Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)

She's horrible. Her "natural speak-singing" is just unlistenable. Can anyone also enlighten me why Emma Watson is a thing? I don't mind her activism and do appreciate her stance, but as an actress? She's like the epitome of plain.

This is exactly what I feel. Disney giving itself more credit than it deserves by claiming this to be the best thing that happened to gay politics since the equal marriage act. Really, no one would have noticed or cared if it wasn't for their own publicity. 

I saw her The Bling Ring..she was fine, but again, anyone could have been fine, no? I'm just saying that she is really below special.

I'd hazard a guess that one of the reasons they chose her is the weight of the Harry Potter machine and its fans who will flock to the film to see her. Also, I guess they like the idea that one of Disney's more spunky princesses is played by someone who is seen as a positive role model for young women.

Plus, she kind of looks like Belle.

I suspect whether she could sing or not was fairly far down the list of criteria. The fact that they can manipulate her vocals as much as they have proves that. And to be fair to her, at least the vocals are her own (sort of). They could have got someone else to sing it instead.

Gaston is very good, Luke and Josh do well with it. The tiny bits of Audra we get are like finding a pool of water in a desert, such a relief.

Be Our Guest isn't bad. I've heard much criticism of Ewan's accent but it didn't bother me and his singing is strong enough.

I like Dan Stevens' voice on his new solo Evermore but it sounds very strange elsewhere, particularly on Something More.

I really don't like Emma Thompson's version of Beauty and the Beast. Her accent is very odd and it has none of the magic or timelessness of Angela Lansbury's version.

But the real issue here is Emma Watson. I can deal with Russell Crowe singing Stars. I can deal with Ryan Gosling singing A Lovely Night. But I can't deal with processing someone's voice so much that it honestly sounds more like I'm listening to a robot than a human being. I haven't heard autotune this obvious since Rebecca Black's Friday. It's hideous and if they insisted on hiring Emma (even though she's no great actress), then she should have at least been dubbed.

Ewan McGregor was a surprise! Evermore was fantastic, and deserves to win the Oscar next year. Did not know that Dan Stevens had such a beautiful baritone voice. I hope we get to hear a version of him singing it without the vocal modifications. Josh Groban actually paled in comparison for me.
I was really hoping that the Emma Thompson version of BATB would be magical, but it wasn't. Then again, we are comparing her with the legendary Angela Lansbury, which is unfair to do. She seemed to be singing to a different track/time signature from a little before the middle until the end. It will make sense during the film I think, because it is probably so that Belle and the Beast can waltz to it. The orchestrations were beautiful, but again I prefer the 1991 version where the song was just straight without the little 'flourishes' (I know not the technical term for it). Again I am guessing these were added to give them more dancing time.

Emma T was great during Be Our Guest. The BATB reprise was beautiful, and the new lyrics were well suited (except the bit about nature pointing the way??)

Agree with the other posters about Emma Watson. She is clearly not a singer, but the level of autotune was very distracting ... she surely would have been able to carry a tune. The only part she sounded normal was the first bit of Something There.

Well, Harry Potter is something absolutely magical for people born in the 1990s and becoming a sort of feminist icon after the series was over made her fans stick around her even if her career hasn't been that great since the end of HP. Her huge success is due to her personality rather than to her actual performances, her fans love her for what she says not necessarily for what she does on screen.

Just started listening to this - couldn't decide whether I wanted to wait until I saw the film but curiosity got the better of me. I love the overture but I'm already getting irritated by the auto tune sound and I'm not even half way through 'Belle.' However the rest of the cast sound very promising.

One thing I could kick myself for is not realising there was a deluxe edition with an extra disc of what I think is orchestral music? Would be interested to know if it's worth it for the extra music?

Definitely! The music sounds amazing, and whatever anyone thinks of the casting (or even the need to remake in the first place) this new score is fantastic. The second disc is really worth getting.

Well Dan Stevens. Where did that voice come from? I was NOT expecting that!!

That's 2 great points you make there. I really think that the new generation is so used to autotuned/lame singing and are rarely exposed to real quality singing that they don't even recognize the truthful/legit/passion/emotional style of singing of, lets's say a Lea Salonga in "A Whole New World". I think that young people's vision of beauty is formed by what they are exposed to in their youth.
If you are never exposed to quality your standard gets lowererd too and you are more easily impressed by moderate quality.

I see this everywhere, from the reaction to youtube video's, to candidates in the voice with their delusion of what singing is, to the crap they listen to, to their surprised remarks of being impressed when they hear a soprano sing while her notes actually fail.

And your second point, yes, movie making is about make believe. I don't care if you need 3 people to create 1 perfect character. They have done it for years, why should ego suddenly get in the way? The only thing I want to see when Belle is sitting on that fountain singing about how amazing it is, is a girl, full of life, lost in her dreams, with soaring notes, full of nuances, building up, clarity and passion. Not some sack of potatoes chirping some straight, lifeless, spoken robotic note.

Especially with this material where it is all about the language of singing, sung thoughts, a non-literal language, make believe, audiences can overlook all sorts of things, as long as they work.

^ I absolutely love this, the promotional stuff the guys have done has made me excited about this film. I'm just still have problems with Emma cast as Belle as in my head its not working but I'm hoping to be proven wrong.
I cannot wait to see this.