Beauty & The Beast Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

4. Incredible Visual Effects

Beauty And The Beast Dan Stevens Beast
Disney

It shouldn't be terribly surprising after The Jungle Book's jaw-dropping, Oscar-winning visual effects last year, but yes, Beauty and the Beast is a triumph of eye-popping CGI.

First and foremost, the Beast looks mostly fantastic, all the more impressive considering the incredible challenges involved with making him convincingly interact with the very human Belle.

Then there's the various anthropomorphic household objects, such as Ewan McGregor's Lumiere, Ian McKellen's Cogsworth and Emma Thompson's Mrs. Potts, to name just a few.

It sure doesn't hurt that the supporting performances are basically all fantastic, which combine with immense production design and superbly convincing visual effects to create a suitably heightened fantasy braced between live-action and animation.

If the movie doesn't end up with at least a few Oscar nominations on the production side next year, something's gone horribly wrong.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.