Beauty and the Beast is a 2017 American musical romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay written by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos. A co-production between Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films, the film is a live-action and computer animation remake of Disney's 1991 animated film of the same name, itself an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's eighteenth-century fairy tale. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as the titular characters with Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian McKellen and Emma Thompson in supporting roles.
Set in Bourbon-era France, a young woman, Belle, is imprisoned in an enchanted castle by the fearsome Beast, a prince cursed by a sorceress as penance for his callousness. She is also pursued by Gaston, a narcissistic hunter who wants her hand in marriage, leading to a confrontation with the Beast.
Principal photography began at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England on May 18, 2015, and ended on August 21. Beauty and the Beast premiered on February 23, 2017, at Spencer House in London and was released in North America on March 17, 2017, in the standard, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D formats along with Dolby Cinema. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $744 million worldwide on a $160 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing film of 2017.
Plot
Somewhere in Rococo-era France, an enchantress disguised as a beggar arrives at a debutante ball and offers an enchanted rose to a prince in exchange for shelter from a storm, but he refuses. For his arrogance, the enchantress transforms him into a beast to match his inhumane character and the servants into inanimate objects, and erases the castle from the villagers' memories. She gives the Beast a magic mirror that shows faraway events. To break the spell, the prince must learn to love another and earn her love in return before the rose's last petal falls.
Years later during the 1780s, in the village of Villeneuve, a young woman, Belle, lives with her father Maurice, an artist and tinkerer. Gaston, a celebrated former soldier, seeks her hand in marriage, but she is repulsed by his arrogance and narcissism. On a trip to the market to sell music boxes, Maurice and his horse Philippe lose their way in the forest and are attacked by wolves. They seek refuge at the castle, only for Maurice to be imprisoned by the Beast as penance for taking a rose from the garden. When she realizes her father is missing, Belle ventures into the forest in search for him, and finds him in the castle. The Beast confronts her and accepts her offer to take her father's place.
Belle meets and befriends the servants in the castle. She eventually wanders into the forbidden west wing and finds the rose. The Beast, enraged, frightens Belle into fleeing into the woods. He rescues her from a pack of wolves but is injured during the fight. Belle assists him to the castle and nurses him back to health. A friendship develops, and the servants tell her she may be the one who can break the curse. The Beast develops feelings for Belle and allows her access to his library. However, Belle remains uncertain of her feelings due to her imprisonment. The Beast shows Belle a gift the enchantress gave him, a book that could take people wherever they wanted. Belle takes both to a small house in Paris, where she used to live with her parents as an infant. They see it is abandoned and old, and the Beast discovers that Belle's mother died of a plague after finding a plague doctor mask.
Meanwhile, Maurice returns to Villeneuve but is unable to convince the others to rescue Belle. Gaston agrees to help Maurice rescue Belle, but when he reveals his true intention to marry Belle, Maurice refuses. In response, Gaston leaves him in the forest to die. Maurice is rescued by a hermit, Agathe, and openly accuses Gaston of his crime, but Gaston convinces the townsfolk to send Maurice to the local asylum.
After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle discovers her father's predicament using the magic mirror. The Beast allows her to leave to save Maurice, giving her the mirror to look back on him with. At Villeneuve, Belle proves Maurice's sanity by revealing the Beast in the mirror. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, Gaston has her thrown into the asylum with her father and rallies the villagers to follow him to the castle to slay the Beast. Maurice and Belle escape from confinement and Belle follows.
During the ensuing fight, Gaston abandons his companion LeFou, who sides with the servants to fend off the villagers. Gaston attacks the Beast in his tower, who is initially too depressed to fight back, but regains his will upon seeing Belle return. He corners Gaston but spares his life before reuniting with Belle. However, Gaston fatally shoots the Beast in the back before falling off the tower to his death. The Beast dies as the last rose petal falls and Belle professes her love to him. Agathe reveals herself as the enchantress and undoes the curse, restoring the Beast's life and human form. The servants' forms and the villagers' memories are also restored, with few of the villagers recognizing some of the servants as their loved ones. The prince and Belle host a ball for the kingdom, where they dance happily.
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