Some thoughts on Beauty and the Beast (no spoilers).

The first teaser and every trailer that followed had me pumped for this movie but the promotional
materials’ heavy use of dialogue and imagery from the animated movie allowed me to maintain a little
bit of skepticism that what Disney would be doing would just be a frame-by-frame recreation of an
already established classic. I held on to that reservation going into the movie and I was anxious when
the first words of the prologue were spoken – I had a feeling that everything that would follow would be
taking their cue from that iconic intro. I was already caught by surprise with the new bit of information
thrown in two minutes into the movie.

This movie is a faithful adaptation of the original but it is not a frame-by-frame translation from hand-
drawn to live action. Yes, there is a difference. Some of the lingering questions left in the animated
movie were addressed and additional materials for character development were integrated in the main
narrative which was done in a manner less intrusive than what I would have expected. These “bits of
modern spin” complemented the movie and never felt like they were plucked out of an ass of someone
high on crack to butcher the story (looking at you, Maleficent. Damn, I’m still not over the bad aftertaste
of that trash.)

Now, the main question: Is this movie necessary? No. Years from now I believe people will still cherish
the original animated classic. This movie can serve as a companion piece but the original movie will have
no problem standing on its own, as it has shown magnificently for the last 26 years. I do think that this
adaptation is good, as well as 2015’s Cinderella and last year’s Jungle Book, but it is more of a testament
to the greatness of the original animated movies from which they were based rather than their own
unique merits.

Still, I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. Alan Menken’s music is perennial and everyone should hear
Luke Evans sing.