Beauty and the Beast is a timeless fairy-tale filled with imagination and wonder. The live-action remake premiered March 17, and theaters were packed with adults wanting to relive their childhoods and with children looking forward to seeing Belle in the flesh.

The movie is based on the Disney cartoon, and while it stayed true to the original story line, the live action film had quite a few changes. In the original cartoon, Belle is an inventor’s daughter who meets a Beast in an enchanted castle while trying to save her father. Eventually, she falls in love with the Beast and breaks the spell cast upon him and the castle.

The live-action film adds many details that the original cartoon leaves out, such as what happened to Belle’s mother and the Beast’s family.

*SPOILER ALERT*

In the cartoon, Belle’s mother is not mentioned, it is just assumed she has passed away. It is shown in the new movie that her unnamed mother passed from the plague, in a scene where the Beast takes her back in time to her childhood home in Paris. In my opinion, this may be too dark for some kids to understand, but it’s an important scene for teens and adults who may know the pain of losing someone to sickness.

The original cartoon also leaves out the Beast’s family, and the live-action fills in those holes. There is a long scene where a voice narrates a flashback to his mother laying sick in bed and his father pulling the young prince away. This part made the movie seem more realistic and created a backstory that helps connect some of the loose ends that the cartoon left out for me.

Did you like Beauty and the Beast?

• Yes
• No
• I didn't see it

View Results

 Loading ...

Another major change is the telling of how the castle was cursed. The story is told in stained glass window sequences in the cartoon, while in the new film it is re-imagined into a flashback. The added effect of having a flashback of the curse created much more to build the story off of, since there is now more information for the characters to find out and for the audience to connect dots with.

Even with all these changes and many more small ones, the live-action film still captures the beautiful story of danger and love. Every scene is produced wonderfully with lots of small details added to make it more realistic. Even the costumes were perfectly sewn, with every thread and button looking polished.

Although it was almost perfect, I still had a few issues with the film. The main problem I found is that Belle is from Paris, but the actress (Emma Watson), has an English accent. In the beginning, it definitely threw me off, but as I got wrapped up in the story, it was not as noticeable. Another small detail I couldn’t help but notice was the fact that the enchantment wiped the memories of friends and family, preventing them from remembering the castle, but in the big fight scene, Mr. Potts seems to recognize Mrs. Potts voice. This may not have been noticeable to some, but it did serve as a tiny glitch for me.

All in all, I thought this remake of Beauty and the Beast was a wonderful addition to the growing selection of live-action remakes Disney is making, and in the end, was much better. The cartoon was perfect when I was a child, but this film recaptures my childhood love into a much more mature movie.

No matter the reviews, the live action Beauty and the Beast will definitely live on to be a generational classic just like the cartoon continues to be.