Disney is doing it again. Beauty and the Beast is the latest live action remake of one of their classic animated films. Disney’s original animated movie of the same name came to theaters in 1991 to critical and commercial success. The animated version is an adaptation of the 1946 French live action film La Belle et la Bête, which in itself is an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s literary fairytale.
Following the plot of the animated original, Belle is a young and intelligent woman living happily with her father in a fairy tale land. One day, she is imprisoned by the cruel and ferocious humanoid creature, Beast. However, as time goes on, she starts to see past his rough exterior and notice something beautiful underneath. Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) is directing while Emma Watson and Dan Stevens will star as Belle and the Beast respectively. The film will also feature Luke Evans as Gaston, Ewan Mcgregor as Lumiere, and Josh Gad as Lefou.
The trailer starts our rather dark, but cheerfully reminiscent and warm colors come in towards the end. The classic whimsical score appears as well as they showcase more iconic scenes from the original animated version. The CG looks great, and Emma Stone has plenty of experience acting with special effects. The only worrisome factor is that the animated version is not only considered a landmark in animation, but in cinema in general. There’s bound to be countless comparison to the original animated film, especially since the filmmakers are using so many iconic shots and the original score. Now it may not be a big deal to Disney since all of their recent remakes from Maleficent to The Jungle Book have been financially successful, though a number of them have been met with a mixed critical response. Yet, to the fans of the original, Disney still has quite a large hurdle to leap in delivering a quality adaptation.
Beauty and the Beast will be in theaters March 17, 2017.
