is certainly no Paige O’Hara (who gave Belle a voice in the original animated feature), but with that gorgeous Ashman / Menken score, who cares? I caught myself more than a couple of times singing right along with Belle, so any imperfections in Watson’s voice that weren’t auto-tuned out are insignificant. I also caught myself downloading the soundtrack as I walked out of the theatre. All of the film’s music is resplendent…
…well, almost all of it is. The few new songs peppered throughout were snoozers for the most part. When you’re working with a score like Beauty’s, any additions won’t be up to snuff.
Condon hired current pop stars Ariana Grande and John Legend to sing the title song over the end credits, and they gallantly gave it the old college try, but their incessant, unnecessary vocal runs marred an otherwise beautiful production and made me long somewhat for Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion. But the truth is, by the end credits, I was so swept away by this gem that I could have listened to anyone sing that song.
As a stand-alone movie, the new Beauty is just that: a triumph that generations will enjoy. Congrats to Condon, and I hope Disney hands him the reins to their upcoming live-action update to The Little Mermaid. I can’t wait to see what a Condon crew does with Ariel, Sebastian and company.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is in theaters everywhere.
Catch up with freelancer Michael P Coleman at michaelpcoleman.com or on Twitter: @ColemanMichaelP
