Monday 20 March 2017

Beauty and the Beast ... a few thoughts

Beauty and the Beast, was everything I wanted it to be and more. It made me laugh, it made me cry and feel every other emotion in between.

(what a compelling opening statement, scroll down to read more)

As soon as the opening scene began I knew I would love. Throughout you could really see Emma Watson's take on the character Belle, she followed her own will and didn't change herself in order to fit in. I loved that in the live action version, Belle took on the inventor spirit opposed to Maurice.

The animation of the "furniture" characters was so astonishingly real looking, I'm not sure I will ever look at a candelabra in quite the same way again. Throughout I thought the cinematography was stunning, that alone was enough to start the waterworks.

The additional songs were just scrummy, right now as I write this I have Days in the Sun on repeat!

I loved that this version gave a more in depth understanding of the characters with the history of Belle and the Beast, that as well as them being "real people" or in the Beast's case amazing animation/make up?!, made me empathise more deeply with the characters than the animation version could ever do.

The balance of happy, sad, touching and humorous moments was perfect, one minute I was in tears, the next I would be laughing. There were a few moments when I had to stop myself audibly sobbing in the cinema.

On an equality note there was a wide range of people represented in the film, and not a big deal made out of it. That is so important, it was just a thing that was there. However I know some people would say that Le Fou as the "first openly gay" Disney character wasn't enough of a representation for LGBT+ people. But personally I thought it was enough, because it shows that gay people are not overly sexualised and it just isn't a big deal who a person is or isn't attracted to. Especially in light of the YouTube scandal of blocking LGBT+ content in restricted mode. One day the main story line in a Disney film will be a LGBT+ one, and I feel that isn't so far off. 

I feel so happy knowing that generations of children will grow up watching this film, so full of heart and goodness.

xxx

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