When Disney announced they were remaking their much-loved classic animation Beauty And The
Beast, fans wondered what exactly the new filmmakers would keep or change and whether
the new movie could ever reach the incredibly high bar set by the original.
Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers, it's Jan here, and in this video, I want to take a look at
some of the very best and some of my least favourite changes and differences between
Disney's live-action Beauty And The Beast and the 1991 animated movie.
Naturally, I'll be delving deep into spoiler territory, so be aware of that if you haven't
seen the new movie yet.
If that's you, you can check out my spoiler-free review of the film by tapping or clicking
here.
I loved how they took Belle's character from the original film and expanded and updated
it in what felt, to me, like a very natural way.
So, Belle's still a literature-loving young woman as she was in 1991, but she also wants
to pass that love and knowledge on to other young girls in her town.
And not only does she help her father with his own craft, making music boxes, like she
did with his inventions in the animation; but she's also an inventor in her own right,
creating contraptions to make life easier and give her more time for the things she
enjoys, like reading and sharing her knowledge.
We also see Belle firmly shutting Gaston out of her house and plotting her escape from
the Beast's castle, and even her clothes reflect the fact she's an active character, for example,
she wears boots and her skirt's hitched up on one side to make riding her horse easier.
The updates to Belle's character are not only fitting given the fact this is a film for
modern audiences, but they're also a continuation of what began back in 1991 with Linda Woolverton,
who was the first female screenwriter of a Disney animated feature.
Woolverton wanted Belle to be less passive, more independent, and more relevant to contemporary
audiences than previous Disney princesses, but often found it an uphill struggle to get
her ideas through to the final film, for example, a scene Woolverton wrote with Belle marking
a map with all the places she wanted to visit was switched to show Belle baking in the kitchen
until it was agreed that Belle would walk around reading instead.
Much as I love the original animation, I think the new filmmakers made a wise decision when
they decided not to have Gaston jump the gun and set up a surprise wedding for Belle!
Gaston's still super-full of himself in the new film, but what we get instead of him putting
his feet up at Belle's house and assuming she's going to marry him, is Gaston trying
a subtler but perhaps more devious approach by claiming to sympathise with Belle over
her mistreatment by the headmaster who put a stop to her using her new washing invention.
It's still clear from their conversation that they'd be hopelessly mismatched as a couple,
and there are several nice nods to the scene from 1991, including Gaston alluding to Belle
having his children and, also, after she rebuffs him, he walks off and steps into a muddy puddle,
a call-back to the animation where he lands head-first in a muddy pond after Belle shows
him the door.
Gaston has many great moments in the animated film, and Luke Evans does a fabulous job bringing
him to live-action life, giving his character a more grounded feel than the original by
playing him so real and the comedy so deadpan.
One of the many things I love about the new movie is Maestro Cadenza and Madame de Garderobe.
Obviously, Cadenza is a new addition to the castle's characters, but I love how he fits
in well with the existing characters thanks to the fact they make Garderobe his wife,
and make her human counterpart an Italian opera diva.
Oh, and making their dog Froufou become the Footstool character from the original movie
was also a really nice touch.
Also, their character design and the way that's carried through into their human forms is
just wonderful.
Garderobe, especially, is a triumph of imagination.
In her wardrobe form, inside her doors, you see stage curtains, footlights, and box seats,
all of which really bring through the fact that, as a human being, she's a performer
and also that she has a rather dramatic, theatrical personality.
And it's such a neat detail that after the enchanted Cadenza has fought the angry mob
by launching his harpsichord keys at them as if they were bullets, when he's turned
back into a human being at the end, he's missing many of his teeth!
Audra MacDonald and Stanley Tucci, who bring Garderobe and Cadenza to life, are just brilliant
in the film, both in their own right and together.
I love how fun their characters are, I love the sweet way they interact with each other
in the film, I love how various easter eggs and hidden details are introduced into the
film through their characters, I love the very talented actors who play them, and I
love the fact their relationship adds to the movie's diversity.
Speaking of which, Garderobe's character is also part of another scene that adds another
element of diversity to the movie, when in the final battle, she wraps three men in dresses
– two of whom run off, as in the animated film, while the third is delighted to have
come out of the closet, so to speak.
Of course, there's been a lot of talk about LeFou being gay in this film as well, with
his character experiencing mixed feelings for Gaston and dancing briefly with a man
during the final celebration.
It's actually all very subtle, and certainly no reason to raise the rating, cut scenes
or refuse to screen it, which is what's happened in some parts of the world.
The film's already updating the tale for modern audiences in terms of Belle's character and
making the cast more racially diverse, and excluding LGBT characters from that diversity
would quite simply in my opinion be wrong.
One of the lovely touches that the filmmakers have introduced into this movie is that as
time passes and each petal falls from the Beast's rose, we see and hear the effects
of this on the castle and the enchanted servants.
So, Lumiere and Cogsworth's joints start to seize up, making it harder for them to move,
the duster Plumette gets several new feathers, and the wardrobe Garderobe becomes increasingly
sleepy and lethargic to the point where she falls asleep after only semi-finishing a crazily
over-the-top dress for Belle.
And on several occasions, the castle itself rumbles and creaks as various bits collapse
and fall away from its exterior.
Showing the castle and its inhabitants reacting to the effects of the spell over time is a
beautiful and subtle addition to the movie's world, and is perhaps a nod to how in the
Broadway musical, the effect of the spell on the household servants shows itself gradually.
