beauty and the beast

Disney has really put their marketing for the upcoming Beauty and the Beast on steroids lately, giving us all-too-short glimpses of some really iconic scenes. First it was Josh Gad and Luke Evans in a few seconds of (the best song) “Gaston” on Good Morning America. Now it’s almost a full minute(!) of the opening number “Belle,” that serves as a great introduction to our heroine and an opportunity for everyone else in the town to air their grievances about her.

As you can probably imagine, animated movies are dubbed into other languages for distribution in other countries. But did you know that for the Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast featured Jackie Chan as the voice of the Beast? And not only did Jackie provide the Beast’s dialogue, he even sung his songs? He did a great job too; that’s just one of the timeless Beauty and the Beast facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for ever since Disney announced this live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast: The Gaston song. Listen, this “tale as old as time” is sweet and magical and all that other wonderful stuff, but it’s okay to admit that you’re 100 percent here for Luke Evans as the nefarious, narcissistic master of swagger, performing what is, with apologies to Angela Lansbury, the actual greatest song from Beauty and the Beast (don’t @ me).

When you were a kid, did you ever spend time with like, an aunt who listened to those adult contemporary radio stations — the ones that were all Michael Bolton and Toni Braxton and Celine Dion? You know, the stations that played “Margaritaville” and the Beauty and the Beast theme song every hour on the hour. If you don’t remember, then maybe Ariana Grande and John Legend’s cover of “Beauty and the Beast” will jog your memory.

Ariana Grande, John Legend, Emma Watson, a horned beast man and several sentient parts of a tea set star in the video for the cover duet.

Because we tend to think of him more commonly as “slick neo-soul songbird” or “La La Land’s chief threat to the integrity of jazz” or “husband of Chrissy Teigen,” it can be easy to forget that John Legend’s got an Oscar under his belt. The musician and composer took the golden statuette for Best Original Song with his original tune “Glory” from Ava DuVernay’s thunderous Martin Luther King biopic Selma, and ever since, he’s been Hollywood’s go-to guy for poppin’ fresh (is that still what the kids are saying?) theme music. And today, a new announcement from Disney reported by Deadline lines up Legend’s next big gig.

I’d be hard-pressed to name a Disney villain I like as much as Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston. In addition to being a Sondheim-esque twist on the traditional idea of a fairy tale prince  —  vain, violent, and eager to confuse chivalry with misogyny  —  the character of Gaston has also become something of a method actor’s dream for Disney theme park employees. Remember the time that Gaston challenged a kid to a push-up contest? Or how about the time that Gaston got shouted down by a young girl? It turns out that no one goes viral like Gaston, either.

When the news that Disney was making a live-action Beauty and the Beast movie dropped, we all wondered one thing: how close was this version sticking to the original? Would the costumes look the same? Would the inanimate object characters be changed at all? Would there still be songs? From what we’ve seen, it looks like everything in this version, will look the same, just more realistic. Emma Watson’s Belle still has her blue-and-white outfit, the Beast looks similar, if not a little more uncanny-valley, and Lumiere and Cogsworth look more or less like themselves, just with a few tweaks.

We’ve only seen brief glimpses of Emma Watson’s Belle in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast following some leaked photos. But now we’re getting the first look at her dressed up in the classic yellow gown alongside the Beast.

Last Friday, producer Jack Morrissey posted several pieces of concept art and behind-the-scenes photos from Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast remake. It gave us our first real look at Luke Evans’ dastardly Gaston, as well as Lumiere and Cogsworth, voiced by Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen, respectively. It looks like we should’ve kept an eye on Morrissey’s Facebook page because the producer shared one more photo later in the day, and this one gives us our first behind-the-scenes look at Dan Stevens as the eponymous Beast.

Emma Watson’s most recent movie might have been an epic flop in U.K. theaters last weekend, but I have a hunch that her next film might be a wee bit bigger. Just a smidge.

“Ever just the same. Ever a surprise.” One imagines those lyrics from “Beauty and the Beast” will apply particularly well to this new version of Disney’s animated classic, coming to theaters next year.