HOLLYWOOD MAGIC
How Disney got ‘ Beauty and the Beast’ right
Princess, schmincess. Belle has been the headstrong type since 1991’ s Beauty and the Beast, when the animated bookworm emerged as Disney’s most progressive princess. On Friday, she returns to the big screen played by Emma Watson, a Belle who not only tames the beast, but literally supports him. On the London soundstage where they shot their sweeping ballroom dance, Watson, 26, clad in that iconic yellow gown, found herself giving Dan Stevens, 34, a steady hand as the actor wobbled in his performance- capture suit and stilts.
“There were amazing role- reversal moments in our story, actually, which was one of the reasons I love it,” says Watson. “In real life, it was me sort of going, ‘ I’ve got you, Dan.’ ... I was the stabilizer, I was the balancing force.”
Stevens grins. “I was very, very grateful for Emma being there.”
The two take on the title roles in Disney’s latest live- action effort, a continuation in the Mouse House’s billion- dollar bet that fans around the world will want to see stars play their animated childhood heroes. Since Disney teed up 2015’ s successful Cinderella ( which hauled in more than $ 200 million at the U. S. box office) and last year’s The Jungle Book ($ 364million), a half- dozen more have been put in the pipeline, including a Mary Poppins spinoff ( starring Emily Blunt), a Dumbo remake ( helmed by Tim Burton), a Cruella film ( starring Emma Stone as 101 Dalmatians villainess Cruella de Vil) and a Reese Witherspoon- led Tinker Bell.
But how do you re- create a story known worldwide?
A Hollywood takeover doesn’t hurt.
Backed by new songs from Alan Menken and Tim Rice, Beauty stars Luke Evans ( The Girl on the Train) as the strongjawed Gaston, Emma Thompson voices tea- serving Mrs. Potts, Ian McKellen takes on the talking clock Cogsworth and Ewan McGregor cajoles as witty candlestick Lumière.
For good measure, Stanley Tucci joins in as the castle’s maestro-turned- harpsichord and Broadway legend Audra McDonald plays his wife, the operatic ( and narcoleptic) chest of drawers.
Adapting this tale as old as time “meant that you need to find out more about these characters,” says director Bill Condon ( Dreamgirls), who included deeper back stories all around. “For example: How did Belle and Maurice end up in a town where they don’t get along with anyone and no one understands them? You learn what happened to Belle’s mother.”
The film boasts a 70% fresh rating from critics on review site Rotten Tomatoes ( 98% of the site’s users say they want to see it), and analysts remain bullish on Beauty and the Beast.
It could be one of the biggest March openings ever, thanks to “the combination of a great cast, an all- inclusive familyfriendly PG rating, a great release date and the perfect big- screen musical treatment of a beloved classic tale,” predicts Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. He says the movie, which is expected to rake in upward of $ 120 million this weekend, has “the potential to grant Disney its wish of yet another billion- dollar global blockbuster.”
Those are hefty expectations for the new Belle to shoulder, but Watson is up to it, with her heroine defiantly shrugging off the princess mantle.
“The original Belle was very progressive and quite modern for her time, and I think it was a case of kind of defending and protecting her original DNA,” says Watson, who suggested Belle be made an inventor in her own right.
Condon knew when he cast Watson that he was getting a pro; the Paris- born British actress grew up in front of the world starring in eight Harry Potter films. “The process of making movies is just second nature to her,” says Condon, noting that after a childhood spent in the media glare, Watson possesses “a kind of self- reliance that is sort of beyond her years.”
She also takes her celebrity seriously. “Emma is very aware of the impact she has on a whole generation of children,” says McDonald. “Belle’s self- reliance, her independence, her strength, her courage — all of that was going to be put
in even sharper focus in a live- action film because Emma I don’t think would have had it any other way.” Her post- Potter years also have been unlike most of her peers. The actress ditched the spotlight to attend Brown University and starred in films such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Noah.
She has since emerged as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, working to promote gender equality and shed the stigma attached to feminism. Which brings us to one plot point in
Beauty and the Beast — fairy tale or not — that seems out of step in 2017: Belle ultimately falls in love with her captor.
It’s a criticism Watson is used to. “Right, yeah, the Stockholm syndrome question,” she says. “It was something that I wrestled with and I sort of questioned and I thought about deeply,” adding that Belle, a fighter, doesn’t fit the definition of a victim who adopts her captor’s way of thinking.
“The moment she falls in love with him and he with her, really, is the moment when he sets her free,” Stevens adds. “And that’s the only moment at which that love can take place.”
And don’t forget to check out this antiprincess’ footwear.
“You know, in the original she wears ballet ( flats) for the entirety of the movie,” says Watson with a knowing look. Instead, she opted for more practical boots. “I wanted to make sure that she really looked like she could do something — that she could fight a pack of wolves.”