Tale as Old as Time

Beauty & the Beast Reboot Opens March 17

More stories from Austin C.

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Dan Stevens’ Beast with Emma Watson’s Belle in the new film

Beauty and The Beast is an upcoming reboot of the original animated classic of the same name, being released by Disney in March of 2017. In its first 24 hours, the teaser trailer reached 92 million views, which topped the number of views seen in that amount of time in history. It stars Harry Potter actress Emma Watson in the titular role of Belle, with Luke Evans (The Hobbit; Dracula Untold) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) in the roles of Gaston and The Beast respectively.

For a complete list of the full star-studded cast, visit the IMDb page here.

Many people, like myself, were introduced to the original Beauty and The Beast in their childhood, and grew up loving it. Fellow Beauty and The Beast fan, eighth grader Madeline S, explains how she was first introduced to it, and why she loves it.

“When I was little, (Beauty and The Beast) was the only Disney movie my grandma owned,” Madeline said. “It was the only one I could watch frequently, and I really loved it, because Belle was the only Disney princess at that time that I could relate to, and who I felt that strongly resembled me as a person.”

The upcoming movie is making a lot of changes from the original, in order to modernize it for this generation. For example, making Belle an inventor as well as her father, and Emma Watson, a prime woman’s rights activist herself, refusing to wear a corset for the role of Belle.

Madeline speaks out about the pro-feminist changes being made to the film, and how they could change it.

“I think it really is great that they’re modernizing it for our generation, it could be a good plot twist,” Madeline said. “Society shouldn’t say that they can’t change anything, it’s the director’s choice, and it would appeal to a lot more people this way. I’m just scared that they’re going to change the storyline completely. Since its a remake at heart, I’d prefer them to stay true to the original story, but I definitely don’t mind a couple changes.”

Eighth Grader Laine S discovered the new film through the trailer, which she found while scrolling through the Instagram Explore feed, and was very excited.

“It had Emma Watson in it, and she’s amazing,” Laine said. “Her performance in all her movies is great, and seeing her acting as a famous Disney character is a big change, but I think I’ll enjoy it. I’m also really excited seeing Josh Gad as le Fou, because he was Olaf in Frozen, and the role seems to fit his goofy personality.”

The newest and latest trailer for the film, which features new clips from the movie, and a cover of the title song ‘Beauty and The Beast,” sung by pop stars Ariana Grande and John Legend, is here:

The movie will be in theaters March 17.