Kyle Kingson (Alex Pettyfer), the son of a TV anchorman, rules his Manhattan prep school with an iron fist. Obsessed with his own good looks, Kyle has no qualms about calling other students "ugly". This angers Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), who is rumored to be a witch, so she places a curse on Kyle, which causes him to lose his hair. In addition, his body is covered in scars and tattoos. Kendra tells him that in order to reverse the curse, he must find true love in less than one year. Kyle's father (Peter Krause) exiles Kyle to a house outside of the city, where his only company is Zola (Lisa Gay Hamilton), the housekeeper, and Will (Neil Patrick Harris), a tutor who is blind. At first, Kyle isolates himself, but he soon begins to roam the city, finding himself drawn to Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), a classmate who had once been kind to him. When Lindy's family is in danger from criminals, Kyle has her come live with him. Is there any way that she could come to love this boy who is ugly on the outside and inside?

But, clever plot points don't mean that Beastly is perfect. No, it certainly has its share of scars. I was impressed with the way that the story hits the ground running and it doesn't take long for Kyle to be cursed. But, the remainder of the film, even with an 86-minute running time, drags in places. There are too many scenes of Kyle sitting around doing nothing. Yes, this drives the point home that he's isolated himself, but this also stagnates the movie. The acting is OK, as Pettyfer is able to make us hate him in the beginning, then bringing the proper amount of angst to the rest of the film. Vanessa Hudgens, who always looks like she needs a haircut, doesn't seem as inspired, which makes us wonder what Kyle sees in her. Neil Patrick Harris brings some much needed levity to the film, but he's not in it very much and thus, feels wasted.

Let's face it, Beastly is aimed squarely at teen crowds, and they should get a kick out of the movie. Other than some brief scenes of violence, I'm honestly not sure why this is PG-13. Again, I found myself nodding in approval at some of the plot points, but for a fairy tale, Beastly could use more magic.

Beastly must have been made through a grant from the black hoodie foundation on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 23 Mbps. The image is fairly sharp and clear, showing no defects from the source material. However, the image is somewhat grainy at times -- it's not awful, but for a new movie, it is surprising. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is fairly good, but not great for a Blu-ray Disc. Depth is acceptable. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. As with the grain, I was surprised by the relatively low bitrate here. Even during the party scene with loud music, the rate barely got above 3.0 Mbps. Otherwise, the track delivers good stereo effects, which help to illustrate things happening in the house. The aforementioned party scene and the scenes where Kyle rides his motorcycle offer good surround sound.

The Beastly Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. The "Alternate Ending" (10 minutes) is completely different and takes the story in a direction which is only hinted at in the finished film. I mean, the end end result is the same, but the way that it gets there is different. I think that I like this version better. The Disc contains three DELETED SCENES which run about 5 minutes. All three should have been called "extended scenes", as they simply give us more of three rather mundane moments from the finished film. "A Classic Tale Retold: The Story of Beastly" (10 minutes) contains comments from Writer/Director Daniel Barnz and the cast who discuss the story and the characters. There are also comments from author Alex Flinn. "Creating the Perfect Beast" (5 minutes) examines Tony Gardner's special effects makeup used to turn Kyle into Hunter, and the planning which went into the design of the makeup. The final extra is the MUSIC VIDEO for the song "Be Mine" by Kristina and the Dolls.