Do you remember way back when, when you were absolutely obsessed with Disney princesses? Back in pre-school when that was all you talked about? Especially a certain bookworm? Belle and Co. single-handedly consumed my entire childhood from the moment I was old enough to understand movies. The same holds true for the many college students that just can’t get “Be Our Guest” out of their heads. We all wanted a teacup like Chip and a bright yellow ball gown to twist and twirl in.
This 1991 animated classic was the first Disney animated film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Although Beauty and the Beast didn’t win Best Picture, songwriter Alan Menken took the award for Best Music and Original Score, as well as Best Original song, “Beauty and the Beast.” The movie also took home three Golden Globe awards and five Grammys.
Previously, Disney released six live-action remakes of animated films. In 1996, Glenn Close starred in the live-action remake of 101 Dalmatians. Four years later, Close reprised her role as Cruella De Vil in the sequel, 102 Dalmatians. More recently, Maleficent, the story based off of Sleeping Beauty, was released in 2014. Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Pete’s Dragon followed. Beauty and the Beast will be the seventh live-action Disney remake.
Beauty and the Beast (2017) stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as Le Fou, and countless other stars like Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci. Alan Menken even returns as Disney’s top songwriter to create original new songs for the live-action film. Needless to say, the casting director hit the nail on the head. Emma Watson was best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, which makes the transition to Belle even easier, as both characters are intelligent book-lovers. Josh Gad also had a memorable performance as Olaf in the Disney animated movie Frozen. Emma Thompson has a brilliant filmography under her belt (Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter, Love Actually) and Stanley Tucci played Caesar in the Hunger Games franchise. Like I said, hit the nail on the HEAD.
Although the film doesn’t come out until March 2017, the anticipation could easily kill our entire generation. Within its first 24 hours, the teaser trailer received 91.4 million views. The official trailer is yet to be released, but it’s clear that the film is highly anticipated. Entertainment Weekly released photos from the film a couple of weeks ago, which got fans even more eager to see the movie. The photos included stills of several scenes, including the dancing scene with that signature yellow gown. Disney always has a way to tease the crap out of its fans.
The Beauty and the Beast live-action remake is literally what we’ve all been waiting for, and March cannot come soon enough.
Now all we need is a live-action Little Mermaid, don’t you think?
Pictures from Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/gallery/beauty-and-the-beast-pho...)
