emma watson

It looks like Vin Diesel has bested Dwayne Johnson in at least one arena, clocking in at number one on Forbes’ list of the highest-grossing actors of 2017 — and throwing a little more fuel on that Fast & Furious feud (say that five times fast). Thanks to The Fate of the Furious and xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Diesel edged out his Fast co-star / arch-nemesis, and with fewer 2017 releases under his belt.

When special effects do their job, they create an illusion so seamless we forget we’re looking at something that’s not really there. The Beast in Disney’s hit live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast is such an impressive work of motion-capture technology that it can be easy to overlook the amount of effort, energy, and looking incredibly stupid in a giant gray unitard required to turn Dan Stevens into a feral creature.

Are you a formerly handsome, monstrously cursed prince with lots of money, a huge castle, and in dire need of a beautiful woman to show you true love? Well this Belle figure from Hot Toys may not be real, but you look like a minotaur, so it’s about as good as you’re going to get.

To say that the first trailer for Beauty and the Beast was evocative of the 1991 animated classic would be an understatement; it was a live-action carbon copy, and if Disney’s remake of Cinderella was any indication, we were in for yet another tedious — if visually stunning, well-acted and beautifully-designed — exercise in nostalgia-based capitalism. But Bill Condon’s live-action update of Beauty and the Beast is more reimagining than remake, a lavish and lovely take on a familiar tale (as old as time, no doubt) that enriches its source material without betraying it, embellishing a cherished antique with modern ideas.

The tale as old as time (OK, that’s an exaggeration) is returning to theaters this spring with Disney’s new live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. With less than two months left to go until the studio’s latest reimagining (and guaranteed box-office hit) arrives, Disney has revealed when we’ll see the new — and final — trailer, and as an added bonus, they’ve thrown in some enchanted motion posters.

Emma Watson’s continuing media blitz in promotion of the upcoming Beauty and the Beast remake found her on the cover of the latest issue of Total Film (h/t E! Online), where she spoke about the moral underpinnings of the movie and her character Belle. In one quote in particular Watson declared that the film’s heroine Belle makes for a better role model than fellow Disney princess Cinderella.

With the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast officially one of the most anticipated movies of next year, and a trailer that looks just like the original cartoon (except with, you know, real people) we’ve all been dying to know what they sound like singing those iconic songs. I, for one, am most excited for Luke Evans to belt “Gaston” with as much gusto as the song allows for (a lot), but a ton of other classics will make their way into the picture, from the furniture and cutlery ensemble number “Be Our Guest” to the theme “Beauty and the Beast.” There’s been no official soundtrack release yet, but today we’ve gotten our first listen to Emma Watson’s Belle singing her part of the movie’s opening number.

The trailer for the handsomely-mounted live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast surfaced on Tuesday, and drew strong reactions across the board. Many were taken with the first look at the Emma Watson/Dan Stevens romance, allowing themselves to be flooded with the same swooning emotion that Disney’s animated film conjured back in 1991. Some were less impressed, expressing low-level terror at the unnatural-looking designs for Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and the rest of the anthropomorphized household object gang. But regardless of overall reception, one thing is for certain: The Guardian notes that an unprecedented crap-ton of people accessed the trailer on YouTube, making 2017’s Beauty and the Beast the most-viewed-in-a-24-hour-period trailer of all time.

While we continue to wait for a full trailer (ahem, Disney, let’s do this already) for Beauty and the Beast, Disney has released nine new high-res images from the upcoming live-action remake. The stills (which you can view in the gallery above) feature beautiful, detailed looks at Emma Watson’s Belle, Dan Stevens’ Beast, Luke Evans’ Gaston, and all those charming animated household helpers. And although Bill Condon’s film looks pretty faithful to the original animated version, Watson has revealed that they made at least one significant change to the story — Belle’s backstory, specifically.

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.

The wait for the full Beauty and the Beast trailer has reached agonizing levels, as Disney spent the last couple of months promoting the new 25th anniversary Blu-ray release of the classic animated film. Thankfully, we’ve gotten a few sneak peeks at the live-action redo via concept art, behind-the-scenes stills and a clip from a featurette on the aforementioned Blu-ray — and now we have a couple of new photos giving us our first look at Emma Watson’s Belle and Dan Stevens’ beast. But still no trailer. Sad trombone.

“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.