The 2017 Greatest Couple in Fandom Tournament is in its 3rd Round. We’re down to 16 couples from our favorite movies, TV shows, and books. One of the contenders for the Greatest Couple title is Beauty and the Beast. The 1991 Disney movie was – and still is – one of the greatest adaptations of the French fairytale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Of course, Disney wasn’t the only studio to bring BatB to life. Below are just a few examples of other Beauty and the Beast film, book, and TV adaptations.
The Movies
The Beautician and the Beast (1997)
The Beautician and the Beast is a very loose adaptation of the original Beauty and the Beast fairytale. Fran Drescher plays Joy Miller, a beautician at a New York beauty school who is mistakenly employed as a tutor for the children of European dictator Boris Pochenko. The movie shares many similarities with The Nanny sitcom, particularly the love/hate relationship between Joy and Dictator Pochenko.
Ship Rating: 2/5 – An odd pairing that would’ve never worked in the real world.
Beastly (2011)
Beastly is the classic “nerdy girl gets the popular guy” kind of movie. Kyle has been made to look as “unattractive on the outside as he is on the inside” by the witch Kendra. He has a year to make Lindy fall in love with him or be stuck looking like a Beast forever. The movie was based on the book by Alex Flinn, but some elements were changed to make it better suited for the big screen.
Ship Rating: 3.5/5 – The relationship between Lindy and Kyle in the book is way more magical than what’s seen on the movie screen.
The TV Shows
The CW’s Beauty and the Beast (2012)
Beauty and the Beast was a CW police procedural series featuring Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan as the titular characters. Catherine Chandler, a homicide detective, teams up with Vincent Keller, a former Afghanistan veteran, who transforms into a Beast when he gets angry. The show had little in common with the original French fairytale, despite sharing the same name. It was on for four seasons before The CW canceled it in 2016.
Ship Rating: 0/5 – The Beauty and the Beast couple feel out of place even in their own TV series.
ABC’s Once Upon a Time (2011)
Once Upon a Time is an ABC fantasy drama that has taken fairytale characters from their fictional world and brought them to live in Storybrooke, Maine. The show has had many Disney favorites appear from Cinderella to Aladdin and, of course, Beauty and her Beast. Rumpelstiltskin takes the place of the Beast but surprisingly doesn’t want the curse on him to be broken. Belle sees the good in him and is always trying to save him from himself.
Ship Rating: 4.5/5 – WE WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!
The Books
Beast by Donna Jo Napoli
Beast is a unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast that takes place in Persia. Prince Orasmyn is cursed by a fairy during the Feast of Sacrifices and is turned into a beast. He travels far and wide searching for a woman that is capable of loving him, for only her love can break the curse. Napoli is one of the only authors that has managed to take a well-known story and make it new again.
Ship Rating: 4/5 – Finally, a book from the Beasts POV.
A Court of Thorns and Roses Series by Sarah J. Maas
The A Court of Thorns and Roses book series is the action-packed BatB retelling that we’ve been waiting for. Not only do we get to see how Feyre manages to save the Spring Court and all of Prythian, but also what happens after Happily Ever After. Maas keeps readers on their toes and truly captures Belle’s stubborn but compassionate spirit. Plus the surprise twist of Rhysand being the Beast (not Tamlin) goes to show that people should really never judge a book (or person) by its cover.
Ship Rating: 5/5 – Feyre is a Belle for a modern age, and her relationship with Rhysand is something all romantics long for.
Upcoming
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Disney is releasing a new live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame stars as Belle and Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey is the Beast. Belle must once again look past the Beast’s ugly exterior to see the beauty within before it’s too late.
Projected Ship Rating: 5/5 – We’re already in love with Watson and Stevens, and we haven’t even seen the movie yet!