After wowing us with their live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book in 2016, next year Disney will turn its sights on Beauty & The Beast (still the only animated feature to ever be nominated for Best Picture). The Jungle Book so blew me away that I was in on this (though 2018 and The Little Mermaid is going to seriously need to win me over). However, this teaser trailer just bewitched me. Elegant, haunting, showing just enough while taking you back to the Beast’s castle, showing only a glimpse of Emma Watson as Belle. I was incredibly impressed with this teaser. I was not the only one.
Beauty & the Beast broke the 24-hour viewing record for a trailer debut set by Star Wars Episode VII, being viewed online 91.8 million times since Disney uploaded it. In another two or three years, Disney will have enough money to secede from America and become its own country (storing it all, of course, in a theatrically huge Scrooge McDuck money bin).
The cast is as stellar as The Jungle Book’s and is directed by Chicago director Bill Condon. Joining Emma Watson as Belle are Emma Thompson, Ian McKellan, Ewan McGregor, Luke Evans, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline, and Dan Stevens as the Beast. Original composer Alan Menken will return to do the music. This looks like it could be something special. But I think this is this the only Episode VII record the film will be breaking. Disney’s Beauty & the Beast is scheduled for a March 17, 2017, release.
Is this remake going to include the musical numbers, do you know? Because if it does, it’s going to surpass the original in quality. I’m calling it. The original was the first Disney animated film I ever saw that I thought could have been a Broadway show, mainly thanks to Menken’s work, and the work of Howard Ashman, who left us way too soon.
There is only one big question: is this Live Action Remake Kick of Disney’s picking up steam, or is it a case of a broken clock being right twice a day? I’m thinking it’s not a fluke. From this point on, the movies will only get better. I didn’t know they were remaking Little Mermaid next, but if they are, I can only imagine the coolness factor of a live-action film with large portions set underwater. The coolness factor might even surpass the dippiness (because let’s face it, a lot of that movie is pretty dippy, though it’s an easy thing for people to overlook, because they get distracted by Sebastian’s awesomeness). And while I’m wondering how a satanic overlord is going to be turned into a sympathetic figure, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intensely curious about the way the Night on Bald Mountain movie was going. Cruella DeVil is another matter. if I were a screenwriter, I’d rather be ordered to wrap my mind around a satanic overlord than a woman who wants to turn puppies into a coat. But in general, I think Disney will get the message that quality doesn’t hurt.
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This IS a musical, so Menken and Ashman’s work will be highlighted and that comes from Emma Watson. This teaser gave me chills. Beauty and the Beast is my second favorite only behind Sleeping Beauty and certainly has the best songs. Ian McKellan as Cogsworth and Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts is such good casting. I hope this is a renaissance. Peter Pan follows The Little Mermaid and maybe it can make us all forget Pan ever happened. Chloe Moretz Grace is playing Ariel, but she’s staying blonde for some reason. That’s as much as I know past this film. But The Jungle Book gives me hope that Disney might be giving us another thing to look forward to each year…inbetween things like Maleficent 2.
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In addition to the ones we mentioned, I’ve read that Winnie the Pooh is coming (an adult Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood), An Aladdin prequel called Genies (lacking a somewhat important ingredient, methinks), a film told from Prince Charming’s perspective, a sequel to Mary Poppins, a sequel to Jungle Book, a film told from the perspective of Snow White’s sister, Rose Red (from a lesser-known Brothers Grimm story that has nothing to do with Snow White), and Tim Burton’s take on Dumbo. Am I missing anything? Probably.
I would say this was total, abject madness, if things did not appear to be looking up. It’s a good sign that they nabbed Tim Burton. I know, I know, his star has faded, but anyone who says he’s lost it did not watch Sweeney Todd, Frankenweenie, or Big Eyes, and Dumbo is perfect for his sensibility. Disney appears to be enlisting A-list filmmakers.
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Mary Poppins is happening. They cast Emily Blunt. There’s also Maleficent 2 and the Cruella movie.
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At least P.L. Travers wrote many Mary Poppins stories that did not wind up in the classic movie, and I hear the sequel will be based on those. I’m playing the devil’s advocate here, because otherwise I would be tempted to lie on the floor like Col. Kurtz and say, “The horror, the horror,” before succumbing the the darkness in every man’s soul.
Are the other live action remakes I mentioned still up in the air? Because I will sleep better at night.
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Cruella is going forward with Emma Stone. The others, not sure.
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