Last weekend I went to see the new Beauty and the Beast. Reviews I saw online were mostly positive with a criticism being the fact that too much of it seemed like a redo of the animated version vice a fresh live-action version. I couldn't disagree more. The new version for me felt fresh but true to the animated version. It didn't feel like a repeat. It made me feel emotions with new scenes that tugged at the heartstrings, made me root for the Beast almost from the beginning given his new backstory, and made me hate Gaston even more. It made me understand Belle's point of view, and feel empathy for LeFou and the situation in which he feels he is stuck. That's what a movie is supposed to do, especially a remake of a movie from my childhood. Nostalgia met new feelings and meaning in a tale as old as time.
I was also immensely impressed with the new songs that I feel like really should have been in the original. Especially the Beast's song Evermore (my happy thing at the bottom of this post). The song is a mix of Broadway hero and acceptance of one's fate. I might be responsible for about 100+ of the nearly 2.9 million views on YouTube. My complaint about the songs was that Ariana Grande and John Legend replaced Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. I love Ariana Grande. I love John Legend. I love the song. I didn't like them together on the song. In fact, I much prefer Ariana Grande doing Celine Dion singing the song!
So if you haven't yet, I recommend going to see the new Beauty and the Beast. Ignore the haters, enjoy the movie. I've been back a few weeks now, but I'm still working out a backlog of movies that were released while I was away (Moana and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are top of the list), so seeing Beauty and the Beast before it left theaters was helpful so that I didn't accidentally add more movies to my list when it would be so easy to cross off!
Short post and disjointed, but I haven't posted in a long time so this is it. Plus, I really wanted to share Dan Stevens's version of Evermore.
I was also immensely impressed with the new songs that I feel like really should have been in the original. Especially the Beast's song Evermore (my happy thing at the bottom of this post). The song is a mix of Broadway hero and acceptance of one's fate. I might be responsible for about 100+ of the nearly 2.9 million views on YouTube. My complaint about the songs was that Ariana Grande and John Legend replaced Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. I love Ariana Grande. I love John Legend. I love the song. I didn't like them together on the song. In fact, I much prefer Ariana Grande doing Celine Dion singing the song!
So if you haven't yet, I recommend going to see the new Beauty and the Beast. Ignore the haters, enjoy the movie. I've been back a few weeks now, but I'm still working out a backlog of movies that were released while I was away (Moana and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are top of the list), so seeing Beauty and the Beast before it left theaters was helpful so that I didn't accidentally add more movies to my list when it would be so easy to cross off!
Short post and disjointed, but I haven't posted in a long time so this is it. Plus, I really wanted to share Dan Stevens's version of Evermore.