Anyway, I loved how it integrated so well into the story and design of the movie, and
how at the end as the last petal falls, the servants became inanimate, and later resume
their human forms in delightful ways, for example, the duster Plumette emerges from
a pile of feathers.
Of the new songs written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice for the live-action
film, my favourite is Evermore, which the Beast sings after he sets Belle free to go
and help her father.
It's a really gorgeous musical number full of loss, longing, and sacrifice and actor
Dan Stevens performs it so well.
And Days In The Sun, which I already liked the first time I saw the film, really got
me the second time I watched the movie.
It's such a wonderfully melancholic lullaby-like song sung by the enchanted servants about
their former lives and it's really very moving.
It'll be interesting to see if any of the new songs get Oscar nominations next year.
Oh, and it's not a new song, and she just gets a few lines, but I love hearing Audra
Macdonald as Garderobe sing Beauty And The Beast right at the end.
She's got such a beautiful voice and presence that it seems unbelievable that years ago
when she auditioned to be in the ensemble for the Broadway musical of Beauty And The
Beast, she didn't get the job!
Anyway, she totally nails the song here – she's just fantastic – and add to that the new
Beauty And The Beast lyrics that Emma Thompson sings as Mrs Potts at the end, and it's just
perfect!
By the way, if you want to know more about those new lyrics and how they came about,
I talk about that in my Easter Eggs video, which you can click or tap here to watch.
One line I love in the animation that doesn't make it into the live-action film, which I
think is a real shame, is 'Gaston, you are positively primeval', which Belle says in
response to Gaston's comments about how women shouldn't read as it'll give them ideas and
how she should be paying attention to more important things than books, namely him.
What we get instead of that and Belle's refusal when Gaston invites her to 'look at his trophies'
in the tavern, is a scene where Gaston tries to invite himself to dinner with Belle, which
she turns down, only making the uber-arrogant Captain even more keen.
While I did enjoy this new scene, I still would have loved to have heard that line from
Belle in the new film.
As soon as they announced that Frozen star Josh Gad was going to play LeFou, one image
from the animated film popped straight into my mind.
Yes, it was the scene where LeFou, who's been forced by Gaston to wait for Belle and Maurice
outside their house, gets covered in snow like a snowman.
Obviously, Josh Gad's character in Frozen is the snowman Olaf, so I was really hoping
they'd recreate that snowman scene from the 1991 movie, even though I knew it would be
such an obvious joke and that alone would mean they probably wouldn't do it!
In the end, because of the way they've changed the story in the new film, the events that
lead up to that snowman scene in the animated movie wouldn't make sense here, but I would
still have loved to have seen Josh Gad in live-action snowman form!
But despite the fact I didn't get my Snow-Gad in the movie, I think Josh Gad is superb in
Beauty And The Beast and works so well together with Luke Evans as Gaston.
One moment in the film that didn't seem as natural or smoothly executed as the rest to
me was when Belle meets Lumiere.
In the original film, Lumiere introduces himself to her before the big song-and-dance number,
Be Our Guest.
But in this film, she meets him earlier when he goes to her cell and offers to escort her
to her room.
Belle seems a bit more taken aback in this version when she meets the enchanted servants
for the first time, but that's not my issue with the change, as it'd be perfectly normal
for her to be shocked to see a talking candelabra for the first time.
What didn't work for me in this new scene was the way her reaction to him seems delayed
or a bit disjointed.
What I mean is that she's already seen him and talked to him, but she still decides to
go ahead and hit him with a stool and then after that she also screams.
I can see what they were trying to do with the scene, and how they were also echoing
Maurice's reaction to Lumiere from the 1991 film, but the way the scene's been put together
here is incoherent, as if it wasn't edited or scripted quite right, so it ended up not
ringing true for me.
When I first saw the trailers for Beauty And The Beast, I've gotta say I wasn't super-keen
on the look of the enchanted objects, especially Mrs Potts.
I mean, I just love how expressive she looks in the animated version, and in the new film,
she seems less so, and on top of that, of course, the animated Mrs Potts has a spout
for a nose, whereas the spout on the live-action Mrs Potts is there as a sort of arm, which
may have been inspired by her design in the Broadway musical.
When did I see the full live-action film for the first time, I've gotta admit that the
production design did win me over as the rather ornate and refined design of the objects fits
well with the mid-17th-century time setting they've chosen for the film.
Still, as much as I love Emma Thompson's rendition of 'Tale As Old As Time' and her lively take
on Mrs Potts, that role will still always belong to Angela Lansbury for me.
As for Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, while I did enjoy the overall performance, especially
the 'Be Our Guest' extravaganza, it does sound like he had a tough time with the French accent,
and he's actually said as much himself.
So, again, much as I love Lumiere and the new movie as a whole, it's still Jerry Orbach's
animated Lumiere that wins the day for me.
And I'd say the same for Nathan Mack's take on Chip in the live-action movie versus Bradley
Pierce's animated Chip as well.
Now, I'd love to hear your verdict about the changes between the original animation and
Disney's live-action remake.
What did you most enjoy and what didn't you like?
Let me know in the comments below.
And while you're here, why not be my guest and enjoy some of my other Beauty And The
Beast videos including 17 easter eggs & hidden details you might have missed in the new movie
and 10 movie mistakes and plot holes from the animation that the new movie fixed.
You can tap or click here to watch any of those and check out my full playlist.
Thanks for watching and see you next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers.
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