Beauty and the Beast movie review: Emma Watson brings back a tale as old as time

Beauty and the Beast
Director: Bill Condon
Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Ian McKellen, Josh Gad

Disney is back on the big screen with the magical story of a beautiful young woman who falls in love with her captor. As weird as it may sound on the outside, count it on Disney to make girls all over the world wish for a story just like that.

Beauty and the Beast, a live-action adaptation of the hit 1991 film, stars Emma Watson as Belle, the young girl we just mentioned. She lives in a small town in 18th century France and dreams of exchanging her simple, provincial life for an adventure.

That is, until she is captured by Beast, played by Dan Stevens. He is a prince under a spell. A magical woman turned him into a big hairy monster and all the attendants in his castle into sentient furniture.

A few minor tweaks aside, the live action adaptation has nothing new to bring to the story or the way it is presented to the audience of a new millennium. Belle still gets captured and she still falls in love. Even the path taken to arrive there, has undergone no new treatment.

Emma tries her hand at singing the old classics like the opening number Belle and Something There, and so do other cast members. The songs have been changed ever so slightly but noticeably (if you know all the original songs by heart), both in their lyrics and in picturisation.

The film, even with all its glorious animation, sets and songs, struggles to drive home a fresh new perspective on the fairytale we have loved for ages. Much like Cinderella (the 2015 live action adaptation), this too makes for a good revisit to the classic but you forget about it as soon as you step out of the theatre. Costumes and colour correction can only take you as far when you have no new story to tell.

Watch out for our full review here.