‘Beauty and the Beast’ Film Updates: Legendary Composer Praises Emma Watson’s Performance as Belle; New Sneak Peak Video Released

‘Beauty and the Beast’ legendary composer Alan Menken praised lead actress Emma Watson for her performance as the female protagonist Belle. Meanwhile, a new sneak peak video released by Disney featured Watson and co-star Dan Stevens on a table read as they took on their new characters.

During an interview Entertainment Weekly, acclaimed composer and pianist Alan Menken expressed his praise for Emma Watson for her performance as the live-action version of the iconic Disney princess Belle. “She’s really good! I can’t picture anyone else, honestly. She’s Belle for me now entirely.”

The 67-year old American musical theater and film composer is best known for his work on the scores of several Walt Disney Animation Studios films such as ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Pocahontas’, and of course ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Menken earned numerous accolades throughout his storied career including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Grammy Awards, and a Tony Award.

Menken has returned to work on original scores and songs for Bill Condon’s upcoming live-action musical film. He confirmed during a previous interview that he wrote three new songs especially for the film. These include “Forever More” and “Days in the Sun”.

The composer was also all-praises for other members of the ensemble cast including Dan Stevens as the Beast, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen as Lumière and Cogsworth respectively, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as LeFou, and Kevin Kline as Maurice. He said, “The cast is just a dream cast, it’s ridiculous.”

Menken also expressed enthusiasm for his involvement in the new film saying, “It’s exciting. For me because I’m writing the new songs and scoring the new movie, it’s a lot of work.”

He continued, “It’s interesting and it’s challenging to come back to the same source material three times. And in this case I’m really taking my lead – I am bearer of the flame to a degree, but I want to be as good a team member with Bill Condon as I can be. So I’m really taking my lead from him as a director, and he’s doing a great job.”

Meanwhile, Disney recently released a teaser video featuring Watson and Stevens at a table read. According to the Independent, the brief footage showed the co-actors exchanging lines of dialogue as they took on their respective characters.

Condon himself was also seen in a clip saying, “I was so excited to hear that Disney was thinking about doing a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast... When something is so perfect, why get near it? The answer is technology has caught up to the ideas that were introduced in that movie.”

‘Beauty and the Beast’ is an upcoming live-action remake of the original fantasy musical film of the same name from 1991. It is directed by Bill Condon and written for the big screen by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky. It is produced under Mandeville Films and Walt Disney Pictures.

The film is scheduled to be released on March 17, 2017 in the United States.