Beauty and the Beast roars onto Blu-ray with must-see extras

A TALE as old as time is at once fresh and familiar thanks to Disney’s remarkable live-action adaptation of the animated classic Beauty and the Beast, now available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack with Digital HD from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

The story of a beautiful young girl who selflessly gives up her freedom to free her father from being held captive in an enchanted castle by a fearsome beast — and slowly starts to see the wayward prince within her captor — Beauty and the Beast is often regarded as one of Disney’s most beloved musicals. That rare feature film that’s pretty much perfect (hence its Academy Award nomination for Best Picture — the first ever given to an animated movie), it may be impossible to improve upon the original animated tale, but director Bill Condon’s ( The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 and 2, Dreamgirls) live-action adaptation comes pretty darn close.

For the most part, the live-action film stays fairly true to the 1991 masterpiece, however, screenwriters Stephen Chbosky ( Rent) and Evan Spiliotopoulos ( The Huntsman: Winter’s War) flesh out certain characters and scenarios to give the story a little more depth. LeFou (Josh Gad, Frozen) isn’t quite as evil this time around (and, in case you missed the controversy surrounding the movie, there are also ever-so-slight hints that he’s gay), Gaston (Luke Evans, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) is much more dark and twisted, and the Beast (Dan Stevens, Downton Abbey) and Belle’s (Emma Watson, the Harry Potter films) budding romance doesn’t come across quite as much like a severe case of Stockholm syndrome as it does in the animated feature, thanks to an emotional new backstory in which the two bond over losing their mothers as kids.

These additions are seamlessly woven into the familiar fairy tale, which brings to life such dazzling musical numbers as “Be Our Guest,” “Belle,” “Gaston,” “Something There,” “The Mob Song,” and, of course, “Beauty and the Beast” with such gorgeous detail, fans can’t help but get teary-eyed as they watch them unfold on their TV screen. Sadly, the same can’t be said for a few of the new musical numbers featured in the film, especially “Days in the Sun” and “Evermore,” which resemble the tone of “Human Again” (the musical number originally cut from the animated feature and later added to the special edition DVD release after its inclusion in the Broadway musical) and “If I Can’t Love Her” (from the Broadway musical) so much that Beauty and the

Beast fans will wonder why composer Alan Menken (who wrote the score for the animated feature as well as the stage version) didn’t just use those established musical numbers instead. Of course, it’s obvious the new numbers were added in hopes of winning a Best Original Song Oscar nomination at the 2018 Academy Awards, but they’re not as good as the previously recorded numbers Menken wrote.

That being said, Céline Dion’s new end credits song, “How Does a Moment Last Forever” (which also briefly appears in the film, just not sung by Dion), is a great addition to the Beauty

and the Beast music catalog, and it just feels right having the original Beauty

and the Beast songstress contributing to the live-action soundtrack.

With regard to the casting, fans can rest assure that Watson, better known for her acting than singing skills, is delightful as the strong-willed protagonist and her voice actually works quite well for the part. There may be better singers out there, but it’s hard to say whether there’s a better actress to play the iconic role.

Gad, Stevens, and Evans all shine in their respective parts as well, particularly Evans who is positively a joy to watch as the egotistical Gaston. The rest of the supporting cast, which includes Ewan McGregor (the Star

Wars prequels) as Lumière, Sir Ian McKellen ( The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson ( Sense and Sensibility) as Mrs. Potts, and Kevin Kline ( A Fish Called Wanda) as Belle’s father, Maurice, also do a wonderful job, and are given more of a backstory for viewers to enjoy as well.

The Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray release gives viewers the opportunity to experience the film three different ways — the original theatrical cut, the premiere cut with overture, or a sing-along version — and features more than an hour of entertaining extras, including a look at the cast’s “Enchanted Table Read.” Not your typical table read by any means, viewers will discover that not only did the cast gather together to read through the script from start to finish, but they also performed several of the musical numbers during the lively read-through. Viewers will see Luke Evans performing “Gaston” after three weeks of rehearsals with the ensemble cast (Josh Gad sadly sits the performance out), Emma Watson getting up to do an unprompted waltz during the “Beauty and the Beast” musical number, and even the ensemble cast performing “Be Our Guest.”

“A Beauty of a Tale” is an extensive look at the making of the film, which quickly address why the filmmakers even decided to do a live-action adaptation to begin with (according to Watson, who loved the animated film since she was four years old, it was because there was still so much more to explore and tell). Broken up into several segments, the informative extra covers everything from the “Enchanted Performances” to the special effects needed to pull off the challenging “Be Our Guest” musical number and make the Beast a believable character. Viewers will hear the crew sing director Bill Condon’s praises and talk about how he was perfect for the job being a huge musical theater fan; discover how the entire Beauty and

the Beast world was basically created at Shepperton Studios in England (minus the forest scenes); see Sir Ian McKellen get the rare opportunity to “tackle something new” with the role of Cogsworth; and hear Josh Gad discuss the challenge of “putting your own stamp” on a part so many people already know and love. “The Women Behind Beauty and

the Beast” takes a look at the many women who worked behind the scenes of the movie, like production designer Sarah Greenwood, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and casting director Lucy Bevan. Introduced by Emma Watson, the inspiring extra encourages viewers at home to follow their dreams by finding something that they love doing and then going out and doing it, with many of the female crew members admitting that they didn’t even realize their particular jobs existed at first.