This past Friday, Entertainment Weekly revealed nine exclusive photos from the new live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, which hits theaters in March. My reaction was, I’m sure, pretty much the same as all other self-respecting women born in the early ‘80s who saw the original movie seven times in the theater and currently owns two copies of it on DVD in case one breaks: “Oh. Em. Gee.”
First of all, since it’s what we’ve all been wondering since we first heard there was even going to be a live-action remake and ran around our homes emitting a high pitched scream and scaring the living daylights out of our toddlers: the Beast. He looks like a goat. Why? Why does he have to look like a goat? I mean, the cartoon did such an amazing job of creating a character who was obviously an animal with a man inside (those eyes!); was it too much to ask that they do the same thing here? I mean, they have an actual man (Dan Stevens) playing the part! If they could do it convincingly on Broadway (which they did and oh my god why can’t they just revive that?) they ought to be able to make it work on screen!
Next, Belle. So, Emma Watson is beautiful and even looks a little bit like the (“real”) cartoon version of Belle, but the picture of her in the iconic yellow ballgown kind of looks like she just put on an adult version of one of those Disney princess dress-up costumes they sell at Target. Actually, do they have adult versions of those? Add that to my Christmas list. Anyway, what gives?
We also got a peek at some of the enchanted objects which look a whole lot like … objects. I mean, that’s pretty much just a picture of a clock, a teapot, a candlestick and a duster. Yes, I can see that they’ve been cleverly designed to look like they have faces, but to go from Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach to this? Since I’ve pinned all my hopes and dreams of future happiness on this movie, I’ve got to say, I’m a little worried.
I think my concern here is this: if you’re going to remake a classic movie (which happens to be a cartoon) as a live-action film, you’ve got to have a really good reason for doing it. The reason, of course, is to make it come to life. To see what it would actually be like if it really happened. And I’m all for that. I’ll buy my ticket to the midnight showing and arrive six hours early in my new Belle dress from Target just like everybody else. But there’s a difference between what it would look like and what it would be like.
So yes, technically, if a clock, a teapot, a candlestick and a duster all suddenly came to life, they’d probably look a lot like the picture of Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere and Plumette released in Entertainment Weekly. And, sure, if Belle had to find a dress to wear on short notice in a castle where no human woman has lived for some indeterminate amount of time she’s probably going to get stuck with a Belle costume from Target. But honestly, who cares about these things?
The point of bringing these people and this story out of a cartoon world and into the real one is to flesh out the characters. To give us new insight into who they are and why they do what they do. To let them live and breathe as humans (and beasts and objects) as if they were real. And oh, how I wish they were real.
We have been offered a few glimmers of hope that the movie will do this. A tiny clip of Emma Watson and Dan Stevens during a table reading has set the hearts of Beauty and the Beast fans (so, basically everyone born after 1980, right?) aflutter. Stevens is doing a pretty convincing Beast voice as he tries to defend himself from Belle’s gentle teasing. Swoon!
Plus, Emma Watson has implied that Belle’s backstory will be fleshed out in the movie, leading us to hope that this will be true for the other characters as well. Of course, with Watson as Belle, we are sure to see a more “feminist” take on the character. In Entertainment Weekly Watson says they have tried to make the character more “proactive” and uses the fact that, in the new movie, Belle, rather than her father, Maurice, is an inventor as an example. It remains to be seen whether this will help bring Belle to life, or just turn her into a stock spokeswoman for feminism. (Fingers and toes crossed for the former.)
So, the jury’s still out on whether this movie will be the time machine back to our childhoods we all hope it will be, or a soul crushing disappointment. These pictures and the accompanying article do leave room for hope but we’re definitely not in the clear yet and I, for one, will be counting down the days (hours, minutes, and seconds) until its release. I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve seen it. That is, if I haven’t turned into a sobbing puddle on the floor wearing a wilted yellow nylon gown. In which case, you’re on your own.
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