Beauty and the Beast

The movie was released on 16 March and I only finally had the time to watch it today because sensei is still overseas and there was no Japanese class today. Lol. There was so much controversy surrounding this and a lot of my friends said that the movie was rather boring. These killed my initial excitement and perhaps the main reason that I still watched today was I had movie tickets that are expiring in few months time and the show today fit into my schedule.

I am SUPER DUPER GLAD that I actually watched this as I find it exceeding my expectations. I think friends find it boring because they already know the story and know what is going to happen. I love spoilers when watching movies so it does not bother me. Honestly, I was not too excited seeing the trailers: Emma Watson's singing is not that fantastic, the CGI for the living furnitures looks lame, and the general feel that it is not going to be at the original cartoon. Well it turns out that Emma's singing is actually okay after I get used to the first song (after all she is an actress and not a singer), the CGI for the living furnitures turns out to be believable enough (the gesture looks more human than cartoon), and it is faithful to the original cartoon (the addition of the introduction and the ending are very much welcome to add to better background setting and closure). The movie runs for 2+ hours which is more than 30 minutes longer than the cartoon, yet it does not feel draggy.

I am really glad that the live action tries to stick closely to the cartoon. You can see a lot of youtube videos comparing scenes from the original cartoon vs live action. It is simply amazing to make a good use of the good nostalgia. The musical scenes are all amazing, especially Be Our Guest which is as magical as the cartoon version. I hope Disney will follow this formula for the subsequent live actions instead of cutting down on the fabulous songs like what was done with Cinderella.

The Beauty and the Beast OST is sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend. I guess can't help it to have them to attract current crowd. But I am glad that they do not forget Celine Dion and she still sings a song (How Does a Moment Last Forever) at the end credits. It is a nice touch that the end credits during this song shows the main casts one-by-one smiling at the camera and only after the song is over then come the usual black screen end credits.

It is a good surprise to find this although their voices are not as nice as ang moh versions.