'Beauty And The Beast' First Images Are So Much Better Than We Could've Imagined

The live action 'Beauty and the Beast' movie is finally starting to feel real now that we've got a glimpse of all the characters in play. We can finally see the likes of Belle, Beast, Maurice, Gaston, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth and others in technicolour.

Emma Watson and Dan Stevenson star as Belle and The Beast respectively in Disney's Beauty And The Beast

The best thing about these new pics is that they've got Disney written all over them. Creators have gone out of their way to make 'Beauty and the Beast' look as much like the 1991 Academy Award winning animation as possible and it has definitely paid off. 

Emma Watson is Belle in Disney's Beauty And The Beast

Originally based on the fairytale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, the story sees a bookish young woman called Belle (Emma Watson) agree to be taken prisoner in a castle by Beast (Dan Stevens) to save her father Maurice (Kevin Kline) - and probably partly to get away from the unwanted affections of the arrogant Gaston (Luke Evans). 

Josh Gad and Luke Evans star as Gaston and Le Fou respectively in Disney's Beauty And The Beast

It's there she meets a series of enchanted household objects who take care of her - Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), Chip (Nathan Mack), Cogsworth (Ian McKellen) and Garderobe (Audra McDonald) - but little does she know why she's really there. The Beast is actually Prince Adam; a man cursed to live as a Beast forever unless he finds true love before his 21st birthday. But how can such a beauty love a such a beast?

Beauty And The Beast characters Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere and Plumette

Bill Condon ('Dreamgirls', 'Mr. Holmes') directs the movie, with Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky on the screenwriting team. The film also gives Emma Watson her first chance to show off her singing skills, something that can't have been anything short of daunting especially as she's never sang in public in her life. Unless you count that scene in 'Noah', of course, but we're hoping that lullaby wasn't her best performance.

Emma Watson plays Belle in Disney's Beauty And The Beast

All the classics from the original movie will be played out once again from 'Be Our Guest' to 'Gaston', and it's very much like 'Cinderella' and 'Maleficent' in the way that the colours and imagery has been translated so cleanly to live action cinema.

More: Watch the trailer for 'Beauty And The Beast'

'Beauty and the Beast' will arrive in the US on March 17th 2017.

Emma Watson and Dan Stevens star together in Beauty and the Beast