A new live action version of Disney's classic animated tale, "Beauty And The Beast" has come to the big scree starring Emma Thompson as Belle and Dan Steven as the Beast. Neil Rosen filed the following review.
The folks at Disney, continuing what seems to be a corporate strategy, have made another new, live action remake of one of their classic animated films. This time it's "Beauty And The Beast".
It's lavish, it's opulent and it checks off all the boxes. But for the most part, this new version is a manufactured product. It's a live action re-enactment, made to snare a new young audience, that lacks the magic and wonder of the original 1991 animated classic.
Emma Watson does make a fine Belle. And Dan Stevens manages to be quite vulnerable and expressive, while buried under all that fur and makeup, as The Beast.
But Ewan McGregor, as Lumiere, can't compare to the charm of Jerry Orbach's voice in the original. While Luke Evans is also disappointing as Gaston. I preferred the original's over the top, more egotistical take on the character, which you can get away with in a cartoon.
There's four new songs that were written by Beauty's original composer Alan Menken. But they're missing the witty lyricism of his original partner, the late Howard Ashman.
The sets are dazzling and the CGI household objects are technically well done. But some of the musical numbers, while they don't exactly dissapoint, aren't awe inspiring either.
To director Bill Condon's credit he does effectively manage to pull on your heartstrings by the end. But at over two hours, it feels overly long and padded, while the original breezed by at under 90 minutes.
If I were ranking this, I would place the 1991 cartoon as number one, the wondrous Broadway stage musical second and this new film third, which you and your kids will enjoy greatly, if you've never seen the other two. Overall, they've done a decent job, it's just not the masterpiece that the original was.
Neil Rosen’s Big Apple Rating:
Three Apples