Beauty and the Beast is probably the most advertised and anticipated movie this year, and there’s no question why. The live-action film has gained over $174 million in the one week it’s been out. The real question is, is the movie that good? Absolutely.

It’s easy for live-action films to copy their animated version’s exact scenes, but Beauty and the Beast wanted to make the story their own with the help of the cast and crew. They added in extra scenes to give a more historical theme to match the tale as old as time. The historical addition gave the audience insight to Belle’s childhood and helped them to see why she lives with only her father. The backstory made the tale more understandable with side stories about other characters and their past experiences.

Other than the fact that we get to see the historic era this story is from, the 2017 film also made the movie more modern with small things like costumes and characters. The main cause to this change was lead actress Emma Watson. With her active work in the UN and feminine fights for equality, Watson knew better than to leave her values behind the minute she stepped onto set. There are a lot of expectations for princesses to look a certain way and behave a certain way, but Emma Watson is the real-life Belle. After hearing that the live-action Cinderella had their lead wear a tight corset, Watson refused to play the role of Belle if they forced her into wearing one. She claimed that real girls don’t look like that, and they shouldn’t. She was 100% herself for this role. She introduced a new Belle that some of us never saw before. I guess you could say there is something there that wasn’t there before.

If you’re not already sold on the fact that the new Beauty and the Beast is modern, here’s another major factor that in my opinion made the movie more lovable and admirable. One of the characters, Gaston’s right hand man Le Fou, is gay. This also unfortunately hurt the movie as homophobic audiences refused to watch the movie. I thought this was a terrible boycott because Le Fou was one of my favorite characters! Le Fou was one of the factors that made this 2017 rendition in with the times. After finding out that one of the characters was homosexual, it made me want to see the movie even more. Even though many people boycotted the movie for this reason, it also broke open the gates for new audiences as the new aspects of this rendition appealed to them. Characters are always a little difficult to change from their original form, but Le Fou was a marvelous change, and it didn’t change the movie drastically. It added freshness to the historical tale while keeping Le Fou’s personality the same. The fact that they managed to keep Le Fou’s character traits the same and change such a huge part of him is a major accomplishment for the writers of the movie because it’s such a difficult challenge to tackle.

Something that you will seriously be missing out on if you don’t catch this movie in theatres right now is the new music. This film took music from both the animated Disney version and the Broadway musical, making it the perfect blended symphony of childhood. Adding more songs into the movie weaved an entirely new story to it that made this love story even more lovable. The songs make up a vast amount of the movie, and adding just the right amount of music made it so perfect. New songs that you wouldn’t hear in the original animated Beauty and the Beast were “Aria,” “How Does a Moment Last Forever (music box),” “Days in the Sun,” and “Evermore.” Take it from me, these are not songs you want to miss. Even though they were not part of the original, it makes your heart skip a beat just as much as when you’re overcome with excitement over your favorite Disney song. The cast did a magnificent job of singing and telling the story of their characters. I guarantee you’ll leave the movie theatre singing one of the new songs. I still have “How Does a Moment Last Forever” stuck in my head.

I think it was necessary for there to be a new Beauty and the Beast, because when we were kids we never fully understood the story, and as teenagers we still didn’t understand it. When we were children, we thought it was just another love story, and as a teenager we assumed that Belle was a naive twenty-something cursed with Stockholm syndrome, but we were wrong both times. We can learn so much more from this story than we originally let on. Belle’s sacrifice for her father and her passion for books teaches us to not fear being different, being unique. Belle was never interested in the dreamy boy that everyone loved so much; she always had her values which makes her extremely intelligent. In my opinion, she is the first princess to have her head screwed on straight. Belle wasn’t made to be a Barbie doll sold in Toys ‘R’ Us; she was meant to be a role model, and I don’t think audiences were fully aware of that until this 2017 version came out. So don’t decide against seeing the movie because you already know how it ends, or you’re not looking forward to the changes because trust me, every second of the movie is worth it.