If Disney was trying to bring out my evil side by releasing a ‘Cast Table Read Featurette’ this morning, they succeeded. While many of my friends were cooing at Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in the latest Disney live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, I was enraged by the reason Disney gave for making the film.
Now I have not been the biggest fan of the live action remake trend but I have enjoyed the last three offerings to one degree or another. Beauty and the Beast looks to be continuing that trend and the movie will probably be solid but that’s not what makes me mad.
To begin with, I hated the new image of Lumiere and Cogsworth from earlier in the week. It’s too busy. You can’t see their faces. It’s already hard enough to get personality from a clock and a candlestick but with all that stuff on them.
But putting that aside, what really made me mad was the table read clip from this morning. Director Bill Condon asks the question I have been asking ever since the announcement: “When something is so perfect, why get near it?” There are a lot of passable answers to this question–a new take, development of the characters, introducing it to a new audience, etc.
But no we got this answer:
“The answer is technology has caught up with the ideas that were introduced in that movie.”
Are you kidding me Disney?
The movie that got the first ever animated Best Picture nomination. The movie that has delighted fans for 25 years. The movie that was the death bed project for Howard Ashman. The movie that made AFI’s Top 10 Romances of All Time list. And the reason to remake that movie is the technology has caught up with the ideas? What?
This is Disney’s way of saying, “Oh, that 2D animation. How quaint that was. Now we can really tell the story…”
I always thought that Disney went the CG route out of economic necessity. That Pixar had established CG as good animation and that’s what the public wanted. I never thought that they saw 2D as inferior or limiting in any way. There is nothing in Beauty and the Beast that was limited by 2D animation. There was no story left to tell that CG is going to magically be able to tell. It’s as close to perfect as a Disney film has ever gotten. It’s a tale as old as time for goodness sake!
I’m really upset about this! I don’t necessarily even blame Bill Condon as he probably said this as a piece of a larger interview. But the fact that Disney would use this as the selling point of their new film is extremely frustrating. I used to think Disney would love nothing more than to make a 2D animated film again if the public would accept it, but clearly that isn’t the case. I’m sorry I had no idea 2D animation was so limiting for them.
Most of us loved how the ideas were expressed in the original movie and don’t feel technology needed to catch up with it one bit!
What do you think? Am I overreacting or did this upset you as well? If Disney is going to remake their classic films why do they have to downgrade the originals in the process? Just do something new and be proud of that.
To Disney: Stop apologizing for the greatness of the past.
Edited by: Morgan Stradling
