The "Beauty and the Beast" Trailer Brings The Magic Back

It’s been a pretty bad week. I don’t have to tell you that, you’ve no doubt been feeling the same way. If you read my post last Tuesday then you know that I never thought we’d all be here. I’m still having a lot of negative feelings about everything, (as I’m sure many others are as well) and that’ll probably last for a long time. On the other hand, I’ll be damned if I let horrible people keep me down. I refuse to let them suck the joy out of my life for the next four years. Luckily, the first full length “Beauty and the Beast” trailer was released just when the world needed a little bit of magic.

It looks amazing. Beautiful. Fantastic. Insert any and every enthusiastic adjective you want, that’s what it is. They’re obviously staying extremely close to the original Disney film, since some of the dialogue is verbatim.

Belle

I’m going to have to get used to Belle sounding like Hermione. Which I know sounds ridiculous, since that’s Emma Watson’s voice, but it still threw me off for a second. I think the Disney version of this movie and the Harry Potter movies are so engrained in me. I’m sure I’ll get acclimated in no time though, because she looks so good.

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Also exciting is the fact that this time around Belle is an inventor, a detail revealed to Vanity Fair by Emma Watson:

“I was like, ‘Well, there was never very much information or detail at the beginning of the story as to why Belle didn’t fit in, other than she liked books. Also what is she doing with her time?’ 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.

Beast

I can’t lie, I’m a little iffy on the Beast’s look. In certain shots I thought it looked perfectly fine, but in others it completely weirded me out.

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Getting this perfect is an impossible task. Animation lends itself very well to a character like the Beast and with live action there are a few ways to go, but none come without potential downfalls. You can’t glue a bunch of fur to an actor’s face because it’ll look corny. At the same time, CGI can look a bit off in a way that’s hard to describe. I always used to be disappointed as a kid when the Beast would turn back into a man at the end, but I’m thinking that’s not going to be my sentiment this time around.

Castle

This cinematography is gorgeous. That alone will be worth the price of admission. The shots of the ball scene in particular made me gasp out loud.

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I’m ever so slowly coming around on the look of the castle staff. The voice cast is so incredible that everyone’s going to fall in love with them regardless, so what they look like really isn’t going to matter in the end.

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Gaston

We suspected when we heard the casting news, we were pretty sure when we saw the first photos of him, and now with the release of the trailer we know it for sure: Luke Evans is the perfect Gaston. I’m more excited to watch him than anyone else.

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