Honestly, walking into a theater in 2017 to watch Emma Watson and Dan Stevens take on a "tale as old as time" felt risky. We all remember the 1991 original. It was the first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. So, when Disney announced the Beauty and the Beast song movie 2017 version, the pressure wasn't just on the acting—it was on the music. Alan Menken was back, which was a relief. But Howard Ashman, his brilliant lyricist partner, had been gone for decades.
The music had to be the same. Yet it had to be different.
That is a weird tightrope to walk. If you change too much, fans riot. If you change nothing, why does the movie even exist? What we got was a sprawling, 129-minute musical event that tried to fill in the gaps of the original while adding three brand-new songs to the canon. Some people loved the depth. Others? They couldn't get past the heavy use of pitch-correction on Belle’s vocals. It’s a fascinating case study in how nostalgia clashes with modern production.
The vocal controversy that wouldn't go away
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Emma Watson’s voice. She isn’t Paige O’Hara. She knows it, we know it. When the first snippets of "Belle" and "Something There" leaked before the premiere, the internet went into a tailspin. People were dissecting the "autotune" like it was a forensic crime scene.
Technically, almost every modern movie musical uses pitch-correction. It's standard. But in the Beauty and the Beast song movie 2017, the processing felt... crisp. Maybe a bit too crisp for a 1700s French village. Critics like Keri Lumm argued that the lack of vibrato made the songs feel thin. On the flip side, supporters argued that Watson’s "natural" and "earthy" tone fit this more feminist, proactive version of Belle. She sounded like a girl who read books, not a Broadway star. It was a choice.
Then you had Luke Evans. That man was born to play Gaston. His background in West End musical theater (appearing in Miss Saigon and Rent) meant he didn't need the digital help. When he belts out "Gaston," it feels lived-in. It’s boisterous. It’s arguably the most "accurate" translation from animation to live-action in the whole film. He and Josh Gad (LeFou) had a chemistry that actually made the tavern sequence feel like a staged musical rather than a CGI mess.
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New additions to the 2017 tracklist
Alan Menken teamed up with Tim Rice to write three new songs. They had to. Without them, the movie wouldn't have been eligible for certain awards, and let's be real, Disney likes new royalties.
"Evermore" is the standout. Finally, the Beast got a power ballad. In the 1991 version, the Beast doesn't really sing alone after his transformation. He just... mopes? In the Beauty and the Beast song movie 2017, Dan Stevens gets this soaring, tragic moment atop a tower. It’s deeply operatic. Stevens used a very low, gravelly register to match his beastly CGI form, and it actually works. It adds a layer of "human" longing that the cartoon lacked.
Then there’s "How Does A Moment Last Forever." We hear it a few times, including a version by Celine Dion over the credits. It’s the "emotional glue" song. It addresses Belle’s father, Maurice, and the loss of her mother. It’s sweet, but does it stick in your head like "Be Our Guest"? Probably not.
"Days in the Sun" replaced "Human Again" (which was in the Broadway show but not the original film). It’s a melancholic piece where the enchanted objects remember their lives as humans. It’s beautiful, though some fans found it slowed the pacing down right when the movie needed to pick up speed.
The "Be Our Guest" spectacle and CGI hurdles
Visualizing a singing candelabra and a clock is hard. Ewan McGregor, who voiced Lumière, famously struggled with the French accent, eventually landing on something more "Moulin Rouge" than Maurice Chevalier.
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The Beauty and the Beast song movie 2017 version of "Be Our Guest" is a maximalist fever dream. It’s basically Fantasia on steroids. Director Bill Condon told Empire that the sequence was the most complex thing he’d ever directed. Because the actors weren't "there"—it was all digital—Emma Watson had to stare at a bunch of nothing while plates flew past her head.
Does it work? Mostly. But some purists feel the "uncanny valley" of the CGI characters makes the songs feel less warm. In the 1991 film, the hand-drawn expressions were elastic. In 2017, Cogsworth looks like a very expensive, very stiff antique. The music has to work twice as hard to convince us there’s a soul inside the brass.
Why the title track "Beauty and the Beast" changed its vibe
When Emma Thompson took over the titular song from Angela Lansbury, she had an impossible task. Lansbury’s recording was done in one take. One. It is legendary.
Thompson chose to perform it as a cozy, comforting mother figure. It’s less of a "performance" and more of a story being told to the rhythm of a waltz. It’s shorter than the original, too. The focus shifted heavily to the visual of the yellow dress—which, fun fact, used 3,000 feet of thread and 2,160 Swarovski crystals.
The pop cover for the 2017 film featured Ariana Grande and John Legend. It was a slick, modern R&B-infused take. It didn't quite capture the cultural zeitgeist the way the Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson version did in the 90s, but it performed well on the charts, hitting the Billboard Hot 100 and racking up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. It served its purpose: making the story feel relevant to a generation that didn't grow up with VHS tapes.
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Impact on the Disney Live-Action era
This movie was a juggernaut. It made over $1.2 billion. Whether people complained about the singing or not, they showed up. It proved that the "musical" aspect of these remakes was the primary draw.
The Beauty and the Beast song movie 2017 showed Disney that they didn't need to reinvent the wheel. They just needed to polish it. It paved the way for the Aladdin and The Little Mermaid remakes, which followed the same blueprint:
- Keep the iconic hits.
- Add a "soaring" new ballad for the lead.
- Cast a mix of Broadway vets and A-list movie stars.
Making the most of the music today
If you’re looking to revisit the soundtrack, don't just stick to the movie version. The "Deluxe Edition" of the soundtrack is where the real gems are.
- Listen to the demos: Hearing Alan Menken play "Evermore" on a piano gives you a much better appreciation for the composition before the CGI and orchestra took over.
- Compare the Josh Groban version: Groban recorded "Evermore" for the credits, and his vocal range provides a much more traditional "theatrical" experience than the film version.
- Watch the "making of" featurettes: There is some incredible footage of the orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. Seeing 70+ musicians bring "The Mob Song" to life is a reminder of the scale of this production.
The reality is that the 2017 film was never going to replace the 1991 original. It was never meant to. It functions as an expansion pack. It’s a more literal, more "explained" version of the story. If you want the magic of hand-drawn art, you go to the 90s. If you want a lush, symphonic, and modern take on the characters' backstories, you go to the 2017 soundtrack.
To get the best experience, listen to the songs in high-fidelity audio (FLAC or Tidal) rather than just through a phone speaker. The orchestral layers Menken added are incredibly dense, and you lose about 40% of the detail in standard compressed streaming. Pay attention to the woodwinds in "Belle"—there are some really clever nods to French baroque music that usually get drowned out by the dialogue.
Next Steps for Fans
- Check out the Broadway Cast Recording if you want to hear how "Home" and "If I Can't Love Her" compare to the 2017 additions.
- Search for the unreleased lyric versions of "Gaston" to see the lines Howard Ashman originally wrote that were considered "too edgy" for 1991 but finally made it into the 2017 film.
- Watch the 2022 30th Anniversary Special on Disney+ to see H.E.R. and Josh Groban perform these songs live, bridging the gap between the animated and live-action styles.