Beauty and the Beast review

I took the boys to see Beauty and the Beast on Friday for a matinee showing.  (We've all aged a little since the time I took them all to see Cinderella.) I'm just going to go ahead and say it....I loved every single thing about it.  It was wonderful and magical and just about perfect.  Here are a few of my favorite things from the movie...would love to hear what you thought about it!

*The casting was perfect.  With every character, I thought, yep! that's exactly who should've played them.

       -I still haven't fully forgiven Dan Stevens for leaving Downton Abbey and leaving me a complete mess (HOW DARE YOU Dan Stevens!!), but seeing him in this helped me move on a little.  He was the perfect Beast.

       -Audra McDonald...NO ONE TOLD ME Audra McDonald was in this movie!  She is queen and her voice throughout the movie, but especially in "Days in the Sun"....ahhhh sing to me!!! Beautiful.

       -Luke Evans as Gaston, perfect.  Emma Watson, great (heard some bad talk about her singing...thought it was very sweet and nice for the part).  Josh Gad as Lafou, hilarious.

*I really enjoyed the "background" scenes.

        -The opening dance scene where we're introduced to the Beast in his Prince days was hauntingly beautiful.  The enchanting dancing, the elaborate costumes, and Audra McDonald singing....what a combo. Also, as a side note, it is my dream to choreograph a scene like that in a movie one day.

        

       -The moment in Paris where Belle learns the true background of her mother dying from a great illness.  And where the audience learns the history of the Beast's cruel father and mother's death.  Great additions to the story.

*Fantastic group scenes

        -Group scenes are usually my favorite, and this movie's group scenes were no exception.  The opening "Belle" scene in the town was my favorite.  SIDE NOTE:  The entire time that Belle was singing about wanting to get out of that town, I was thinking how nice it'd be to GO there. Take me to France, please!  Thanks.

        -Gaston and Lafou's entrance during the "Belle" song was my favorite entrance of a character.  It set their characters up perfectly.  Gaston being so narcissistic in the most hilarious way and Lafou giving us great one-liners as comic relief ("Belle-she's soo......well read.")

I could talk for hours about how much I loved this movie.  If I had to say ONE thing that I would've changed, it would be well...2 things.  1-Belle's costume when she goes to the castle for the first time. I realize the costumers were doing a variation on a theme, but one side of the dress was hitched up showing the layer underneath it, and I was confused by that choice.  2- Be Our Guest wasn't as colorful as I imagined it to be, but then again, nothing really beats the cartoon version of that scene.  OK!  I nit picked that because really those 2 things were just fine.

Some more Beauty and the Beast for you....

*Here's a hilarious skit that James Corden did with some members of the Beauty and the Beast cast called "Crosswalk the Musical." I laughed way too hard.

*And here is BYU's a cappella group "Vocal Point" singing a Beauty and the Beast Medly.  So, so good.