The film Beastly, just released in theaters this past weekend, takes a new twist on an old story that many are familiar with. The story line was based off of the classic Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.

Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is a superficial, popular icon at his high school who is currently running for class president. He uses his good looks and wealth to win the election over. While the election goes on, Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen) plays the role of a spiritual “witch” at the high school who casts the spell of turning his looks from hot to hideous. She does this to aloow his ugly personality to be seen on the outside. She also explains that he has a year to find someone to love him for who is and not what he looks like to get his old looks back.

The movie goes through his year of feeling doomed and locking himself inside an excluded home with only his maid and blind tutor to keep him company. Then later he becomes fascinated with a girl named Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) who is need of his protection due to her dealing father. As in the classic, Lindy is forced to stay in Kyle’s custody until she is safe.

Also, a similarity in this film is that it brought back various Disney actors including Hudgens and Olsen. They both use to be quite popular in the Disney world and now they are both back on the big screen from a time of little to no work.

The romantic and comedic performance explores the idea of whether if love does see past looks and money to a deeper meaning. The film suggests that true beauty is beyond what is sometimes seen as beastly.

The movie was funny and did not drag on, although at some points it became cheesy. It is a great movie to see with a boyfriend or girlfriend for a date. The attempt of giving an old story, a modern twist, was successful. Beastly was an overall good movie with good graphics for the beast himself.