Board 8 > Watched both the 1992 and 2016 versions of Beauty and the Beast - thoughts?

(+) Yeah! (+)

the first disney beauty and the beast was one of my childhood movies. i was never nearly as attached to this one as i was to aladdin or the lion king, as it was more of a girly movie and the quippy humor was sidelined to boring adult male characters. phrases like 'provincial life' didn't really hit the mark for me, either.

over time, i've come to appreciate it a *ton* more, and beyond just enjoying a romantic story. short encapsulation: as a kid it's funny when one of the guys' eyes pops out as gaston bites him. but i didn't necessarily appreciate the irony that it's during a wrestling match, and people are ostensibly praising gaston for fighting dirty.

anyway, i watched this about five days ago, and i found all the familiar story beats, great songs, and the lean running time extremely comforting. many of those visuals are downright majestic. it was everything i expected, and i loved it.

i watched the 2016 version last night, mainly because i'd just seen the original and i figured it would be brainless. i liked it far less, but i'm not sure how much of that is tied to nostalgia and how much to the limitations of the movie itself.

unorganized list of thoughts:

* upping the movie from 90 to 130 minutes felt like a colossal mistake. like, what the fuck? i'm never rewatching something that long (front to back) that was done better, shorter.

* didn't care for any of the new songs. the beast's final one was alright, but it sounded like a knockoff of 'belle' that desperately wanted to - and probably should have - turned into an actual reprise.

* i imagine what's done with gaston is controversial. he's already hilariously over-vain in the 1992 edition, but for some reason he was beloved. the 2016 version is far more reluctant to endorse gaston's bullying. lefou is shown to have a moral compass (despite that gaston doesn't physically abuse him here), and in the showstopping song, the pub needs coercion before backing gaston wholeheartedly. i'm much more comfortable with the original interpretation, but maybe that's just nostalgia.

* the CGI mainly looked awful, and it already looks dated. (keep in mind that i don't have a problem with CGI in movies like tobey macguire's spider-mans.) the scenes with wolves are insanely cringe-worthy, sad to say. far, far worse than the animated version. and good lord that final battle with gaston was awful. i guess it was deliberately made less violent? but why does that mean the beast has to jump around like he is spider-man?

* belle is the movie's biggest triumph. she becomes a more proactive player, devising her own plans for escape, and generally articulating her likes and dislikes more strongly (she shuts gaston down more directly and less 'cleverly' than in the 92 version, which probably reflects how our expectations have changed in female role models).

* the beast is made more of a literate soul, and it gives you a lot more common ground off of which you can see their relationship grow. the stuff with belle's mom also aids this... but in the end, it all makes the movie longer, and as someone who just wanted to hear the best songs, that thread at least was a net negative.

* one sequence in particular i wish had been preserved - more of the beast's being puffed up by the servants before he initially approached belle. i thought it was a humanizing touch that was lost. he gets a lot more development later, but the early stuff counts. i suppose that the net effect is to make belle even more sympathetic - i remember hoping in the 1992 version that belle would appreciate the beast's efforts.

possibly more thoughts to come. what did you guys think about these points?
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one released before 2007, one released after. Which do you think is going to be better?
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Belle could have been better cast.
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Loved it

Heck, I'd rather rewatch the live action remake to the original cartoon
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I thought the Beast's new song was pretty great. The only cgi that really bothered me was the horrible digital matte painting they used as a backdrop for "Belle." The movie could have benefited greatly from more on location shoots in general, but that was especially bad.
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Preferred the new one, but the original is great too.

I liked the direction taken with Gaston's reception.

Everybody just loving and supporting him made sense with the cartoon since it was just that: cartoony. It made the people kinda one dimensional to just "Love Gaston." So having there be reluctance before them finally going "...Yeah, I guess he is pretty great" seemed more natural.
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Metal_DK posted...

one released before 2007, one released after. Which do you think is going to be better?

excellent post

Obellisk posted...

Belle could have been better cast.

how should she have been different? emma watson has the looks, the wits, and the guts for the role. she didn't literally look like the cartoon so much (and the acting wasn't perfect - she looked awful in 'be our guest'), but the casting was one of the strongest points i thought

HashtagSEP posted...

I liked the direction taken with Gaston's reception.

Everybody just loving and supporting him made sense with the cartoon since it was just that: cartoony. It made the people kinda one dimensional to just "Love Gaston." So having there be reluctance before them finally going "...Yeah, I guess he is pretty great" seemed more natural.

the movie tried to tune down the cartoonishness in many areas (to its detriment imo), but in some key points the cartoonishness stays (or is even amplified), and it's all the worse for that - the defense of the castle, the wolves attacking belle, gaston versus the beast

would rather have had cartoonish gaston in the pub
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Forgettable remake. My favorite scene was easily the snowball face blast. Apart from that, the only changes I really remember were the inclusions of black actors/characters when the original had none. I can only vaguely remember Belle's backstory and can't even recall if they gave Beast an extended backstory at all. Doubt I'll watch it again when, as you said, the original packs way more fun into a shorter runtime.

And the CG effects were baaaad.
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They should have dubbed Emma Watson's singing voice. The rest of the movie was pretty good; Gaston and LeFou were the highlights. But yeah the 1991 version is quite a bit better.

Vengeful_KBM posted...

They should have dubbed Emma Watson's singing voice. The rest of the movie was pretty good; Gaston and LeFou were the highlights. But yeah the 1991 version is quite a bit better.

Which is why she was a poor choice.

Her singing was awful and frankly her acting ain't that great either.
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Much like the animated film Gaston was the best part. Hero we need, but don't deserve. Both movies are decent, but I'm not fond of Belle and Beast or their Stockholm-like relationship

I didn't think Emma Watson's singing was awful at all!

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Forgettable remake. My favorite scene was easily the snowball face blast. Apart from that, the only changes I really remember were the inclusions of black actors/characters when the original had none. I can only vaguely remember Belle's backstory and can't even recall if they gave Beast an extended backstory at all. Doubt I'll watch it again when, as you said, the original packs way more fun into a shorter runtime.

And the CG effects were baaaad.

Mostly agreed, and holy shit, I did not expect that snowball to the face result. (The animated version has the Beast queuing up a giant snowball, only to get pelted into dropping it.)

The presence of black actors kind of bothered me a little, but the movie is so anachronistic in general that it's hard to object.

(edit addition below)

also - finally checked wiki since i knew i'd seen gaston before but couldn't place him - he was megan's husband scott from the girl on the train. kind of a forgettable role.

bizarrely for hollywood, he's not as good-looking as i'd imagine either gaston or scott
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i disliked how they had to hit you over the head with gaston's evil in the new version

there's just no room for nuance at all
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Remake is way better. Belle sounds auto-tuned a bit too much and I don't really like the story either way - this is like a D movie being remade as a C for me
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I thought Watson actively detracted from the movie. She was just not the right person for the part.
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She doesn't exude any sort of romance, if that makes sense. She makes Belle a better character but the relationship is still a hard sell.
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Downgrade in a lot of ways. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies and the live action had me in the theater questioning what the point of this version's existence was. (Aside from being an obvious cash grab.)

The new songs were lame, the auto-tune was distracting, the shot-for-shot nature of many scenes only served to show how inferior this one is to the original, etc.

If the movie had more stuff like how they interpreted Le Fou, I'd say it was a worthwhile endeavor, but he's really the standout. And even then, they made Gaston suck by making him less of a town hero and more of a general oaf - and an almost immediately and overtly villainous one at that. I think that bothered me more than a lot of stuff, because it kind of missed the whole point of his character.
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