Live action vs. animation. Is there a winner?
Disney’s animated view of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” tale was a revelation.
The 1991 film won Oscars for best song and best score, and was the first animated feature nominated for best picture. As such, the musical cartoon adaptation of Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s fairy tale resonated with audiences both young and old, resurrecting Disney’s prominence in the animated film genre.
Three years later, Disney took the tale to Broadway, where it was nominated for multiple Tony Awards, including best musical, and played for more than a decade.
Now, Disney brings “Beauty and the Beast” back to the screen for a new generation in a lavish live-action
production starring Emma Watson as Belle, the beauty, and Dan Stevens, as the Beast.
The films are very similar, aside from the cartoon vs. live action distinction as the songs, pacing and, at times, dialogue have been ported over from the 1991 movie.
But in a head-to-head contest, how does the new version, which opens Friday, stack up with the old? What do flesh-andblood characters bring to the party? Read on to find the score.
Belle vs. Belle
That yellow dress, who wears it better? Both Belles rock the frock, but the edge goes to Emma Watson. Yellow is not an easy color for a real live human to carry off. It can do weird things to skin tones, but Watson is lovely in her ball gown. Also, unlike cartoon Belle, she doesn’t appear to have had any ribs removed to fit into it. In fact, Watson was instrumental in banishing Belle’s corsets and in several other changes: Belle wears riding boots instead of ballet slippers and, instead of being merely an inventor’s daughter, Belle herself is now an inventor.
Winner: New
Beast vs. Beast
The monstrous creature was once an arrogant prince to the manor born before being brought low by a curse. That upper-crust territory is one the new Beast, Dan Stevens, knows well. He is, after all, most famous for playing someone else to the manor born — upper-crust Matthew Crawley, for three seasons on “Downton Abbey.” Robby Benson, a child actor who blossomed into a 1970s teen heartthrob, voiced the 1991 Beast. Roles like troubled teen Billy Joe McAllister in “Ode to Billy Joe,” a drugaddled teen in “The Death of Ritchie,” and a college basketball player in “One on One” (a film Benson wrote with his dad, Jerry Segal) didn’t exactly prepare the actor for life in the castle.
Winner: New
Gaston vs. Gaston
In this latest iteration of “Beauty and the Beast,” Luke Evans plays the vain villager who pursues Belle, even though the face in the mirror is the only one he truly loves. That conceit was enough in the 1991 “Beauty” to produce a vividly overthe-top narcissistic fop. But new “Beauty” director Bill Condon thought the character needed more depth to exist in a realistic world, and so Gaston is now a war hero who saved his village and also a man with a hair-trigger temper.
Winner: New
Lefou vs. LeFou
Perhaps the biggest change in the “Beauty and the Beast” universe is to Gaston’s sidekick LeFou (Lefou in the animated version). He remains comic relief, the put-upon fool in service to the arrogant fool, but now LeFou is a fool in love with Gaston in Disney’s first-ever openly gay subplot. As Condon told “Attitude” magazine, “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day, wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings.”
Winner: New
Lumiere vs. Lumiere There was no fire extinguisher on the set on the 1991 “Beauty and the Beast.” There was a fire extinguisher on the set of the 2017 “Beauty and the Beast.” Just kidding. The new Lumiere is a special effect, and the old Lumiere was a cartoon. New Lumiere Ewan McGregor does have something to prove. He did sing in “Velvet Goldmine” and “Moulin Rouge,” but he has awfully big shoes to fill in taking over the role from Jerry Orbach. Long before he was “Law & Order’s” Lennie Briscoe, Orbach was the consummate song-and-dance man, a Tony winner for “Promises, Promises,” and a nominee for “Guys and Dolls” and “Chicago.” That man had pipes.
Winner: Old
Cogsworth vs. Cogsworth
What a difference animation vs. live action can sometimes make in character design. There is no elegance in the clock butler from the 1991 “Beauty and Beast,” a comically drawn creation given an exaggerated voice by David Ogden Stiers. In contrast, the clock in the new iteration is a gorgeous piece of mechanical machinery. In reuniting with his “Gods and Monsters” star Ian McKellen and giving him his musical theater debut, director Condon also gives the clock a little extra polish in the form of McKellen’s silken voice.
Winner: New
Mrs. Potts vs. Mrs. Potts
Call it a draw. Angela Lansbury, grande dame of stage, screen and television, was the 1991 teapot housekeeper. A multiple Tony winner and three-time Oscar nominee, she has 18 Emmy nominations, 12 of them for playing TV sleuth Jessica Fletcher on “Murder, She Wrote.” Now Emma Thomson takes over, herself a grande dame of stage, screen and television. A five-time Oscar nominee with two wins, one each for acting (“Howard’s End”) and writing (“Sense and Sensibility”), she has six Emmy nominations with one win for a guest shot on “Ellen.” Plus, she is the author of two books furthering the adventures of Peter Rabbit. Whoever that housekeeper is, she is one accomplished lady.
Winner: Draw
The verdict: In our little exercise, the new “Beauty and the Beast” is a marked improvement — at least if you separate the parts from the whole.