4:30 Additionally, Belle isn't written to be assertive and bossy, because a central part of her character growth and journey is becoming assertive. At the start of the movie, she is tolerating Gaston's pestering and bad manners with more politeness than he deserves, even when he barges into her home. By the end she's not afraid to stand up to him.

What it matters is not that she reads but what she reads.

Belle is reading a book in which a girl meets a guy that is until the end that knows is actually a prince just like her.

Didn’t you get the memo? being dreamy ,Curious and dreaming of romance is embarrassing now.

They chose all the wrong decisions with Belle and this movie in general. The only people who looked like they were having any fun with this were Luke Evans and Josh Gadd.

Just get a musical theater actress, is it that difficult?!

The problem is, I see Emma Watson in every Emma Watson’s role. She got away with it as Hermione, because we all see a lot of Hermione in Emma.

It's funny how they just went, ' Famous white actress with brown hair and brown eyes? Played someone who likes to read? Nailed it!' And really didn't think any further than that.
Belle likes fairytales and fantasy and would probably think Hermione is too stuck up. Hermione likes facts and scholarly things and would probably think Belle is silly for her reading choices. They are NOT the same.

Isn't the whole idea of feminism to empower women to be who they want to be?
I don't understand why it's considered inferior by Hollywood to be an introverted dreamy, creative, feminine woman (who by chance ends up as a princess in the tale)? As an introverted, dreamy, highly creative woman who loves books and often lives in her fantasy world, I find this highly relatable 😂 I don't need to be fixed Hollywood, thanks!

Besides the Hermione association, I wonder if part of the problem might have been that Watson was originally set to play the title role in an adaptation of Robin McKinley's novel "Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast" for Warner Bros., but then the project was transferred to Disney and retooled as a remake of their own version. McKinley's Beauty is more of a Hermione-style bookworm: a scholar and intellectual who "doesn't have a romantic bone in her body." That was the role Watson was originally cast for, but then when Disney took over the movie, they had to force her persona into the mold of Belle.

My reaction to her casting was "did no one else audition? Oh dear."

The problem isn't just the poor writing. Emma Watson is a stiff and inexpressive actress and that hurts the live action version of the character as well.

Belle and Hermione Granger only have one thing in common is reading in both characters.   The motives are different between the two characters.

My biggest problem with making Belle an inventor/scholar isn't that she is one. You can have a dreamer that enjoys those things or tie it in.

My problem is that they do NOTHING with it except she makes a washing machine and the townspeople wreck it because they hate her??? (Which they don't in the original. They think she and Maurice are odd/a little crazy, but nobody dislikes them.) But it never comes into play again.

It’s the little things with beauty and the beast remake that make a huge impact as to why it didn’t elevate, celebrate, and pay homage to the original film it was based on like Cinderella 2015.

So much took away from the raw romance and it mostly came down to how Belle was characterized. From what I’ve read Emma was given more control over Belle’s character and even if she wasn’t all the changes they made were to her detriment. I read a comment saying Emma played Belle like Hermione which isn’t completely wrong. Hermione was a book worm because she loved to learn. Belle was a book worm because she loved to escape her “poor provincial life”. You see it in the original film where she describes reading Jack and the beanstalk. There’s nothing wrong with Romeo and Juliet but it didn’t feel soo authentically Belle. Besides, in the original film I loved the scene where we see the Beast saying he’s never felt so strongly for someone. He wants to do something so nice and grand gesture of feelings… and so he gifts her his library. I loved the scene because we see how unselfish he is and how expressive where he seems so excited to give it to her. But in the remake they completely stomp over the romance by making Beast this intellectual who mocks Belle’s choices in reading and doesn’t give her the library but shows it to her to encourage her to read other things… not nearly as romantic and he doesn’t even seem so happy or excited in the scene.

Belle’s gentleness and kindness for me was diminished a bit. For example in the original, while annoyed by Gaston she never gave off the impression of being deliberately rude to him. Even then we saw Gaston actually be mean from insulting her father to throwing her book in the mud… but in the first scene with the opening song Belle, we don’t see him be such a huge jerk so Emma Watson’s Belle treating him more coldly doesn’t have as much of an impact since it almost comes off as Gaston just being nice.

What didn’t make sense to me as well was the need to make Belle the inventor and then the village hate how she taught girls to read. In the original we never got the impression the villagers hate or dislike her like in the remake but rather found her weird and couldn’t understand her. And even then we saw in subtle ways that Belle was desperate for connection. I mean when the Baker calls her over after greeting him and he asks about her book she begins to excitedly ramble because she was excited to talk about it with another person, only for him to dismiss her and for her to look a little disappointed, brushing it off later. But I feel despite her singing the song, Emma Watson’s Belle doesn’t give off the impression of wanting connection and feeling alone in the village with no one to understand her. We don’t see her excitedly ramble about a book to the baker for example, but her just say what it’s about and leaving it at that. Idk if Emma Watson meant to come off this way, but it came off so many times in the Belle song scene as Belle feeling almost above the village and looking down on them or “I’m too good for them” because they didn’t read and weren’t like her, which isn’t Belle at all. I didn’t get any desire for connection. On the teaching reading, I didn’t like that change. Plus did the writers not know Beauty and the Beast was originally written in France for a women’s magazine and lots of women even lower class were literate in France.

I mean Emma’s Belle came off as so sarcastic and snarky and almost mean, versus gentle kind, curious, and loving.
Emma as well was auto tuned like crazy… which is terrible considering the ensemble and extras had some Broadway training. It’s not fair to the other lead characters who sing when one of them just can’t keep up. They could have at least hired someone to sing for her! Disney has done it before.

The dance scene to me didn’t have the romantic energy like the original. We didn’t see Belle excitedly after hearing the music drag Beast to dance in the ballroom or the Beast looking so nervous. We don’t see her snuggle her head into his chest with contentment with the Beast being shocked then over the moon. The dance scene seemed so impersonal and cold.

I just feel it wasn’t as romantic.

I think they missed the 'fairy' part in fairy tales

I didn't fall for that 'Emma is the perfect Bell'.
Emma cant act. Emma never had the princess aura, the princess smile. She was just casted because of harry potter nostalgia.
The script is basically the same as the original, AND SHE KILLS EVERY LINE!!! they are soo dull and with no emotion at all.

I just rewatched the Disney animated version of Beauty and the Beast. Belle is actually very assertive: she constantly calls out all the men when they're being disrespectful and she's having none of it. She even breaks her promise to the Beast she made to rescue her father when the Beast's behaviour becomes completely unacceptable and she leaves. In the beginning she isn't dreaming about getting married and that's her only life purpose ever: she just states with clarity that even though Gaston is handsome, he's a complete jerk and 'not the one', otherwise she wants a life of adventure.
What I think makes her especially strong is the ability to forgive when she sees the Beast is genuinely trying to overcome his impulsive nature and become a good person, and constantly demonstrates that with action.
So there was absolutely nothing that needed to be changed for Belle to be an acceptable heroine for modern times!

It literally felt like Emma Watson was forcing her Hermione character into Belle which is very tacky and out of character

I like to think that Belle would also love movies, story-driven videogames and theatre, if she ever lived in a modern setting, because she loves anything that makes her imagination fly

My biggest issue with the live action Beauty and the Beast was Emma Watson was just so stiff. I didn’t buy her as Belle.