Vanessa Hudgen’s Beastly Gets Bumped Back a Year by Zac Efron (kind of)

The tale as old as time has been remade into Beastly, a modern version of Beauty and the Beast. After standing up his date, a shallow, obnoxious teen (Alex Pettyfer), is cursed to look like a hideous, well, beast, his worst fear. He’s banished to Brooklyn and ends up housing a drug addict’s daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), a 21st century take on Belle. Originally scheduled to debut next month, its new release date will be March 18, 2011. The reason for the push-back is a bump up? Hudgens’ High School Musical co-star, Zac Efron has Charlie St. Cloud now coming out on July 30, Beastly‘s original release date.

It should be interesting to see Hudgens attempt to break out of her teeny-bopper phase, although Beastly may not fall far from the high school tree. It is, after all, a remake of a children’s fairytale. On the other hand, its PG-13 rating for drug references and violence may mean we’ll see Hudgens in a sassier role than we have in the past.

Mary Kate Olsen plays the character who casts the appearance-changing curse in the film. Outside of paparazzi photos, we haven’t seen the Olsen twin since her 2008 appearance on Samantha Who, but the role of a creepy witch suits her current, dark fashion sense. Lately, her main characters are all drug addicts so this vampire-looking part won’t be much of a stretch from the norm.

Overall, the film looks a bit on the cheesy side. We all know the story by heart, including the ending. The actors seem like cliches for their roles. Plus, I didn’t even recognize the main character, Pettyfer, who has only played a couple large parts in his career. As a closet MK Olsen fan, I feel obligated to check it out, but due to the push-back, that won’t happen for another nine months.

What Do You Think? Discuss.