Following up on other successful live action adaptions of Disney animation classics like Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Alice In Wonderland, the upcoming Beauty And The Beast starring Emma Watson looks poised to be the most popular of them all. The teaser trailer for the movie, which comes out in March of 2017, amassed an astounding 91.8 million views in its first 24 hours, beating out 88 million views for Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the fastest viewed video ever on YouTube.
Those worried the new film may stray too far from its original source material should be comforted by the teaser, which is actually a shot for shot recreation of the original 1991 Beauty and the Beast animated teaser. YouTube user Studiorbit went ahead and put the old trailer and new trailer on top of each other so you could see just how faithful the whole thing is.
It’s clear that Disney is taking the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to their latest big remake, not a bad idea considering the beloved status of the original Beauty And The Beast. And their track record thus far with these live action adaptations is impressive, with most earning big bucks at the box office. We’re at a point now where not a week seems to go by where Disney doesn’t announce another one – Dumbo, Pinocchio, and The Little Mermaid are all in line to get the live action treatment as well. Even a Sword In The Stone adaptation is in development with Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman attached.
Disney seems to have figured out a winning formula for crowd-pleasing movies — re-imagining childhood favorites with popular actors of the day. It should be interesting to see what kind of star-studded lineup all these upcoming films produce. Beauty And The Beast certainly didn’t skimp on names. In addition to Harry Potter star Emma Watson, it’s also got Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, Ian McKellen, and Emma Thompson amongst others.
