The Problem with Disney’s Live-Action Remakes

by Nicholas Lemieux

In the past few years, as Disney has continued to grow as a behemoth company, one of their most recent concepts has involved revisiting some of their older animated classics and giving them the live-action treatment. They first toyed with this concept in the 90’s with the 101 Dalmatians films starring Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil but it was during the 2010’s, after the surprise hit of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland remake that Disney fully started embracing this idea. Since then, Disney has been really running away with green lighting these movies, most of which have been met with generally positive reception from audiences and above all have been major hits at the box office, likely due to the brand recognition and good will stored built in already with these films (nostalgia’s a real money maker, huh?). This year alone, Disney plans to release no less than three remakes of some of their older films: Tim Burton’s Dumbo, Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, and Jon Favreau’s The Lion King. These films coupled, coupled with other ambitious projects such as Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, and Star Wars Episode IX, and of course Disney’s recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox, have all but guaranteed that 2019 will be the year Disney finally conquers the world and establish its dystopia. However, whilst audiences have before been relatively open to the idea of these remakes, in the past few months, it appears they have become increasingly cynical of Disney’s intentions, accusing them of capitalising on their nostalgia for their classic films and even potentially selling out by lazily recycling their older hits just to make a quick buck. This is probably best shown by the recent reception to the trailers for the upcoming Aladdin remake.

1992’s Aladdin is one of Disney’s most beloved movies, released at the height of the Disney Renaissance and, as demonstrated by the late Robin Williams’ iconic performance of the Genie, pushed the company into a new creative, comedic direction. The 2019 remake however has been met with nothing but controversy. Alongside accusations of whitewashing alongside reports of white extras being applied brown make-up to “blend in” with the filming, the previews we have seen for the film itself just feels extremely uninspired and soulless. A trailer in February, debuting esteemed YouTuber Will Smith as the Genie via motion capture and CGI, was wildly criticised in all its uncanny and creep glory .The justification the executives at Disney give for creating these remakes is to reinvent the stories of their original classics for the next generation; to allow children today to experience these stories for the first time, so that these characters can become a part of their childhood too. But if that’s the case, why don’t they just watch the original timeless films instead?

I don’t necessarily think the idea of remaking classic movies is an inherently bad idea so long as there’s a genuinely creative new way to present it to audiences. There have been some genuinely great remakes, such as last year’s A Star Is Born. Disney’s live-action remakes however are pretty much point for point recycled from their animated counterparts. Maybe they’ll address some plot holes from the original films and maybe they’ll cast lucrative celebrities to play the iconic characters, but these products just comes off as soulless, lacking the heart of their animated counterparts . In particular, the remake of The Lion King this summer is going to be entirely CGI. The teaser trailer for it last November was pretty much a shot for shot remake of the iconic “Circle of Life” scene from the original film, only perhaps slightly worse. The CGI, whilst impressive, just doesn’t entirely capture the breathtaking 2D animation of the original. The animals themselves have also been made to look deliberately more realistic even though, similar to Will Smith’s Genie, what works in a cartoon doesn’t typically translate very well to live action. The overall charm of the original Lion King just isn’t translating very well to its remake.

From the looks of things, Disney has still got a bucket load of remake ideas for the future: A remake of Mulan here, a remake of 101 Dalmatians (now a prequel about Cruella for some reason) there.  And why shouldn’t they? They’re very successful worldwide and they’re still popular in some regards. It’s just that I wish Disney, seeing as it clearly has the money, talent and influence available, would just put more creativity into these projects. Some of their live-action projects last year, such as Christopher Robin or Mary Poppins Returns, were actually sincere efforts to introduce these stories and characters to the next generation so maybe they should learn from that instead of using unnerving creepy CGI to make Will Smith look like a member of the Blue Man Group. Until then, strap yourself in folks. We’ve got a barrage of remakes to come...