Disney’s new Beauty and the Beast doesn’t quite live up to the heights of its classic 1991 film

REVIEW: Disney’s 1991 animated musical Beauty and the Beast is considered one of the greatest movies of all time, so can this re-tooling live up to the hype?

Beauty and the Beast (PG)

Director: Bill Condon (Dreamgirls)

Starring: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Luke Evans, Josh Gad

Rating: 3 stars

A lot more flesh and blood, a little less feeling.

Dan Stevens as The Beast. Picture: Disney via AP

Budgeted at a smidge over $200 million, Disney’s lavish live-action retooling of its classic 1991 animated musical Beauty and the Beast has a lot to live up to.

The original was flawless for every one of its 84 minutes. The visuals, the vocal performances and the vibe were perfectly calibrated to doing the right by a beloved tale as old as time.

And then there were the tunes. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman assembled what remains the best songbook to ever grace a cartoon musical.

Fittingly, all of these factors and more resulted in the film becoming the first animated feature to ever land a nomination for the Best Picture Oscar.

So what of this “new”, two-hours-plus version of Beauty and the Beast, then?

WHY LA LA LAND IS SO GOOD

Emma Watson stars as Belle and Kevin Kline is Maurice, Belle's father. Picture: Disney

Well, while it does not disappoint in any way, it never does anything to displace the notion that Disney got it absolutely perfect the first time around.

These second-hand goods have been polished to sparkle brightly and enticingly as they are experienced in the moment. However, any lasting afterglow from one shiny sequence to the next is often difficult to detect.

Thankfully, the plotting doesn’t deviate too dramatically from the ancient narrative everyone knows so well.

(Though these days, that “tale as old as time” does feel a bit like a Crime Stoppers segment in the making: rich, disfigured loner holds pretty blonde captive for years in heavily fortified mansion, forcing her to work unpaid as in-house librarian and occasional ballroom dance partner.)

Emma Watson has the lead role as the restless, intelligent and kind-hearted heroine Belle.

The former Harry Potter star makes a respectable fit for the part, even if her singing isn’t quite up to the mark in terms of power or pitch (you haven’t heard this much Auto-Tuning in the one place since your car had its last service.)

Little-known actor Dan Stevens can be found somewhere inside the synthetic swirl of CGI effects that constitute the Beast. Though he always looks like a clinically depressed buffalo with an expensive tailor, Stevens’ facial expressions and vocal range gradually bring the humanity in the character to the fore.

Dan Stevens as The Beast and Emma Watson as Belle have issues with their onscreen chemistry. Picture: Disney via AP

Watson and Stevens do have their problems sustaining any real screen chemistry. Sometimes, there is a stilted aspect to the way the Beast moves that is quite distracting to the viewer. At other times, Watson as Belle seems unsure of what she is emoting at (or where it should be pointed to).

Luckily for the movie as a whole, a lively support cast is there to pick up the slack when enjoyment levels feel as if they could be about to flag.

Everyone will have their own favourites among the many scene-stealers involved here. However, it is hard to go past Emma Thompson (as the ever-endearing Cockney tea receptacle Mrs Potts), Ewan McGregor (Lumiere the gallant French candlestick) and Ian McKellen (Cogsworth the officious clock) as the picks of the bunch.

Gaston (Luke Evans) a handsome but arrogant brute, holds court in the village tavern in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Josh Gad also supplies some much-needed comic relief as Le Fou, the faintly flamboyant (hardly the “openly gay” game-changer that’s been hyped everywhere) sidekick of the vainglorious meat-head Gaston (Luke Evans).

Originally published as Disney’s new Beauty and the Beast doesn’t quite live up to the heights of its classic 1991 film