Beauty and the Beast (2017) is the best live-action adaptation of an animated Disney film I have seen so far. The reason for this is simple: the music. Although the music in this movie is almost identical to the original animation, it was still amazing to watch it on the big screen with real people and real choreography.

It felt like I was watching an adaptation of a Broadway musical more than an animated Disney film because of how grand the musical sequences were. Along with the beloved songs of the original, the 2017 version also threw in original songs by the original composer, Alan Menken. The new songs were pretty good, but the remastered original songs were a lot more entertaining to watch and better performed.

Every song from the original movie, except for “When We’re Human Again” from the special edition DVD, was in the remake. My personal favorites were “Belle,” the opening song, and “Gaston” because of the amazing choreography and the fun interactions between the characters.

Unfortunately, because the movie devoted so much time to the musical sequences and added in new ones, some of the scenes in between songs went by too quickly and lacked some of the emotion the original had. There were some scenes where the shots went by so quickly that it was hard to take in what was happening. For example, the movie added in a scene where Belle is teaching a little girl how to read. Some villagers see this and shut her down immediately in fear of another woman growing up to be like Belle. This was supposed to be an important and emotional scene, but the shots moved by so fast that it was hard to follow and seemed very paint-by-numbers. Also, in the original animated movie, when Belle sees that her father is in danger, the beast takes time to respond, placing his hand on the rose and silently showing the audience how torn he is between letting Belle go or breaking the spell. In this version, he immediately tells Belle to “go to him” without as much as a pause in between. If you are someone who tends to nitpick at movies because of cinematography, scene transitions, and flaws in pacing, you might not enjoy this movie.

However, if you are a big fan of musicals and love the music in the original Beauty and the Beast, then this movie is definitely worth your time. For me, I was bothered by some of the more nitpicky flaws in the movie, but I thought the musical sequences and beautiful set designs redeemed those mistakes.

Kevin Kline, who played Maurice, did an amazing job as Belle’s father, and I actually liked Maurice in this one more than I did in the original. Disney included a backstory that was not in the original, and Kline performed the part with such sincerity that the audience could not help but feel bad for him when the village ridiculed him.

I also thought Josh Gad did a great job playing Lefou, although his character was also significantly different from the original. Lefou is less of a foolish sidekick in the remake and is more of a voice of reason for Gaston. His sense of humor is also drier and less slapstick in this version, and I personally don’t know if I like the original Lefou better or not.

The rest of the cast did a decent job as well, but none of their performances stood out as much as Kline and Gad’s did. Emma Watson portrayed the character of Belle well, but I can’t say I liked her more than the original. Dan Stevens did a good job as the beast, but nothing about his performance particularly stood out to me.

As far as vocalists go, my favorite singers in this movie were Ewan McGregor as Lumière and Audra McDonald as the wardrobe. McGregor as Lumiere was incredibly entertaining to watch in the “Be Our Guest” sequence, despite the visuals being mostly CGI. I thought McDonald had the best voice out of the entire cast, and I wish we could have heard more of her. Her voice was amazing and I got chills when she sang “Beauty and the Beast” at the very end. Emma Watson, despite playing the main character, was not the strongest vocalist. It was obvious to many that her voice was too auto-tuned to the point where it didn’t even sound like her when she sang. I, personally, was able to overlook it, but many critics were not. I do agree that Paige O’Hara, the original voice of Belle, was a much stronger vocalist.

If you are planning on seeing this movie, I strongly advise you go see it in theaters. Watching it on the big screen will make you feel like you are watching a broadway musical, and you would not get that same effect if you waited to watch it at home on DVD.