The tale as old as time, “Beauty and the Beast”, was recently released in theaters. The theater was crowded with families of little girls dressed as Belle (Emma Watson). There were so many people that my sister and I did not get to sit next to each other. This didn’t turn me off of the movie, however, as Beauty and the Beast was my childhood favorite.

Unlike the 1991 version, the movie opened with the Beast in his prince form applying makeup for a party. The party is interrupted by an enchantress (dressed like a hag) looking for a place to take shelter from the big winter storm. When the prince refused, the enchantress took her true form and turned the prince into a Beast (Dan Stevens), frightening multiple toddlers around me. The movie then cut to the iconic Bonjour song, showing us all of her provincial village. The next whole chunk of the movie was used to show how independent and smart Belle is. Personally, I loved this part of the movie. It reached out to all of the girls in the theater, showing them that girls can be just as smart as boys and that they should do what they love to do. The audience then meets Belle’s dad Maurice and we see more of Belle being smart and helping her dad fix a cute music box. Soon enough, Maurice takes off to the market, gets lost and the beast takes him as a prisoner. Belle then goes off to save her father by taking his place.

I expected a lot from the film, and was not disappointed. The castle was just as enchanting and magical as I was hoping. The characters were beautiful and detailed, but only sufficiently developed. The Beast was wonderfully realistic, but not frightening. All of the music scenes were spot on to the animated version; my favorite had to be “Be Our Guest.” I didn’t think that the dancing silverware would be as good in live action, but I could not have been more wrong! Emma Watson the perfect person to play Belle, it almost seemed as though she wasn’t even acting! She embodied perfectly the character. All in all, I would highly recommend that everybody who grew up loving “Beauty and the Beast” go see the live action version; you will be truly enchanted.