This Article Contains Spoilers about the 2017 film Beauty and The Beast.

Beauty and the Beast is a live-action remake (released March 17, 2017) of the Disney version made in 1991. Beauty and the Beast is the 10th highest-grossing film in the world, making $1,263,521,126 in a very short amount of time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#Highest-grossing_films

Main Characters:
For any form of entertainment (excluding video games) involving characters and such, the character should have some key components. The character must be flawed because we all know perfect characters don’t exist. The character should have struggled all around but have some perfect traits about them, so their good traits balance out their flaws. All of these characters have that, even though some characters may not actually have good traits.

Belle – Belle is a young benevolent bibliophile who develops feelings for the Beast and begins to see the humanity within him. Emma Watson definitely portrayed this character beautifully. Belle is one of the protagonists in the movie, the Beauty in Beauty and the Beast. The movie makes you pity her because the whole town considers her “funny” and not in a good way since she always has her nose in a book and is the only girl in town that can read and invent things. It puts a real feminist touch on the character since the original Belle didn’t help around, only read. But in the movie, she always helps around town.

The Beast – The Beast is a cold-hearted prince who is transformed into a beast and forced to earn back his humanity by learning to truly love and be loved in return. Dan Stevens definitely put his emotions into this role, even if the Beast’s face was CGI animated, using his expressions on the Beast’s face. The Beast is the other protagonist of the movie, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. In this version, the character himself has more of a backstory than the original, making you care about him more. He is also a bookworm like Belle and has a whole library filled with books. You really start to see the character change and care about Belle instead of being the selfish prince he was.

Setting:
The setting in a movie has to set the scene or reflect on a characters’ past. For instance, the castle in the movie explains the Beast’s past, since he was (is) a prince that lived (lives) there.

The Castle – The castle is where most of the movie took place, being that Belle was held hostage there and that’s where the Beast lives. The castle looks like a magical place even if it’s not real. There’s even a part near the end of the movie where the castle is lifted from its curse, and gold sparkles travel around the castle, turning it from dark to light. Another scene is where the rose loses its last petal but comes back to life and it really gives the castle a magical effect.

The Village – The village is where Belle grows up. The place she thinks keeps her trapped and bored. She wants to explore the world, and see what’s beyond the small town. The village is quite bland actually. But I think it adds to the fact that Belle wants more in life, and doesn’t want to stay in her small, boring town. The village actually gives out a dark vibe at night, because the only night scene is where the (SPOILER) village realizes there’s a beast around and they go to attack it, and Gaston says Maurice and Belle should be sent to an asylum.

Plot:
I’m not going to go deep in the plot so I don’t give out too many spoilers, but I can say for sure if you liked the original, you’ll definitely like this version. Maybe even like it better than the original like I do!

Exposition – The exposition is really the simplest part in the movie where we find the story on the Beast and why he was cursed, and we also find out that Belle is a bookworm and that the town thinks she’s weird for being a girl that knows how to read. Which is honestly bizarre if you ask me but you know, that’s supposed to take place in the Rococo era, so equal rights didn’t exist yet. Offensive, if you ask me.

Rising Action – Probably would start around the time where Belle exchanges her freedom for her father’s and takes his place in the Beast’s castle. Then Belle and the Beast start to fall in love with each other. This part of the plot was actually portrayed pretty well, with the song that they sing about something being there between, you can see the romance build up and their friendship grow stronger.

Climax – I assume the climax is the part where the Beast dies and then Belle tells him she loves him, and the enchantress brings him back to life. This might be cliche, but that’s my favorite part of the movie because it really does have a theme, even if the theme is hackneyed: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Falling Action – The falling action would have to be the minute after the curse is broken, and the castle returns back its’ normal state, and the town gets their memories back. My favorite part of the falling action is where gold sparkles fly around the castle and return it back to the light and happy castle it was, and where the magic turns the furniture back into humans.

Resolution – The resolution is probably the part where Belle and Adam (the Beast) get married and they dance at the end. The ending scene really is my favorite part because it pulls the story altogether and it makes the suffering during rising action and the climax worth it.

Conflict:
There were all types of conflict in the movie, character v. character, character v. self, character v. supernatural, character v. nature, and character v. society.

character v. character – One Belle character v. character is Belle v. Gaston. It’s a one-sided character v. character but Belle is constantly annoyed with Gaston because he is mostly self-absorbed, but he acts so brute and thinks he’s the perfect guy for Belle. One Beast character v. character is also versus Gaston, who is the main antagonist of the story. He directly battles with the Beast and shoots him. This is more of a direct man v. man involving physical fights.

character v. self – One character vs. self-was Beast v. himself and his selfishness, uncaring heart. It was the reason he had the curse put upon himself since he didn’t give shelter to an old crippling lady since she was “ugly”.

character v. supernatural – The character v. supernatural would be the Beast vs. the Enchantress who cursed him because of his personality. She said he would die if the rose she gave him lost all its’ petals before he found love.

character v. nature – The Beast v. The Rose, which represented his life and that if all its petals withered, he would die if he didn’t find love.

character v. society – Belle and Maurice vs. The Village. The Village tried to send Maurice and Belle to an asylum because Maurice accused Gaston of trying to leave him to die in the forest (which he did), and because Gaston realized Belle had fallen in love with the Beast, he thought she was under a curse.

Theme:
Overall, the theme I picked up from the movie is that beauty comes from within. It’s a really wonderful theme with a simple yet true moral to it.