‘Beauty And The Beast’ Reactions & Review: Can A Tale As Old As Time Find New Life?
Disney’s live-action-remake obsession continues this month withBeauty and the Beast, and it might be one of the trickiest adaptations they’ve tackled so far. Oh, sure, it’s an easy sell: the 1991 animated feature is one of the most beloved films in the studio’s catalogue, and nostalgia alone would’ve been enough to get some butts in seats. But on the other hand, how do you live up to near perfection? What’s the point in redoing something that good? How do you make a movie that satisfies fans of the original, while adding enough of a twist to justify redoing it in the first place?
We don’t have all the answers — if we did, we’d be running Disney, not blogging for /Film — but the first reactions to the first screenings offer some clues as to how the studio tried to address these challenges. See the firstBeauty and the Beastreactions below, as well as our own briefBeauty and the Beast review.
Both Peter Sciretta and I sawBeauty and the Beastlast night, and had our own thoughts on it.
Beauty and the Beast feels much longer than the animated film. The production and costume design are exquisite. Josh Gad steals the show.
— /Film (@slashfilm)June 10, 2025
one way that#BeautyAndTheBeastis faithful to the original is that Beast’s human form is still extremely disappointing
— Angie J. Han (@ajhan)June 20, 2025
Of course, we weren’t the only ones. Lots of other critics weighed in. Many of them lovedBeauty and the Beast, or at least thought it’d be satisfying to fans of the original.
Beauty and the Beast did everything it needed to do to make fans of the original happy and enchant a new audience. Going to make crazy money
— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty)July 22, 2025
Luke Evans, Josh Gad and Kevin Kline were the MVPs of the live action Beauty and the Beast for me. Disney fans will be really happy.
— Eric Vespe (@EricVespe)August 23, 2025
Beauty and the Beast is SO GREAT. True to the original with lovely additions; Luke Evans is MVP. I’m still grinning thinking about it. 🥀
— Crystal Bell 🔜 Anime NYC (@crystalbell)Aug 16, 2025
Others were more measured in their praise, while still others were kind of mixed.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is gorgeous fun, a delightful remake. But the creepy Stockholm issues become WAY worse when it’s humans, not animation.
— Rachel Simon (@Rachel_Simon)July 10, 2025
One frequent theme was high praise for Luke Evans and Josh Gad as Gaston and LeFou.
Though as some pointed out, Disney’s promises of an “exclusively gay moment” may have been a bit overblown.
There’s still magic to be found inBeauty and the Beast. It’s hard not to be charmed by that opening number, “Belle,” or amused by the Greek chorus made up of household objects that used to be people. And from time to time,Bill Condon’s remake even comes close to recapturing the wonder and majesty of the 1991 film. In particular, “Gaston” is a delight from start to finish, improving on the original with irresistibly energetic bar choreography. WhileLuke Evansmay not be able to match the exaggerated brawn of his animated predecessor, he more than makes up for it in cartoonish bravado, andJosh Gadbrings some welcome depth to Gaston’s sycophantic BFF LeFou.
But as all the allusions to the original suggest, Condon’sBeauty and the Beastnever quite manages to transcend its status as a remake. The new version runs a whopping 45 minutes longer than the old one did, but most of the extra material feels like just that — extra material. There are half-hearted attempts to fill in some of the fridge logic of the original (like: why would the witch enchant the servants as well as the Beast, when they did nothing wrong?) and some half-baked new backstory for the primary players. There are new musical numbers that fade from memory the moment they end, and new household servant characters that are just kind of… there. Meanwhile, the couple at the center of the story, played byEmma WatsonandDan Stevens, fail to add anything new to the archetypes we already know so well.
If all you want is a chance to see some of the iconicBeauty and the Beastmoments redone in live action, this film will scratch that itch. (Just try not to expect too much from that ballroom dance centerpiece, which is a big fat nothing here.) But if you’ve come here in search of something fresh — something more akin to Disney’s live-actionCinderella, which made that ancient tale feel vital again – you may come away slightly disappointed.
Beauty and the Beastis in theatersMarch 17.
