"Tale as old as time ..."
Hello everyone!
Finally, Tuesday arrived so that I can sit down and properly get this going. And can you notice that I've been excited for this blog post since the moment I sat down in cinema to watch the movie?
If you haven't figured it out by now, this post will undoubtedly make it all clear to you.
Now.
Beauty and the Beast, the Disney cartoon version, that is (and never did I think I'd have to make sure people knew what I was talking about ...) is my all-time favourite Disney movie. That wasn't made spectacularly clear to me prior to seeing the live-action movie, however, which is a shame. I was unsure about which princess I preferred, what storyline was the most awesome, but then, last Friday, as the first orchestral notes started and all the hair on my arms stood up straight, I just knew.
Obviously, my parents were already well aware of that fact.
Duh, said my father, that was the first ever Disney cartoon we got you and you saw as a kid when you were four or five years old. That kind of thing sticks with you forever.
Parental wisdom ...
But, without further ado, my review of the live-action Beauty and the Beast!
Now, allow me first and foremost to say that someone should have filmed me while the casting news for this movie got out.
Not that any of the casting was imperfect or wrong - every actor and actress chosen for a specific role did marvelously and honestly, I can't imagine anyone else would have been able to do a better job of it.
But it was kind of funny.
I will apologise in advance because, at this moment, I am not yet a Downton Abbey fan. I haven't watched it yet - it's on the list, I SWEAR.
Saying that, however, means that I definitely did not know Dan Stevens prior to this movie.
Through no fault of his own! But as the news got out, my reactions were a little bit like this: "OMG Emma Watson yes, oh you'll do nicely Luke, yes, absolutely, Josh Gad? Please, he was born for this gig. And who are you, again?"
Sadly, that was me before Beauty and the Beast. And the ironic thing is that I had SEEN Stevens in an advert (or a million) for his new tv show, Legion, but I didn't put two and two together at all, probably because he lost so much weight for this latter role that he looks more than a little bit different.
However, I have now rectified the situation and intend to sit down to Downton Abbey soon.
Movie talk time.
I will recap what the movie is about, although, apart from some differences that the studio introduced to bring the story into our modern-day times, at its heart it remains the magical cartoon we saw back in the nineties.
Namely: there once was a prince, who was arrogant and an idiot (not LeFou, no) and who dismissed a wizzened old lady when she asked him for help, offering as payment a single red rose. Of course, said lady turned into the most beautiful enchantress ever, cursing both the prince (no, you don't get a do-over, Your A-ness) and his castle to different forms, to remain in them until the last petal falls from the rose - or until the prince-now-Beast learns to love someone, and she returns his love, on his own merit alone.
Time goes by. Not so much as a whisper of a girl. And obviously, the Beast is angry.
I'd be too. Can you imagine how much product he has to use so his Beast-hair looks even half-good?
No such problems for Gaston, our Belle's would-be future husband. Well, he thinks so, at least; she kind of disagrees, but then, she doesn't know that he doesn't have to manscape! Every last inch of him is NOT covered in hair!
Okay, I'm getting off the beaten track here. But they removed that line from Gaston's song and, while I'm sure Luke Evans was thankful for it, audiences were denied the sight of him tearing his shirt apart.
Back to the story.
In the village, Belle lives with her father, the tinkerer, and everyone thinks she's odd because, shockingly, she doesn't want to marry Gaston and have his babies and massage his feet. Ew. Gaston is persistent - probably because he's too stupid to figure out no means no - but Belle wants more. And when her father gets lost during a storm, and then imprisoned by the Beast for taking a rose for his daughter, she gets her chance when she takes the old man's place.
She plans to escape, but gets attacked by wolves along the way (after the Beast sends her packing for daring to look at his precious enchanted rose); luckily, wolves know that when a lion comes tearing in it's time to get the heck out. Beast is wounded, however, and Belle takes him back to the castle, after which begins a period of them getting to know one another and growing closer by the minute, including a trip through an enchanted map book to the Paris childhood home of our heroine. Here, they learn that Belle's mother died of the Plague - one more thing they have in common, as the prince's mother likewise died when he was very young.
And the petals continue to fall.
Finally, the prince/Beast gathers his courage to proclaim his love for Belle in the iconic ballroom scene with Emma Thompson serenading them and Stanley Tucci playing with his teeth, but this gets derailed when he shows her an image of her father in a magic mirror.
Maurice is in the process of being locked up by Gaston (after an episode during which Gaston showed his PTSD tendencies from the war and left the poor guy tied up in the woods for the wolves because he denied him Belle's hand in marriage, but what do you know, Maurice got saved and lived to tell the tale only to be accused of being nuts), which prompts Belle's heart to break.
Seeing this, the Beast sets her free, and tells her to go save her father - knowing there is no guarantee she will ever return and break the curse.
But he loves her. Cue Kleenex. Especially as Stevens belts out a more-than-welcome addition to the soundtrack from the highest castle tower and makes me lose my tear ducts all over. Yes, I cried. No, I'm not ashamed of it.
Belle ends up locked with her papa as the villagers and Gaston gear up to go kill a beast they didn't even know about until then and who hadn't done them any harm, but all of a sudden it's a threat! It'll eat their babies at night! It'll ... well, sit there and do nothing really, when the castle is actually attacked (and I keep imaging Gandalf to knock some sense into him!).
While the villagers get their behinds whooped by the castle furniture, Gaston heads straight for the Beast, sensing accurately enough that Belle has fallen in love.
And the Beast would have let him bang him about, too, if not for Belle's reapearance which kicks the adrenaline glands into action and shows Gaston that, to be perfectly honest, the Beast could probably use one finger and dump him, but hey check it out, there's a heart in the "monster". So he goes free.
Only to shoot the Beast in the back.
This results in Gaston falling to his death, LeFou switching sides, and Belle crying over the Beast's body that she loves him and he can't leave her, after which the enchantress (who has been masquerading in the village all these years, because, you know, she's got time) flicks her fingers and reverses the spell, bringing the prince back to life and reuniting broken families (including poor Cogsworth and his wife, not that he's happy about it). So the servants' faith in their master is rewarded, and Belle gets her fairytale ending ... asking her prince to grow a beard.
As you do.
I freaking loved this movie so much.
It had everything: the music, the characters, the visuals, the comedic lines. The new songs that were added were just as magical as the originals from the cartoon, and honestly, the dramatisation was amazing.
Grounding the story in reality, namely France in the time when the Black Death was making its rounds gives it a hint of extra danger and a whiff of possible history, not to mention explains a lot about Gaston's character with the addition of a war he returned from. The backstory for the Beast was also very welcome, since really, it's nice to know people aren't generally born mean. And the scenes during the Mob song, when Gaston riles up the villagers? I got chills, it felt so very much like something you might unfortunately see too much of around the world today.
And at its heart, the messages of the movie remain the same, except we understand them differently than we used to: the quest to fit in even when you're different, to find someone who understands you, to forge your own life outside your family circle, and finally, to understand that love isn't just roses, it's thorns and hard work.
All accompanied by wonderful music and the brilliant comedic dialogue of Ewan McGregor and Sir Ian McKellen, of course.
xx
*images and video not mine
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