Review of Die Schöne und das Biest

"Die Schöne und das Biest" or "Beauty and the Beast" is a German small screen movie from 2012 and the title already gives away that it is an adaptation of the famous Disney animated movie. They made many many German television films on known fairy tales in recent years and this is just one of them. But while I love several of the others (the Brothers Grimm stuff for example), this one here had major flaws. One is that it runs for 1.5 hours and not one hour as they frequently do and there is definitely a problem with focus. The movie had some lengths I can't deny it and this is most disappointing looking at how many writers worked on it. The director is Marc-Andreas Bochert, a filmmaker who was nominated for an Oscar in the short film category. But his transition to full feature films is not working really, but I am not sure if he is the one to blame. First of all, I felt Cornelia Gröschel brought absolutely none of the charm and beauty that Belle brings in the animated film. About the beast, I was also not too happy about the looks, make-up and also the voice work by Maximilian Simonischek. The beast in this film never really makes the dangerous impression that it should, but just comes off as an uneducated brute at times. Add to that that the approach to the supporting characters in the Beast's house was underwhelming to say the least. Yes there is nothing wrong with creative freedom and changes resulting from that, especially as otherwise it could just turn into a lukewarm copy, but (yes there is a major BUT) the path they took here did not work for me at all, even if that's just subjective. "Beauty and the Beast" has been in talk recently again because of the new movie starring Emma Watson and I truly hope that one turned out better than the one we have here. It was certainly a missed opportunity and I do not recommend the watch. Pity.