What's Different About Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Let me tell you why the new Beauty and the Beast movie that is coming out next month is going to be absolutely phenomenal... 

First of all, it is Beauty and the Beast which is one of the best Disney animated films ever made. I mean, it was the first animated feature to be nominated for an Oscar for best picture (since Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which was the first animated feature ever made) for crying out loud! It has great animation, great voice work, great music, great storytelling, great characters, great everything! 

So why fix what isn’t broken? 

Essentially, they aren’t. It’s just a remake of a fantastic film in live action form. The fun of remaking anything is that it is a new interpretation of the original. We get to see a different take from a new point of view. I mean, the animated film has already been adapted into a Broadway show and it was wildly successful. And the interesting thing about remaking an animated film into live action according to the director Bill Condon is “it has to change in a basic way and contain human behavior we can recognize.” 

There have been concerns that this adaption will be too similar to the original. Is this a legitimate claim? 

Perhaps. I can see why some people might think that. Obviously it is following the original story of the animated film. It has the same characters, the same songs, the same setting, and so on. It needs to remain familiar for the fans of the original. We can see from the pictures and the trailers that it does look very similar. But it is not a shot for shot remake. There are a lot of changes being made. I have compiled all the evidence one needs to see why this new adaption will be different enough from the original to keep people happy...

Let me start with some of the big ones:

In the new version, Belle is given more of a backstory and is more proactive. According to Emma Watson, “We tried to tweak things to make her more proactive, and a bit less carried along by the story, and a bit more in charge of— and in control of— her own destiny.” While in the original, Belle was a very strong character who liked to read, was an oddball in her small town, and very independent-minded, the creators of the 2017 movie have built upon that and added more to her character. Something that stood out to me in the trailers was Belle telling her father she “will escape” from the Beast’s prison. I thought that was a nice addition instead of her passively taking it.

Another example is it explains why she stands out so much in her town. In the original, it’s only because she reads, but surely there must have been something else, right? In the new version, she is more mechanically-minded and inventive. “What is she doing with all her time?” Emma Watson says, “So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead.” You can see why this might make Belle stand out in her town a little more and make her a “funny girl” in the minds of the townsfolk.

But you may remember in the original animated film that her father, Maurice, was the inventor, so what's going on there? Well, in the new version he creates music boxes. This delves deeper into Belle’s backstory. Apparently he makes the music boxes to represent all the places and things around the world that Belle is missing. He doesn’t want her to leave due to his overprotective nature after her mother died. This explains why Belle wants to leave, but doesn’t and also it shows a deeper and more tender side to Belle and Maurice’s relationship.

Alan Menken

Speaking of the music boxes, there is a new song written for one of Belle and Maurice’s scenes together. In fact there are three new songs written for the film. Originally, I heard that the movie would be following the Broadway musical, but that idea “was scrapped” according to Alan Menken the composer, and he wrote some new songs just for the movie. The songs include “How Does a Moment Last Forever (Music Box)” sung by Maurice, “Days In the Sun” sung by the servants, and “Evermore” sung by the Beast, plus a couple reprises and credit songs. If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will. Alan Menken is a genius! His credits include The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tangled, Pocahontas, Enchanted, Newsies, and Hercules, among many others.

Then, this movie goes deeper into the Beast and Belle’s relationship. Bill Condon says on the subject, “we expanded upon how Belle and the Beast become who they are when we meet them.” And you can even see for yourself in the trailers and TV spots all these extra and unrecognizable scenes. Like it looks like Belle nurses him back to health after he saves her from the wolves instead of just a brief little bandaging scene. I think that's nice. And lot of their conversation seems a lot more casual and playful (“Have you really read all of these books?” “No. Some of them are in Greek.” Ha! I thought that was cute.). I’m really excited to see their relationship play out in an even more realistic way (because the animated film was probably the first Disney feature to show a couple falling in love over a period of time.)

Some other smaller tidbits:

There is an all-new character being added; a harpsichord named Cadenza who is apparently married to Belle’s giant wardrobe. I'll be interested to see what his purpose is and why they thought it necessary to add him.

Also, since Maurice is no longer an inventor, why does he venture out into the woods and get lost? How does he find the Beast’s castle? Is he going to sell his music boxes? It should be interesting to see how they change that up.

Speaking of that, in the trailers, you see him taking a rose from the Beast’s garden and that’s why the Beast takes him captive. LOVE THAT! Straight out of the original fairytale! (Where the father gets taken captive for taking a rose from the garden of the Beast because he wanted to take it home for his daughter. So is he thinking of Belle here?)

According to the trailers, Belle seems to know the consequences of the curse. That is to say, she knows that when the last petal falls, “the master remains a beast forever.” I thought that was an interesting twist because in the original, she just thinks she’s living in a magical castle with a Beast for a master. However, in this version, she actually wonders and asks about it. Now that I think about it, why shouldn’t she know what’s up? But there is no indication that she knows that she is their only hope or how to break the curse because then that would defeat the purpose.She needs to fall in love with what's inside without knowing that there's literally something else underneath.

In a previous post when the first trailer was released, I mentioned the portrait of the Prince that the Beast claws up. It portrays him as a child with his parents. I think that is extremely fascinating. I saw in a TV spot he was in fact a young man when he was transformed, so that picture was probably painted earlier, but still. (If you want to look at that post, you can go HERE)

And BTW, Dan Stevens will actually be a good looking Prince! (Haha, sorry. It's just that the animated version does not do a very good job at pulling that off. Great eyes though.).

Also, something else I gotta bring up is it explained how Belle got the Beast on the horse after he saves her from the wolves! Haha! Fantastic! (Something that has been questioned among fans for years.)

Lastly, I keep hearing about, and have seen it briefly in a couple trailers, what is this magical atlas? I literally know nothing except that it’s in the movie. It must be important because I keep seeing it mentioned everywhere and it’s always on display with the costumes and stuff.

Magical atlas

So there you have it. All the reasons I could come up with on how this new movie will be different. I think this movie is going to be fantastic! It looks absolutely stunning! I mean, the sets and the costumes alone are breathtaking. The song sequences look like they're going to be phenomenal. I picked up on most of the familiar ones like "Be Our Guest", "Gaston", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Mob Song", "Something There", "Belle", and "Belle (Reprise)". The choreography and cinematography looks absolutely stunning. And the casting is complete perfection! Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian Mckellen as Cogsworth, Emma Thomson as Mrs. Potts, Kevin Kline as Maurice, and there’s just so many more!

I love the original so much and I really think this new interpretation is going to do it justice. I believe in Disney! And if anyone is debating on whether they should watch the original before going to see the new one or not, I say yes, you should. 1) It's an absolute masterpiece and is always worth watching and 2) That way you can see all the differences and similarities without relying on your fuzzy memory from childhood (or whenever you last saw it). If you rely on that, it will just seem extremely similar because it is, and you won't realize how different it actually is. So go watch the original and get totally pumped to see this new one!

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Trailer 3

Emma Watson Singing Promo