Disney fans awoke on a Monday morning to a very pleasant surprise, the first official trailer to the upcoming film Beauty and the Beast. The film will be a live-action rendition of the 1991 Walt Disney Animated classic that won 3 Oscars and claiming the title of the first animated film to win Best Picture. The music and the story of the animated classic have a special place in our heart and as the trailer open with a simple piano and the classic melody from the prologue to the 1991 film, it just gives us the chills! This is really happening and it’s closer than it was yesterday.

The film, which doesn’t release for another year on March 17, 2017, is set to star Emma Watson as Belle. Watson is famous for her part in the Harry Potter films as Hermione Granger and seeing her in something new is refreshing. She’s the perfect fit for the character and is joined by Dan Stevens as the Beast and Luke Evans as Gaston. We can’t wait to see Evans as Gaston, but have some concern about some of the other casting choices. In this very short trailer, we hear two voices recite lines that if you’ve seen the animated film, you know very well. The voices belong to Cogsworth and Lumiere, who are being played by Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor respectively. McKellen’s voice fits and we have no complaints (even if we can hear a bit of Gandolf in his voice), but we have concerns about McGregor’s very fake accent. It sounds off and kind of throws you off the warm fuzzies your feeling about the trailer, until the piano music begins to play the classic “Beauty and the Beast” song.

[quiz]

Of course, it’s way too early to really make any judgments. The film doesn’t release until next year and that is a long year away. Of course, fans who grew up watching the film are going to be skeptical. This is their classic, comfort movie that is being messed with here. We can only hope that Disney follows in the footsteps of it’s live-action Cinderella and The Jungle Book, both of which were very successful and took a classic animated tale and made it something new and beautiful. The difference with Beauty and the Beast is the fact that it is slated to be a musical, which the other two were definitely not set as musicals. So until we see more, let’s keep our opinions up in the air.

Meanwhile, here’s the trailer you’ve been waiting to see below.

Photo Credit: Walt Disney Studios