SimonJack
This musical film of "Beauty and the Beast" is a good rendition of the 1740 French fairy tale by novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. The cast are not top star names. Their performances are okay, but nothing beyond the ordinary. The music is quite light, and with so few songs, one wishes that the filmmakers could have included more songs. The production is very interesting and well laid out. It's a more contemporary version of the fable, but with very good sets, camera work and performances overall. The costuming is especially good for Beast. The movie was filmed entirely in Israel. It's a decent family film that most children should enjoy.
JKMerengue
I caught this on a Saturday morning movie slot on my television, and was amazed and appalled by the blatant lifting of almost all the design elements from Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. Or rather, Golan-Globus' attempt to lift them. Christian Berard did the sets and costumes for the 1947 French classic version of the fairy tale, and no one could touch it for richness of nuance and detail. As a costumer by trade I can still say they are some of the best costumes I've ever seen...maybe not always completely period accurate, but when they deviate from period, it's usually for very wonderful effect. Just mesmerizing. And it makes me a bit mad that the producers of the G/G version tried to simply make a colorized version of it, down to the make-up on the Beast, some of Beauty's hairstyles, the arms in the hallway holding the lamps and even quite a number of the camera angles. But, I guess, if something works, Hollywood will try to copy it, plagiarism or not.
smoothhoney1265
Ohhhh my God, that was dreadful. Okay, DeMornay is quite nice to look at, but the prince looks like a cheap body builder from a cheap advertisement.Yeah, the costumes were nice. But the story was totally empty, lacking emotions, suspense, style, ah, just everything. In the end you just don't understand why she stayed with the prince and fell in love with him cause the dude is boring as hell and delivers one stupid line after another.Never before have I felt less while watching a movie.I guess the two best adaptions of this tale are still the Disney one and the one by Jean Cocteau, with Jean Marais playing the prince / the beast. Go watch those instead and save your time on this empty flick.
Ileana-3
This was mine and my sister's favorite movie growing up. We used to watch it all the time and sing along and even act the scenes out sometimes. Despite what some reviewers said the music is wonderful, I wish there was a soundtrack out. And the movie is not dated at all. The sets and costumes are beautiful. And the script and the acting are both superb. I've always had a soft spot for Rebecca DeMorney since seeing this movie. She was perfect as Beauty and has a gorgeous singing voice. Same with John Savage. I'm twenty now and I still put the movie in now and then and am surprised that I still enjoy it as much as I did as a little girl. To me this movie is flawless!
AD
