When 2017 ends the Beauty and the Beast remake will be remembered as one of the biggest movies of the year. Grossing over 503 million dollars and having spent an estimated 160 million dollars, this is without a doubt a very successful movie financially. Even with the movies success, there is still a lot of debating about whether the 1991 version, or the 2017 version is better. The biggest debate is over which movies soundtrack was better. In this post I am going to give my two cents on that debate.
The first thing I would like to talk about is what's good in the 1991 version. The 1991 version is very solid and well organized. Alan Menken did a fantastic job composing and writing this soundtrack. Musically, the orchestra is very good and just as catchy as the vocals in some of the songs. Two examples that come to mind are Belle and Tale As Old As Time. Both songs start off with very catchy intros that hook you before the vocals even come in. This is something is very overlooked when people talk about this movies soundtrack. While the vocal work is amazing and certainly worthy of the praise it has received, without well constructed music to go with the vocals, the songs won't flow and could derive into a sloppy mess. Like I said, the vocal work is fantastic and very well executed. Everybody gives it their all, their singing voices are authentic with no work done to in production to enhance their voice.
My favorite songs of this version are Be Our Guest and Tale As Old As Time. Jerry Orbach does a great job vocally in this song. He has the most fun sounding voice out of everybody else and he showcases it very well in this song. The way he pronounces the lyrics in this song is a one of a kind and out of everybody else, he is the only one who can do it this way. The music is also very fun and catchy. The rhythm patterns in this song really play well to Jerry Orbach's voice and add to the fun feel this song goes for. Tale As Old As Time is a good ballad that really brings the movies story together. Lyrically, this song does a great job of summarizing the movie in a way that the listener can really take it in and enjoy. The music for this songs is more simple then Be Our Guest, but it is still very memorable and really gets you into the song before the vocals start. Vocally, where Jerry Orbach could only sing Be Our Guest, Tale As Old As Time is that for Angela Lansburry. She carries this song very well and out of everybody else, she is the best fit for it. Her voice fits the theme and mood very well, and really enhances the listener to take in the lyrics.
When it comes to the 2017 version they really tried to expand the soundtrack. They added some more songs and in some cases stretched out the original ones. Overall, the cast does a good job singing in this movie and really carry the songs well. Luke Evans and Dan Stevens really deliver well on their songs and add a good spin that separates it from the original. However, while certainly adding new elements, they do a lot to stay true to the original movie as well. Considering the big task they had to live up to the original, they did pretty well.
My favorite songs of this version are Gaston and Evermore. Luke Evans does a great job singing in this version, he sounds confident and really gives it his all. As far as the music goes, I actually like it better in this version then in the original. It does a great job building up and getting louder and adding more energy as the song goes on. Then, in this version they added that instrumental section where the orchestra really takes off and lets loose and it sounds really energetic and well structured. By far my favorite song musically in this version of the movie. Evermore is a great addition to the soundtrack. Lyrically, it does a good job of telling what is going through the beasts mind and how he realizes what he has been missing all his life. Dan Stevens does a great job vocally, he sounds good and really captures the mood well. The orchestra in this song is very good. The energy from the music and the big orchestra sound really impacts the listener and helps to really drive the message into the person listening to the song.
When it comes to mistakes in the 1991 version they really are few and far between. They did a lot to make sure they got it right and for the most part they did. The only noticeable mistakes that pop out to me is that sometimes the cast might try a little to hard and in a few songs, they added some dialogue that was simply filler and wasn't needed. Gaston in the original sounded a little over the top a few times and while I get that has to do with his character it was still distracting and could take away from the experience. With the filler, in a few songs like the Mob Song, they through dialogue in the middle of the song to stretch it out and I feel like it wasn't needed. Other then that, the mistakes aren't too bad.
When it comes to the 2017 version they have a few mistakes as well. This movie also suffers from the problem of adding filler as well. One form of this is in some unneeded songs, like the Maurice song. It was one of those songs they didn't need, they could have introduced him without it and ultimately it didn't move the plot forward much. The other form appears in the form of unneeded dialogue. In the Gaston Song where Lefou tries to spell Gaston's name and says he's illiterate it is mainly used to stretch out the song. It was supposed to be funny but it wasn't delivered well and just makes people wonder why they threw it in there. The major problem with this version though is vocal effects on Emma Watson's voice. Emma Watson is a good actress and does a great job acting in this movie but because of the auto tune, it sounds like she really can't sing. She doesn't sound good in this movie because they tried to hide her voice with auto tune instead of being authentic like a musical should be. To be clear, I don't think this is her fault. Blame for this belongs to the people in the studio and editing room. They probably noticed that she wasn't hitting notes correctly and instead having her do another take and push her to be better, they took shortcuts to save time and/or nitpick and try to be perfect. If they weren't happy with her take they should have pushed her and do another take or get someone else to sing and then have Emma Watson lip sync. It wouldn't have been her singing, but it would have sounded authentic, which a musical like this needs to be.
Both versions overall are good, but ultimately I have to go with the classic. One of the reason's is because the original is more solid and more well constructed then the remake. The remake has a lot of good songs but it doesn't flow as well as the original does and that hurts it a little. The other is the auto tune on Emma Watson. Because the auto tune doesn't make her sound good when singing it really hurts the soundtrack. Considering that she is lead in the beginning and a has at least one more solo song after that, it really becomes distracting as really hurts the soundtrack. Had the studio not decided to take shortcuts, it could've been much better and may have actually been better then the original. Instead, they took the easy way out and hurt their own product. Because of that, the original is better.
