So in an effort to not only do breakdowns for action movies, comic book movies, and Star Wars movies I figured I’d give this a whirl. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great trailer and looks gorgeous it’s just not completely in my wheelhouse.

RDT and I have talked a lot about how Disney is remaking many of their classic animated movies as live action affairs. Beauty and the Beast follows Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, and of course the cinematic masterpiece 101 Dalmatians (Glenn Close’s finest work). This is just the start as they have upwards of 18 more live action versions in the pipe, like Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid. Basically your childhood brought to life.

Alright there’s a good deal to get into in this trailer so let’s not waste any more time. Let’s talk about the new Beauty and the Beast trailer:

• We open with the familiar Disney Castle logo but the castle has been changed to Beast’s. It’s a nice touch they’ve done before. In fact here’s 10 minutes of different variations on the logo.
• A shot of a family portrait that has been slashed by claws then focus’ on the young boy in the portrait.
• The trailer skips over the part where the old enchantress turns an 11 year old boy into a horrible monster because he was kind of a dick. But that is clearly part of the plot because we see the enchanted rose.
• Belle’s father Maurice (Kevin Kline) is taken prisoner by The Beast (Dan Stevens) for stealing a white rose. Differing slightly from their animated version where Maurice seeks refuge from a pack of wolves in the castle.
• Belle (Emma Watson) finds the castle while searching for her father. I’m noticing that everything looks like sets. That’s not a bad thing it’s just a thing.
• Belle finds Maurice but he tells her to leave, that the castle is alive. Before she can do anything The Beast catches them.
• Belle grabs Lumiere by the neck to see Beast better. She’s terrified.
• ‘Tale as Old as Time’ plays as we get another Disney logo.
• The Beast uses his magic mirror (so many of those in fantasy) to see Belle.
• A frankly creepy Lumiere and Cogsworth tell Beast that Belle could be the one to break the spell.
• Lumiere and Cogsworth release Belle from her tower prison (also a lot of those in fantasy) she, rightly so, is dumbfounded that they can speak.
• Chip and Mrs. Potts explain to Belle that The Beast isn’t as terrible as he appears. Slowly working on Belle to develop Stockholm Syndrome for her captor. After all, if the spell is broken they get their lives back too.
• Somehow Belle has escaped and now she’s cold and there are wolves after her. The Beast saves her from said wolves because even though he’s a monster he’s not a MONSTER.
• Belle finds the enchanted rose that stills has quite a few petals on it, so we’ve got some time before the curse takes hold fully. I just don’t know why after 10 years only a few petals fell but now it’s at a rapid pace.
• We see Gaston (Luke Evans) fire up the townspeople. I start to wonder if this is a true musical or the music from the original will be peppered into the score.
• Beast shows Belle his library. That’s not a euphemism. Maybe they aren’t so different after all. I mean, they are, but not on the inside. You get it.
• Belle and the Beast dance in the ballroom and it looks like it was ripped right out of the ’91 animated movie. No snark here it looks stunning.
• The villagers get their torches and pitchforks together to storm the castle. Beast defends his home.
• We see some quick shots of action elements and more gorgeous set pieces. Also what looks like Gaston leading a musical number. I guess his theme will be in this.
• At this point it’s rapid fire. More ballroom scenes, Gaston and Beast fighting, Lumiere dancing with a porcelain bird for some reason.
• One more petal falls off the enchanted rose to the last notes of ‘Tale as Old as Time’ aaaand title card.

All joking aside this looks well made and gorgeous. Something for kids and for adults that watched the original as kids. Emma Watson is great casting for Belle as she’s beautiful and intelligent much like her on screen counterpart. In fact all the casting is pretty spot on.

Between these remakes of their classics, Star Wars, and Marvel, Disney will be making what I can only assume is all of the money.

Beauty and the Beast opens everywhere March 17th, 2017.

From Hollywood,

-Loren