Beauty and the Blah
It’s been quite a while since the Disney announced it was making a Beauty and the Beast Live action adaptation. At first it sounded cool. Then it felt wrong. Disney going back into their vault and making a live action film of a already existing property is nothing new, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, just to name a few. Beauty and the Beast takes it a step further though. Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture of the Academy Awards. It’s animation was, and still is stunning. The music is fantastic. All in all, i think it can be argued that its one of the best films Disney has ever made, period.
Often I will argue that a remake is unnecessary bar a few exceptions. If they are trying to update the movie to better tell the story with technology that didn’t exist in the past. Another exception would be if the storytellers wanted to take a different approach to the film, telling the story from a different point of view. Finally, if the core story is good, but the culture around it has changed so much then refreshing will make it relate to the modern audience.
This remake does none of these things. You could argue that they are using new technology that didn’t exist back in 1991, and though this is true, it doesn’t improve the story or make it work any better. They are just trading beautifully hand drawn animation for Computer generated characters that will be overly stylized and they have less of the soul as their ink counterparts. The music as well, from what can be heard from the trailer seems to be overusing auto tune to where Emma Watson’s Belle sounds like she is just shy of a Black Eyed Peas or Kanye album. This is taking what’s not broke, and breaking it.
As far as the different approach, this film, once again as it’s presented in the trailers is going to be as fresh as a game of connect the dots. So many of the shots in the trailers look like shot for shot rehashes. Sure you could say that these are clearly homage to the film that preceded it, but at the nauseating ratio the trailer presents, this movie is going to be close to a shot for shot remake that will make 1998’s Psycho blush (and that didn’t go over well either). Just check out this comparison made by MoviePilot
It also appears that this film will be based in the same time period and similar setting as the animated film. Just more… fleshy. I’m not saying that they had to get Baz Luhrmann involved but again, this movie seems to be taking no chances, attempts to make this movie any different. This is a classic case of a cash grab if there ever was one. Step 1- Take an already well known property and remake it. Step 2- Take a bunch of well known actors and actress’ and to gather some extra buzz. Step 3- Release it in January- March months, ensuring there is little to no competition at the box office. Step 4- Profit.
Now saying all this, I will be seeing this movie when it comes out. It would be inappropriate to be so critical on a film solely on the merits of its marketing. I do hope that this movie has more to offer than it appears. I also understand that Disney has expectations it needs to meet with fans and of course it wants to make money so it’s not looking to remake the wheel. I just want to be able to walk out of the film feeling like it was something worth my while. If this movie doesn’t do well at the box office (which there is little doubt it won’t) then the market of remaking films may come into question. If it blows up, then get ready for a serious case of Deja Vu for years to come.
