Movie Review

New Beauty and the Beast is no belle of the ball

The idea of Disney producing “live action” remakes of their classic animated movies makes sense in general terms. Childhood nostalgia is a huge draw, and since Disney possesses the biggest back catalog of any animated film studio, they’d be throwing away money if they didn’t try to entice moviegoers with “new” versions of the films they know and love.

However, the new product should also offer something substantially different, otherwise you run the risk of jilting the very fans for whom the film is being made. The updated Beauty and the Beast is certainly great to look at, but once you get beyond the superficiality of seeing animated characters as real or computer-generated, the movie contains very little that sets it apart from the original.

Sure, they try to add in a few things to modernize the story. Belle (Emma Watson) has put her book smarts to practical use, creating a type of washing machine. A brief backstory for why her mother is no longer in the picture for her and her father (Kevin Kline) is introduced. And LeFou (Josh Gad), the right-hand man of Gaston (Luke Evans), is made more explicitly gay, though whether that’s an improvement is questionable.

Despite that, the film feels like a fuzzy copy of the movie you know and love. The story still takes the exact same twists and turns, highlighted by the familiar songs that all seem just a touch off. And because there’s nothing surprising about anything in the film, it’s purely an exercise in hitting all the beats you need to hit in order to trigger the right memories.

The most enjoyable part of the film ends up being the performances of the main three actors. Taken on their own, Watson, Dan Stevens as the Beast, and Evans are a pleasure to watch. Watson makes for an appealing Belle, and her history as Hermione in the Harry Potter films imbues a little something extra onto the character. Evans is as perfect a Gaston as you could imagine, making him the ideal foil for Belle and the Beast.

But other choices take away from those performances. Having stars like Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, and Audra McDonald voice the enchanted items at the Beast’s castle is fun in theory. But since they don’t appear in the flesh for 99 percent of the film, their presence is essentially useless.

And then there’s the much ballyhooed/controversial idea of LeFou being undeniably gay, as opposed to the “wink wink” hints of the original. It’d be one thing if he were given a respectable side story to semi-explore that aspect. But he remains a buffoon, and the ham-handed scenes expressing the gayness of him and another character are so unsubtle and clichéd that they belong in an '80s sitcom, not a modern-day movie.

The animated fare that Disney serves up year after year is still second-to-none, but Beauty and the Beast shows that they’re still very hit-and-miss when it comes to live action. You may think you want to go see it, but you’d be better off firing up the DVD of the animated version for the 100th time.

Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast.

Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Dan Stevens and Emma Watson in Beauty and the Beast.

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."

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