Disney Remakes, Worth the Watch?
By: Jack Fenner
Lately, Disney has been on a roll when it comes to releasing live-action remakes. Even now, with Mulan releasing soon, Disney is not wanting to miss an opportunity to remake their animated classics. The originals have undeniably solidified their place in history as some of the greatest animated films of all time, but how do the remakes hold up?
The Lion King (2019)
Starting off, we have what is one of the most well-known movies across the world, The Lion King. With it being such a renowned movie, it only seemed right to give the original a live-action remake. Following the original plot closely, the movie looked like it was going in the right direction, but there was one fatal flaw with the live-action remake: the live-action CGI. The movie’s use of live action caused the animal kingdom of the Pride Lands to seem almost emotionless when compared to their originals. Its main problem was that the attempt at realism made it feel less “human” than its counterpart. Replicating the emotion that comes from an animated character into a realistic, CGI animal was a daunting task that this movie, unfortunately, couldn’t pull off.
Aladdin (2019)
With Aladdin, Disney created a shot for shot, word for word replica of the original. Aladdin did a great job recreating Agrabah in a visually stunning way, but its lack of differentiation from the original made it feel like a cash grab. If this movie were to have something that made it stand out from the original, then it would have been a huge success. Sadly, the absence of creativity lead to it becoming essentially the exact same movie that I had already seen multiple times.
The Jungle Book (2016)
Although The Jungle Book’s live action remake was released a few years ago, it is considered to be one of Disney's best. This movie did what The Lion King was unable to do when recreating an animal face in CGI, and it achieved this by giving us a human character that we were able to connect with while still looking just as good. The vastness of the rainforest also makes it feel real, which is exactly what the live action is meant to do. The Jungle Book surprised almost all Disney fans and proved that the remade movies could be as good as their originals.
Live action remakes have been proven to be Disney’s weak point over the last few years. While Disney has had success with some of its remakes (such as The Jungle Book), I believe that these classics should be left alone to the great memories they gave us when we watched them as children.