Which one is better Beauty and the Beast Live-Action or Animated?
So I am as everyone probably knows by now a very large Disney Fan. I seriously love Disney, and spent a large part of my childhood and adult life at The Most Magical Place On Earth and watching Disney Movies. (I think every 90’s kid can make that claim)
So in the last few years, Disney has been remaking their movies into Live Action and surprisingly some of them are not absolutely terrible. In this new series of posts, I am going to go over each one of the Disney Live-Action Movies and show you all the differences and similarities between the Animated/Original Disney Movie and the Live-Action.
Now Just to get some Legal Disclaimers out of the way before we jump right in.
I am not affiliated with Disney. No one is paying me to do this. I am watching these movies on my own Disney plus membership. All opinions are my own.
The first movie that I am going to be analyzing is Beauty and the Beast. This movie holds a lot of sentimental value to me as it’s basically the theory of don’t judge a book by its cover brought to life. Which is one of my most loved sayings.
Here is a little history of the movie (in case you haven’t seen it) Beauty and the Beast was released in November of 1991 and according to Fandom.com “ At a total of 20 million copies sold, Beauty and the Beast eventually became the best-selling cassette of 1992 and broke the record for the best-selling cassette of the year. ” So if that doesn’t tell you that this is one of the most beloved Disney movies of all time… I don’t know what will.
Photo credit goes to CLKER FREE Clipart
One of my favorite things about the live-action version of this movie is that they kept the same storyline. This to me was a very large deal. When Disney redid Mulan and they took out Mushu I was devastated and it honestly changed the way I viewed the entire movie.
Belle is a wonderfully avid reader who is a bit strange for the small town in France where she is living with her papa. She goes on about her daily life and dreams of a wonderful adventure as is shown in the song “Belle”. (yes, this is a musical too)
Belle’s Father goes to sell his wares at the market and gets lost in the woods and stumbles upon the Beast Castle where he takes a rose for Belle and the Beast throws him in the dungeon for the theft. Belle comes along to rescue her father and ends up taking his place.
This turns out to be the best move of her life as she learns that sometimes you can’t judge a book by its cover and that the Beast is actually a pretty great guy…when he isn’t being a growly spoiled brat.
There are not a lot of glaringly obvious differences between the Animated version of this movie and the Live-action but one of the biggest differences is there is actually more of a baseline of backstory in the live-action. We find out that Belle’s mother died of the Plague in Paris. In fact, there is an entire scene devoted to this where the Beast and her travel to her old home via a book that the enchantress left.
Another difference is that Belle is much more direct in the live-action movie and blatantly states to Gaston’s face that she will not marry him. Gaston also does actually try to woo Belle by bringing her flowers and acting like he is interested in what she is reading. Belle doesn’t fall for any of that and still maintains that she is not interested in him. This of course goes along with the animated version.
There are also a few more added in songs to the live-action movie and we do get to see the Beast before he was turned into, well… a Beast.
But even with the obvious and not so obvious changes Disney made, this is one Disney movie that I could watch a million times and still not be bored. I personally love the animated version of Beauty and the Beast. But the Live action does have something about it that also makes it one of my favorites… So Far.
