Beauty and the Beast, a tale as old as time has been remade into a live action film. Beauty and the Beast is the fifth Disney live action movie created and let me say it is another big success by Disney. It made 1.01 million at the box office and was ranked number one the first week after its release. I definitely had high expectations, as I loved the original movie and made Belle “my” princess. My expectations grew even more since Emma Watson, known for her incredible role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, plays Belle.

If you don’t know the basics of the plot, it is about a young woman living in a small provincial town. She ends up being a prisoner in the Beast’s enchanted castle with it’s enchanted staff. In the end, she befriends the beast and they both learn to love and look beyond one’s appearance.

The plot of the new film is pretty much the same, with some very small differences. For the first time we get to see at the beginning of the movie how the beast was before he got cursed. We get a bit more insight and imagery as to what events caused the Beast to get cursed by the enchantress.  In this movie we see a more tender side of the Beast when he lets Belle leave back to her father. There was a song added to the movie that I actually really loved. The song is called “Evermore” and the Beast sings about how even though Belle is leaving he knows “she will never leave me even as she runs away she will torment me, calm me, hurt me, move me, come what may.” It was refreshing to have this song added and have the Beast truly express what he felt when Belle was leaving.

The spotlight was constantly on Belle, or should I say Emma Watson. Once again she took on a popular heroine role and tried to be the best Belle she could possibly be. The question if Watson was good for the role is 50/50. While she showed great emotion at times, at others she wasn’t very convincing which made me disappointed. For example, when she sings about how tired she is with her provincial life and how she wants more adventure I truly believe her. I forgot that she was an actress and actually felt bad that she wasn’t getting the feeling of freedom she desired.

At other times she was lacking emotion. When she found her father was in the cell in the Beast’s castle, I thought she would be very distraught. I honestly thought, do you even care that your poor father is being held captive in a weird castle? The other scene that she disappointed me in was the dinner scene, where they sing the famous song of “Be Our Guest.” In the original movie, Belle was enchanted by the show that was going on in front of her eyes. It seemed like she almost forgot she was being held prisoner. However, with Watson it didn’t seem like she saw the dancing spoons and flying dishes. The graphics of the scene itself were dazzling but because Belle didn’t seem excited, I didn’t feel as excited either. It killed the enthusiasm that the scene always causes.

A controversial addition to the movie was that Gaston’s trusty sidekick LeFou is gay. Some people did not like the idea that LeFou is gay because it may either go against Christian beliefs or it is not “family friendly,” although it was never actually said that he was gay, it was just implied by how he acted. I liked this little twist that was added to the movie. It was comical and in a way cute. The main scene that highlights LeFou’s homosexual personality is when he tries to convince Gaston that he doesn’t need Belle because they have each other. LeFou was flirting with Gaston and showing his true romantic feelings towards him. I thought it was a great addition to the movie.

Overall, I give the movie a 4 out of 5. I loved the movie’s plot and the little things they added or slightly changed. It was really amazing to see a popular Disney movie come to life and see it in a whole new way. The only downfall to this movie is the the Watson’s acting in certain scenes could have been better. I absolutely recommend you to see this movie.