BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)

Genre: Musical
Running Length: 2:09
Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Stanley Tucci
Director: Bill Condon
Screenplay: Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos

You've got to give it to the House of Mouse for creating yet another stable revenue $tream; adapting their classic animations into live-action movies. With Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and The Jungle Book, and now BEAUTY AND THE BEAST breaking all sorts of box office records, we will definitely be expecting more of such adaptations coming our way.

In all honesty, I did enjoy myself with this movie. Not because it offered anything new to add another layer to a classic we all know (like how Maleficent did), but it just felt familiar - like meeting an old friend. It was 2 hours of pleasant nostalgia. It's probably because it follows the 1991 animation classic to the tee.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. I found myself humming to the songs and was actually looking forward to the iconic scenes; the lively Be Our Guest number and of course, the ballroom dancing scene. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. To be fair, there were some new compositions but they were mostly forgettable. And the attempt to provide some additional background to the characters were commendable but unfortunately, it didn't add any depth to them.

As for the casting, all were solid. But a big shout out to Luke Evans for playing the narcissistic Gaston. I remembered the animated Gaston to be this stereotype beefcake with not much happening up there. But Evans somehow managed to give Gaston a more "human" quality. Whenever he's on screen, he delivers his part with plenty of gusto.

I suspect for those who have not watched the predecessor, this 2017 version could be a magical experience for them. But for purists who grew up with the classic, I can only imagine it would suffer by comparison.

RATING: 7.5/10