The movie that I want to discuss is "Beauty and the Beast", which was the remake version of the same movie that was first played in as early as 1991. Generally, this remade movie was a success in means of beautifully bringing the characters alive with appropriate music and sophisticated graphics.
According to the New York Times, what fascinated people the most were the graphics that allowed visualization of the anthropomorphic characters, such as clocks, dishes, candles, pots, cups, and Beast: the animal portrayed as wacky. Visualizing those characters was important because according to the previous setting, they were once human who turned into such goods and animals because of the vicious magic spell. Because of this, the graphic remained one of the important elements in demonstrating the movement and verbal script to seem like they have a human spirit.
Critics from Rotten Tomato mentioned that music and dance enhanced the romantic flavor that Disney was looking for. For example, in order to have better flow on the plot, this remade movie intentionally added songs such as “Evermore”, which is the Beast’s solo piece. This song was played after Beast realized that Belle’s father was in trouble because of the antagonist Gaston and decided to send Belle to her town. This was praised by many people since it was able to portray Beast’s dreary heart of having to send the lovers and realizing that he could never meet her again, especially in the lyrics “Now I know she'll never leave me, even as she runs away”.
Critics, however, also followed within the movie because of the newly written script. Although this was a remake, lots of scenes were added to further develop on the theme “diversity”. Because of this, the gay character appears first time in this movie, that was never seen before in the original movie. This caused lots of people to say that it didn’t contribute to the flow of the plot, but it rather disrupted the audience’s concentration because it didn’t have a prominent role in the movie but was just implemented to portray diversity. Additionally, the topic of political justice and morality aroused confusion between critics and commentators. For example, there was a contentious argument about feminism and masculinity portrayed in this movie. The movie tends to portray Gaston as the biggest antagonist who is willing to imprison a woman until she falls in love with him. It’s only that the woman this time was Belle, the woman who pursued freedom from traditional feminine traits. However, this was what the Beast was also doing it to her, although it wasn’t directly described as it is since the Beast has to be in a happy ending with Belle. Therefore, “the effort to demonstrate the feminism of the Belle misleads them into undervaluation of men” was what they argued.
Critic’s judgment depends on their perspective about the actor’s performance. According to the “New Statesman”, critics say that Emma Watson’s acting and facial expression was a bit dull compared to the original Belle. However, I believe that there must be limitations for the real actors since the animation allows the main character to have an unrealistically exaggerated action while actors are real humans.
In conclusion, I would recommend this movie to the people who want to fall in the fairy-tale-like fantasy that Disney has created, with music and visual effects that enhance the magical mood. However, for those who consider the plot and storyline important and find the philosophical or life-related lesson and value, I hope you could choose different movies.
Writer: Soyun Lee
(Picture from the movie "Beauty and the Beast")
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