Does Emma Watson have the trunk of a Disney princess?
She looks like it, but not really the voice… In 2017, Première was disappointed with the live adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. A film to watch again this evening on M6.
In 1991, Belle’s voice was that of Paige O’Hara, a first-time film actress from Broadway selected for her singing talents. Because the beating heart of the animated film, as often in Disney, are its songs, over the topextravagant, which require chest and a good flexibility of the vocal cords.
Several generations of girls have broken their voices there. It is a profession, and even a talent, thatEmma Watson, despite all her qualities as an actress, does not practice, does not possess. If she does well in this live adaptation of the animated classic, she still makes Paige O’Hara regret a little.
Beauty and the Beast fails to overshadow its animated model
Comparison with “Something There” (“I did not know”), undoubtedly the biggest vocal challenge of the film.
Emma Watson:
Before Beauty and the Beast, Emma Watson was already the queen of the prom
Paige O’Hara:
Beauty and the Beast: the video of Dan Stevens without the special effects is worth the detour
The colossal commercial stakes of the film necessitate a star on the poster. But you can’t have all the talent and there’s no shame in having a vocal double – it’s not Russell Crowe (remember the Miserables) which would contradict us. That’s how the great musicals of Hollywood’s Golden Age worked. It’s not Audrey Hepburn who sings in My Fair Lady. It’s not Natalie Wood who sings in West Side Story. In both cases, it’s soprano Marni Nixon, who also practiced her voice at Disney – the opening credits of Cinderella in 1950 and the voice of Mulan’s grandmother in 1998.
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The reproach was made to La La Landin which the benefits of Ryan Gosling And Emma Stone will not remain in the annals of song (nor in those of dance), despite the pretty scratchiness of the second and the charming nonchalance of the first. Except that unlike the film by Bill Condon, the singing numbers of the multi-Oscar-winning film were adapted to the vocal abilities of the actors. In The beauty and the Beast, the songs pre-exist and it is the actors who have to measure up to them and live up to them. They’re not quite there.
For once it might be worth seeing The beauty and the Beast in VF. Belle’s French voice is indeed that of Emmylou Homs, who is far from being a star but also far from being a beginner in singing since she was the voice of Anna in Snow Queen – another good challenge for the vocal cords.
Josh Gad: ‘Beauty and the Beast is not just a live adaptation’
