Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Disney's live-action remake programme has been one of the defining commercial strategies in Hollywood since the early 2010s, and Beauty and the Beast (2017) represents perhaps its most high-profile entry to date. The story itself needs little introduction: a young woman, Belle, finds herself held in the enchanted castle of a cursed prince transformed into a monstrous Beast, and the two must find their way to genuine affection before a magical deadline expires. The 1991 animated version, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, is widely regarded as one of the studio's finest achievements from its so-called Renaissance period, so a live-action retelling was always going to invite fierce comparison. Whether that comparison was ever going to be flattering was, for many observers, a question worth asking before a single frame was shot.

The film was directed by Bill Condon, a filmmaker with a varied career spanning prestige dramas and large-scale studio productions. Genre enthusiasts may recall his work on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, which similarly required him to manage an enormous pre-existing fanbase with very particular expectations. Here, working again under the Walt Disney Pictures banner alongside Mandeville Films, Condon had at his disposal a reported production of considerable scale, reflected in every frame of the finished film's 129-minute runtime. The screenplay expands on the animated version, adding new songs and additional backstory, with the intention of justifying the film's existence as something more than a direct copy. Whether it succeeds on that front is, of course, the central question.

The casting of Emma Watson as Belle attracted enormous attention from the moment it was announced, given her long association with franchise filmmaking. Audiences familiar with her work across the Harry Potter series, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, will have a clear sense of her range and screen presence coming in. Dan Stevens provides the Beast, a performance delivered largely through motion capture and CGI, while the supporting cast includes Luke Evans as the villainous Gaston, Kevin Kline as Belle's father Maurice, and Emma Thompson among the enchanted household objects. It is, on paper, a polished but unremarkable ensemble, assembled with obvious care and equal commercial logic. Whether the pieces fit together is another matter entirely.

Good old summer holiday. Watching all these soulless remakes with the kids lol. Another beloved animated classic, another glossy, soulless live-action remake, and Beauty and the Beast is one of the most hollow yet. Everything here feels meticulously calculated: the photorealistic CGI beasts, the lavish ballroom recreation, the note-for-note replay of the original’s songs and scenes. It looks expensive, yes (every doorknob and rose petal rendered in obsessive detail) but it’s also lifeless, stripped of the warmth, charm, and hand-drawn magic that made the 1991 version so special. Emma Watson, as Belle, is professional and well-intentioned, but she simply can’t carry a film like this. Her performance is flat, overly earnest, and lacking the spark or imagination the role demands. She delivers lines like “I just don’t fit in” with the same stiff sincerity she uses in UN speeches, well-meaning, but dramatically inert. The chemistry with Dan Stevens’ CGI-heavy Beast is nonexistent, their romance feeling more like a series of scripted segments than an emotional journey. The supporting cast do their best with what they’re given, but even their vocal charm can’t save the film from its own rigidity. The new songs add nothing, the expanded runtime only highlights how little story there actually is. It’s not offensive, just forgettable, a hollow echo of something that once had heart. Another box checked in Disney’s remake factory, made for profit, not passion. And with Watson at the helm, it never even gets the chance to breathe. Soulless, safe, and sorely lacking in magic.

I'll be honest, sitting through this one was more of a chore than I expected, and I've made my peace with the fact that some of these Disney remakes simply aren't made with people like me in mind. But even accounting for that, there's a difference between a film aimed at families and a film that feels like it was assembled by a committee with a checklist. If you're after something in a similar vein that actually remembers to have a bit of soul, my review of The Hunchback of Notre Dame might be worth a look, as that's a Disney animated film from the same era that took a few genuine risks. For me, Beauty and the Beast 2017 is the kind of film you put on, forget while it's happening, and quietly hope the kids enjoyed more than you did. The rose is pretty. The petals are numbered. The magic, though, has long since left the building.

Rating: ★★  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-08-01

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Beauty and the Beast (2017) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Bill Condon: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012)
More with Emma Watson: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) · Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) · Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) · Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)