I’ve been seeing trailers for the upcoming remake of Beauty and the Beast in live-action. To me, it looks absolutely pointless; the animated version was just about a perfect movie; I’m not sure that remaking it with uncanny-valley live-action versions of the Beast, Lumiere, etc, and drab-looking sets is a good idea.
In fact, let me go further: I’m sure it’s a bad idea. I just shake my head sadly when I see the trailers.
PS: I’m also reminded of my dad’s Law of Advertising: “Quality and amount of advertising are inversely proportional”. Been seeing the trailer for B&B a lot.
Quoting myself from a different thread earlier today:
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So far, it seems like the remake is so scene-for-scene, momemt-for-moment similar to the original that the whole thing is profoundly, incredibly pointless to make.
ETA: But it is still going to make a shit-ton of money.
Well, if I recall correctly, the live-action remake of Cinderella raked in beacoup bucks so they’re probably mostly trying to cash in on what they see audiences liking.
I like Emma Watson, so I’ll probably see it. I’m not at the moment sold on Lumiere or Cogsworth. They feel a bit small and creepy compared to their animated counterparts.
It’s Disney. At some point in the 80s they realized they can just keep selling the same crap over and over forever, and people will continue to just throw piles of money at them and thank them for it.
Remember how Cinderella came out? Then the Jungle Book did, now it’s Beauty and the Beast? This is Disney’s newest thing. They’re doing it for all their older movies. Lion King was just announced a little while ago and they’ve put out casting feelers for Little Mermaid.
I also want to say I’ve heard Aladdin is coming too, but I could be making that up. The first two are rock-solid though.
I daresay if there are literally dozens of Batmans, Supermans, Avengers, Friday the 13ths, and Halloweens - why NOT something pretty for young girls to go see? I’m an ‘old’ girl, and I would like to see it. (and Jungle Book, and Aladdin, and Peter Pan, and whatever. I love Disney.)
From what I read, Belle is more “independent” and “powerful” in this version, including making her some sort of tinkerer/inventor. Emma Watson was talking about how she was now a 21st century role-model for girls. So I’m guessing they added some new scenes to reflect her modern woman status.
Disney princess movies aren’t really my thing so I’m agnostic on the changes (although I’m cognizant enough to my wife’s hints that we’ll be going to see this) and I don’t recall the original well enough to know what’s changed and what hasn’t. News I’ve seen of the changes are largely in the form of criticism from Disney purists and/or “Political correctness is ruining all that’s dear” complainers.
Eh, I’m with Salinqmind on this one. The “original” is one of my top-10 movies, but that doesn’t mean variations on the same theme shouldn’t exist.
And if you are not a fan of superhero movies, it is hard to accept that “these aren’t the same movie” when, hell, it’s the same people playing the same characters doing the same thing film after film after film after film. Might not be the same movie, but there is a certain repetitive nature to them that makes the films blend together to the casual or non fan.
Well, Aladdin has already made it to Broadway. My daughter and I were there a couple years back and got to see Lion King, and we saw the signs for Aladdin but it was sold out. No clue whether it’s still playing though.
Two of my teenage daughters are counting the days until this comes out. I had to preorder tickets for opening weekend a month ahead of time because they were already selling out. And they’ve seen the animated one multiple times, and are aware this is a live action remake. They don’t care. I think they’re the target audience, not the OP.
I agree with the OP. There is a lot of excitement for this movie and I’m probably being a curmudgeon but I don’t get it. How is it not just selling the same movie twice?
I don’t think that two minutes of tiny clips is very telling. Even less so when the guy who put it together admits to cheating and using shots that look similar but are from different scenes and half the shots he does show aren’t identical. I mean, the vain guy looks in a mirror in both movies? Wowzers.
On the other hand, of course iconic scenes are going to be basically real life/CG reenactments of the animated ones because that’s precisely what people are paying to see.
For that matter, Beauty and the Beast has a Broadway version too (it’s the tenth longest-running show on Broadway). The stage version made some changes to the story and added some new songs. I’m wondering if the new film will incorporate any of those changes, will introduce new changes of its own, or will try to largely duplicate what the animated film already did.
I agree with those who say give it a chance before deciding against it.
They added new songs to the stage version that followed the cartoon film so it may just be from there.
This trend is not very encouraging because neither the recent Cinderella nor Jungle Book were as good as the earlier Disney animated versions and there’s already a live action version of this story which is among the greatest fantasy films ever made. It does strike me as not just unnecessary but incredibly mercenary and whatever charm the 1991 version had was in part because it took advantage of the dynamism of imagery that animation allows. Grounding it in the VFX world of the photo-realistic will lose some of that magic, I suspect. Then again, the incessant green screen of JB bored me and it just won the Oscar, so what do I know?
Well, you can say that about Westerns or Dramas or any other genre: They all have tropes, stock roles that get filled, stock situations that get played out, film after film, time after time. It’s hard for the non-fan to keep the Dramas straight, too.
I have never seen B&B, I was never the target demographic for a pure princess movie, but I have seen different adaptations on the concept , from Beastly to the more recent television show lucifer. But I can see how putting a real life Belle and upgrading her wardrobe and new music, would generate some excitement in teenage girls, at the time when story book romances are their world, regardless if its the exact same story.
