Absolutely brilliant

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Die Schöne und das Biest" or "Beauty and the Beast" is a German small screen movie from 2012 and the title already gives away that it is an adaptation of the famous Disney animated movie. They made many many German television films on known fairy tales in recent years and this is just one of them. But while I love several of the others (the Brothers Grimm stuff for example), this one here had major flaws. One is that it runs for 1.5 hours and not one hour as they frequently do and there is definitely a problem with focus. The movie had some lengths I can't deny it and this is most disappointing looking at how many writers worked on it. The director is Marc-Andreas Bochert, a filmmaker who was nominated for an Oscar in the short film category. But his transition to full feature films is not working really, but I am not sure if he is the one to blame. First of all, I felt Cornelia Gröschel brought absolutely none of the charm and beauty that Belle brings in the animated film. About the beast, I was also not too happy about the looks, make-up and also the voice work by Maximilian Simonischek. The beast in this film never really makes the dangerous impression that it should, but just comes off as an uneducated brute at times. Add to that that the approach to the supporting characters in the Beast's house was underwhelming to say the least. Yes there is nothing wrong with creative freedom and changes resulting from that, especially as otherwise it could just turn into a lukewarm copy, but (yes there is a major BUT) the path they took here did not work for me at all, even if that's just subjective. "Beauty and the Beast" has been in talk recently again because of the new movie starring Emma Watson and I truly hope that one turned out better than the one we have here. It was certainly a missed opportunity and I do not recommend the watch. Pity.

Even if you live far away from the German-speaking regions I can only recommend you do everything to find a way of seeing this wonderful version of the Beauty and the Beast legend/myth. It has everything, most of all magic and romance yet with protagonists you can believe in, including the charismatic Beast - Maximilian Simonischek, and the lovely, yet down-to-earth Cornelia Gröschel. The setting is a mostly ruined castle in Austria, and is presented in pictures that impress the imagination so deeply that you can imagine no other version; there is also an emotional, evocative musical score to underline the heart-rending course of events. Maybe if you write to ZDF 2nd German Television you might be able to get a copy. Don't worry about the German, it'll go straight to your heart - we all know the story. You may miss some of the humour,but you will emote with the dramatic development of the characters, the tears, the suspense and the joy.