Beauty and the Beast (2017)

'Beauty and the Beast', Disney's 2017 live action remake and expansion on their classic 1991 animated feature at least made me want to re-watch the original. While it's hard to argue with the casting of Emma Watson as Bell, and the film does come alive in some of the revived musical numbers form the original, the movie is over long, dull, and extremely self conscious in it's metatextual commentary on the original film. I watched Lindsey Ellis's video on this years ago, shortly after this film came out I think, and I didn't think I remembered much from it but it must have really soaked in because I'd echo much of what she said in video essay. This is an awkward, kind of cynical film, a slog where the original was brisk and joyful. *1/2