For months, Disney fans have been anxiously waiting for the release of the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie.  For me, I’ve actually been split on the whole live-action remakes.  Some of them I LOVE, like Maleficent, and others I just don’t feel compelled to see at all. *cough*Cinderella*cough*  Still haven’t seen that one.  Blasphemous for a Disney fan, I know.  But I was somewhat excited for Beauty and the Beast.  Not to the level of Maleficent, but I did tell my boyfriend I was at least going to see it the weekend it came out.  So off we went!  Him, I suspect, somewhat reluctantly.😅

 Denim dress: my sister’s 😆, Shirt: Sears, Beastie: Danielle Nicole, Shoes and socks: LF, Pin: H&M

Before getting into my short movie spiel, let’s take a minute to talk about what I wore to this shindig.  Obviously, you know about the Beastie already.  And the best part about the Beastie is using him for DisneyBounds!  If you’re not familiar, Disneybounding is a way to show your love for Disney using everyday clothes to put together an outfit that resembles a character.  It’s essentially a way to play dress up without wearing a full on costume (or cosplay).  So of course, I had to DisneyBound.  And probably the easiest outfit to put together is Belle’s town outfit.  A denim dress with a white shirt underneath are the core items here.  After that, just add in the right touches of accessories.  I wanted to channel the live-action Belle rather than the animated outfit, so I wore brown booties.  And to tie in her red paisley accents, I wore red patterned socks.  Added a rose pin and to really make it obvious what movie I was going to see that day, brought along the Beastie.

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^Just look at Emma’s face.  That is a face of a woman that loves baguettes. Carbs 5ever!

Now the spiel.  For me, I was most excited to see Emma Watson bring Belle to life.  I like Belle, but she was never one of my favorite princesses.  But once the news broke about Emma, that’s when the excitement started.  Overall, I liked her as Belle.  Could the singing be better?  YES.  But I will say I liked her inflections while she was singing.  Especially during her “Bonjour” reprise.  It just added that extra emotion and sincerity for me.

To make up for Emma’s singing, there’s Gaston and Le Fou.  Luke Evan’s performance was great.  He needs to be the permanent Gaston meet and greet character at all the parks all the time.  Or can he hold some sort of training class for the Gaston actors?  Something?!  And Josh Gad as Le Fou is perfection.  Obviously, Josh Gad knows how to be the comedic relief.  So that’s a given.  But can we give Disney credit for using Le Fou as a vehicle to introduce a small political statement?!  No, it’s not nearly enough.  But it’s a start!  And the fact that Le Fou undergoes a little bit of character development at the end is just icing on an already delicious cake.

Last, the best part about the film by far are the two iconic Beauty and the Beast scenes from the animated film – Belle walking through the town and the ballroom scene.  These two scenes in the live action film are reason enough to go see it in theaters.  I thought the town scene found a good balance of recreating the animated film, yet re-imagining it to be more dynamic and interesting.  And the ballroom scene is just gorgeous.  The grandeur, the beauty, Mrs. Pott’s motherly voice singing about love.  Just…go see it.

Definitely a lot of other things I could talk about, but 1. trying to learn to be more concise in my writing and 2. don’t want to lock you up here forever like an immature boy that’s trapped in a Beast’s body.😜  Have you seen the movie?  Let me know what you thought!

ABW