Some thoughts after the super fangirl mode / nostalgia hype mode has gone down a bit.

*SPOILER ALERT!*

First of all, the film was amazingly dark for a Disney movie. I know the original had wolves, and one of the characters shooting another character with an arrow and stabbing to the back, but with live action, the violence just felt more intense. The movie was also quite tear-jerking several times, being much more touching than the other recent live-acted Disney remakes I've seen. It was interesting that the parts I considered the saddest were different from the ones in the animated film. At times it felt like the Disney magic that can deeply touch you is back. I'd say most of this was thanks to Alan Menken's lovely songs and musical score, as well as the lovable cast of characters.

I'll start with the music first. The returning songs from the 1991 animated film were great, and the new orchestrations sounded more epic than ever before. Out of the new songs, "How does a moment last forever" was somewhat unmemorable, but the two songs that played later were better, especially "Days in the sun", while I think "Evermore" is the one that will get the most attention out of the new songs. No songs from the Broadway musical were present, but I was happy to hear that (SPOILER)an instrumental version of "Home" was included.

As for the characters, Emma Watson's singing could have been better, but when it comes to acting, I thought she was an excellent Belle. For her songs, her performances of "Belle" and "Belle (Reprise)" could have been stronger, but her singing seemed to get better as the movie went on, especially for the songs "Days in the sun" and "How does a moment last forever (Montmartre Reprise)". Oh, and Belle's costumes are just lovely. After seeing acted versions of Aurora and Cinderella (in Maleficent and Cinderella) as pleasant but ultimately flat characters who do virtually nothing in the story, it was nice to see a more independent protagonist. Belle is quite strong-willed as a character, to the point of being stubborn or even rude to the people around her. It's a nice touch added from the Broadway version how (SPOILER)Belle and Beast are both lonely and considered odd by the people around them, so they can relate to each other.

Gaston was another nice presentation of the "looks can deceive" theme. He seemed like a charming character at first, but later turned out to be a narcissistic douchebag. The way how he manipulates people with his powerful presence as the village hero suited his narcissistic character very well. It's funny how Beast (when he was still a prince) started off as a very similar character as Gaston, with the difference being the direction where their character development takes them, which brings us to the question: "What makes a monster and what makes a man?" (ŕ la Hunchback of Notre Dame). As for other characters, Lumičre was still a great character even with his accent, and it was great to see Ewan McGregor sing again, which I hadn't heard since Moulin Rouge. I've always considered Cogsworth a clumsy and annoying character, but Ian "Gandalf" McKellen managed to make him likable. The rest of the cast was enjoyable too.

As the movie is 45 minutes longer than the animated film, there's some extra character development that gives the characters more background and explains why they act the way they do. The movie also fixes many of the plotholes of the animated version. Most of these additions and changes work and add up to the story, but with a few exceptions. One of the things that especially worked was how (SPOILER)Gaston didn't throw Maurice out of the pub, but pretended to believe him and helped him on his attempt to rescue Belle, so that he could win the favor of Belle's father. Of the things that didn't work, however, do you remember how the animated movie had Maurice first trapped in the Beast's castle, and then Belle rejected Gaston and sang how she wants more than this provincial life? Well, on this film, these two events had been swapped, and the pacing felt odd when Belle reached her father only two minutes after he was taken prisoner in the movie. Another thing that I don't think worked as well was (SPOILER)when Belle looked at the magic mirror. In the animated film, she saw her father dying alone in the forest. Here she saw the townspeople threatening to take him to the insane asylum. I think the former evoked more feeling of danger, though to be fair, this fixes the "Why didn't Belle just take Maurice to the castle after finding him in the forest" problem in the animated film. For the most part, the movie stays loyal to the 1991 film, which is both a strength and a weakness. Since I am a huge fan of the animated movie, it was fantastic to see all the great moments again in live action, but as a downside, some things didn't translate too well. For example, the CGI looked strange at times, especially on flashy scenes like "Be Our Guest".

Was the 2017 remake better than the original, animated film from 1991? Of course not, you can't just beat the original. However, I thought it was still a worthy remake that blows the other recent live action remakes away, and in terms of character development and storyline, there are times when the remake even surpasses the original.