I’m a bit back and forth on how I feel about Maurice in the 2017 telling of the story. Over time I’ve actually quite softened to the portrayal, shifting from an inventor to a tinkerer. Making music boxes and potentially automatons is a great way to give more of a nod to the time period, while keeping him a mechanical craftsman(and a much steadier cash flow being able to sell a lot of product v potential prize money). Belle still serves that caregiving role and he is absent minded … but far far more grounded.
Where this grounding doesn’t work is when he returns to Villeneuve raving about a Beast in a castle. He hasn’t really done anything to be branded a ‘loon’ or earn the ‘crazy ol’ Maurice’ lines… he’s aging and a bit silly but he’s not as out there as his animated counterpart. (Who, while harmless, is a bit out there mentally). I think all they’d really need to fix this is a bit more of talking to himself or a scene where he randomly mentions something silly. Or to instead have the tavern react curious/concerned but still dismissive - this is new behavior but not believed.
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Have you ever stopped and thought about how much the guests must’ve left behind? Everyone fled when the enchantress revealed herself and cursed the prince, but they were there for a ball and some likely intended to stay.
How many guest rooms have a trunk left in them partly or never opened? Personal items? Little things. Rooms half used or just touched left in an in between state.
More than anything else what Belle desires is connection with another person, someone who understands her or will talk about her interests. While she has her father, she is in more of a caregiving role- and while he is kind not even he fully understands her. She’s a dreamy, curious, person in a village deeply set in its own routines. Monotony to Belle is life to them.
Books aren’t just an escape or a stand in for physical adventure, she does enjoy reading as a whole. I do understand people focusing her adventurous feelings and desire to leave but I think it often gets oversold. Sometimes even overshadowing her other traits and what she’s truly longing for. At the same time her bookishness is approached in a very surface level way too.
It’s not just that she reads, it’s that she gets entirely lost in her books. Shutting off the rest of the world, daydreaming etc. Not to mention she is caring for her aging esentric father— she doesn’t get out much. By choice.
All of this is to say, there’s is a lot beyond her surface traits and even the villagers treatment of her. I’d love to see talked or explored more.
Human again and Days in the Sun are critically underrated character development songs. I understand pacing, but it adds a depth that goes unappreciated. Which is why the extended cut and the musical absolutely top for adding HA back in. There’s such sadness and longing but there’s at the same time an unwavering hope and endurance…
Sweep up the years
Of sadness and tears
And throw them away!
One of the reason I like the live action- shows the sadness and such without an immediate jump to the next - get to stay in that bittersweet pocket without slap stick in the next second. You also get further pay off from the song with the emotional punch and tears at the end (Human again is a great song that adds a lot, but they don’t get much a moment at the end unfortunately.)
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The Beast does not just pass out from exhaustion but injury from the wolves, I know it sounds a little like stating the obvious but the extent of his wounds isn’t. We only see some of it on screen, scars, bandages and bed rest… but then you look closer. He limps.
Some of the way he moves comes from his form, a teenager growing into a man in a far larger and lumbering form then he should. Then after the wolves there’s extra cuts and bruises to his legs that may make it harder. Even in the end when he is fighting with Gaston he is still in some form of recovery. And after all… how fitting is it for Gaston to go for his prize and it be a wounded animal? Only further wounded emotionally…
This is what live action should be about, translating some realism and expanding on moments on screen. In the animated he’s still wounded, but we jump ahead to where he is mostly healed. I like this extra time, being a bit more wounded and the tenderness of it all. I like when it expands on something there (haha)
