Expectation rarely ever meets reality. They are seemingly on two differing parts of a spectrum. Though I expected “Beauty and the Beast” to be good, with the extraordinary cast and visual effects, I couldn’t help but be in awe throughout the entirety of the movie. As a fan of the original Disney masterpiece, I was skeptical of this vision being brought to actuality, but it was better than I could have ever expected. I absolutely loved it. Emma Watson, in my opinion, was the perfect person to play Belle. She was who I actually imagined playing Belle when I heard the movie was being created.
Imagining her as Belle was one thing, but seeing her portrayal of the character completely astounded me. It was if her character from the “Harry Potter” series, Hermione, was plucked from one universe and placed into another that involved less running from evil wizards and more dancing and singing. They even referenced the “Harry Potter” series in one of the first scenes of the movie when Belle asks one of the characters if he’d lost something and his reply was “Well, I believe I have. Problem is, I can’t remember what.” Any “Harry Potter” fan, like myself, would have immediately made the connection to the series which only caused me to love the movie even more.
I was also not expecting the dancing and singing scenes to be as good as it was. I looked around the theater and saw the faces of every individual enraptured by the performances happening across the screen. Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad and so many others made watching these scenes so enjoyably fun for the viewer. Though I would have to say remembering why I loved this movie in the first place definitely made watching this film even more spectacular.
The idea of truly understanding someone and not judging them based off of first appearances has always been an ideology of mine. This stemmed from watching this movie for the first time as a child and has followed and flourished in me as an adult. It truly made me believe that everyone deserved a chance to be seen as the truest version of themselves and not be condemned for it. Gaston, who was understood to be one of the most beautiful men in the town happened to be one of the most horrid individuals, even betraying his long term friend, LeFou, just to get what he wanted. The Beast, though he didn't always, truly cared for those under his service and even regarded them as his family.
This is one of the core reasons I believe everyone should watch this movie. Living in today’s society, though more accepting than it was, has shown me that there are still so many people in the world set on judging and sentencing one another because of the differences between us, rather than coming together and standing united. I am happy to see the number of more understanding individuals rising and hopefully with more movies and books like this the populace that still carries that hatred will become obsolete.
Lastly, the movie surprised me with its portrayal of LeFou. Though it was always speculated that he may be gay or without preference, to see Disney convey it so openly made the movie ten times better for me. I recommend everyone drag their entire family to go see this movie and hopefully it will allow someone to start to change their perspective and it will definitely at least give you a good laugh.
