guess what this lady's favourite Disney movie is? Of course, Beauty and the Beast. I loved the cartoon version since I was a little girl, and had a special connection to the music. I loved it so much that I once looked up all the different Alan Menken versions of the compositions and I also learned to play every song on the piano.
It beats The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas for me, despite being absolutely crazy about those movies as well. If I can choose one movie to become alive now, it would be The Litttle mermaid, even if it's just to hear the music even more improved?
Because improved music was certainly present in the movie last night. The movie starts with a part that was added later to make people understand why Beast was a Beast, without an actual prologue. You see Dan Stevens in the most hideous Renaissance updo leading the most lavish lifestyle with the most beautiful people. I loved that they added that scene.
The next scene I remember is the classic "Belle" scene in the village. This one I liked the best of all. Although it was supposed to be June in the movie, the light always gave the village an August sunset look, but it was perfect. The colour play was extravagant: the village was drowned in the warm orangey glow with a matching market selling heaps and heaps of what seemed to be cream, yellow and pink larkspur or a similar long flower. Belle's (played by Emma Watson) blue dress was made to look even more peculiar that way.
The way Belle helped her father (Kevin Kline) fix a gear was something I had forgotten about. I thought the scene was acted brilliantly. When Maurice told his daughter that her mother was "fearless", Bele actually looked as if her heart dropped.
There was the dimension added of Belle having lost her mother, and I realised that this movie was going to be a tear jerker for the rest of the evening. No one was chewing on their candy. Seeing Maurice work on an animated golden music box with him in there painting a tiny painting of his wife with Belle in her arms was the most touching scene. The song "How Does a Moment Last Forever" sung with his old voice was heartbreaking and gave the movie a personal touch.
The next painful scene is when Maurice gets trapped by the Beast for taing a rose for Belle. The scene where she tries to rescue him was another tear-jerker. How could anyone treat an old man like that who has lost his wife?
The next great scene is the pub scene with Gaston. There were no girls in yellow, green and red, but this time three even more similar looking girls that are already seen in the village scene, making a fool of themselves to get Gaston's attention. The women are all dressed in pink gowns and are wearing heavy, renaissance like makeup: lots of blush, lipstick, white powder and eyebrows almost drawn on black. Pretty, but also over the top. The music in the pub scene was the "Gaston" song, and they gave it some extra depth with lively accordeon. I actually felt like I was in an old French village. The music switches key in a Pocahontas "Savages" kind of way. The choreography of Gaston and Le Fou was so catchy that I had to contain myself to not go out that night to a pub with folk music :D
Shame that the beast is digital work and not a good costume design, it would have made things more believable. Disappointing was the dress that Belle wore, which seemed like just several layers of straight yellow curtain rather than gold. But the scene were Ms Garderobe adds a golden touch to it was splendid and took our breath away for a while. In the end it wasn't merely as good as the dress in Cinderella though, and not even as good as the cartoon version.
I'm amazed at how fast the scenes go, and that they still make time for a new song that didn't really fit the movie, where the Beast sings how much he wants Belle to stay. There was better music that could have been used more. Another thing that bothered me was that the rose was red and not pink and shimmery; There's this bad habit in the current fiction movies to make everything so dark and gloomy.
Then the transformation scene, which I had looked forward to the most, was sort of bland. There was no firework rain and the transformation didn't happen underneath the starry night. It was a tornado of rose petals with some "glitter". Dan Stevens though! He was perfectly cast! I don't think they could have found a better lookalike for prince Adam! I actually dreamed of him that night.
Isn't he a piece?
Last the dance scene, which was visually the most appealing of all. I had never seen a more beautiful bird blue on a man! The bow in Dan's hair and the gorgeous detailed suit looked brilliant and much better than the dark blue of Beast. Belle wasn't wearing her gold dress again, but the most stunning ivory gown with what I remember to be golden flowers at the bottom. All in all the details and the "beauty" in this movie were overwhelming. I regret that there wasn't more chemistry between Belle and Beast in the end, it looked like friends dancing. Was Emma the right one to be cast? Personally I would have gone for Natalie Portman, Rachel McAadams, Mena Suvari or Liv Tyler, but I guess they weren't popular enough? Let's play my favourite star sign game. Emma Watson is an aries and Dan is a libra. Yeah, that's not a great match. Funny coincidence, but libras are called the most attractive star sign of all. The only good tihng about the final scene was the little grunt Dan did ;)
Now a special word for the music. They re-used most original songs and... improved them! Unlike in Cinderalle a lot of the amazing compositions, by Alan Menken were remastered into somehow something even more perfect. Somewhere I heard an Irish influence. "Beast Let's Belle Go" was also used and improved with more instruments. What was not used was the goose bump inducing The West Wing. They also use the dreamy remix of the main song.
I ended up seeing the movie twice. I can't wait to buy the DVD and CD. The movie made 1 billion in just two weeks, so who knows, maybe it will be the first movie to make more than 3 billion?
x
Helena
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