Pros

Along with the wondrous works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the creations of Walt Disney and his animation empire have conquered the test of time and have shaped millions of childhoods.  Disney has crafted some of the greatest animated films of all time, boasting an impressive canon consisting of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Pinocchio”, “Fantasia”, “Cinderella”, “The Jungle Book”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “The Lion King”, just to name a few.  Over the years, Disney has grown into a Hollywood powerhouse, acquiring the film rights of Marvel and Star Wars.  Disney has yet another asset that displays its dominance in the entertainment industry: live-action remakes of their classic animated films.  While these live-action remakes may lack the nostalgic value of their original source materials, they are still bringing new and fresh ideas to their animated counterparts and introducing some of their best films to an entirely new generation.  

“Alice in Wonderland” fell down the rabbit hole into theaters in 2010. It was Disney’s first mainstream live-action film based on one of their cartoons.  Directed by the imaginative Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as the whimsical Mad Hatter, it served as more of a “re-imagining” of the 1951 animated film, than a remake.  However, while the film received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences, it was seen as a different and unique take on one of classic literature’s most famous novels.  That is probably the main reason why the film grossed over a billion dollars in theaters.  

Following an origin story of the character Maleficent from “Sleeping Beauty” and a remake of “Cinderella”, Disney released a remake of “The Jungle Book”, which was hailed as a visionary breakthrough due to its extraordinary usage of computer-generated imagery (CGI).  Unlike the 1967 animated film that inspired it, the remake borrowed much more material from the original Rudyard Kipling short stories, portraying events and alluding to ideas that were omitted in the cartoon.  Some critics even argued that the characters’ characterizations were stronger and further developed than those in the original, and that the remake was enhanced with a more compelling and focused plot.

Due to the successes of these live-action remakes, Disney is going full throttle and will continue to produce more.  “Beauty and the Beast”, starring Emma Watson as Belle, is scheduled to be released on Mar. 17, 2017, and Mulan will make a man out of herself again on Nov. 2, 2018.  Many others, such as “Aladdin”, “Dumbo”, “Pinocchio”, “Peter Pan”,  and “The Sword in the Stone” are also in the works.  

Perhaps the most anticipated among Disney’s lineup is the remake of “The Lion King”.  Based on Shakespeare’s acclaimed tragedy “Hamlet”, albeit extremely loosely, the film tells the story of a young lion prince named Simba who struggles to find his place in the Circle of Life by avenging his murdered father Mufasa and becoming the rightful heir to the royal throne of Pride Rock.  Unadjusted for inflation, it is also the highest-grossing hand drawn animated film of all time, raking in $968 million from its initial theatrical run and several re-releases.  The upcoming film will employ the same groundbreaking CGI techniques seen in the remake of “The Jungle Book”, and it will feature new renditions of Elton John’s and Tim Rice’s iconic catchy songs.  Disney has yet to determine a release date, but fans of the movie are already split on whether remaking such a beloved film is a wise decision or not.  

Disney fans can be found anywhere, even at CHS.  Junior Katie Stanford is a diehard fan of all Disney movies, especially “The Lion King”.  Some of Stanford’s fondest childhood memories include her watching the jaw-droppingly majestic “Circle of Life” opening sequence, and she has faith in the remake that it will do the original justice.

“It’s such a good idea to remake ‘The Lion King’ because, I mean, it was so popular and it even got turned into a super famous broadway musical,” Stanford said.  “It’s such an intricate and well–developed story and so far Disney has been pretty successful with their remakes so I have no doubt that this one will be the same.”

Although Disney’s live-action remakes do not have the same vintage and classic touch that their animated films possess, they are beneficial to Disney and the moviegoing public.  Years from now, the children of this generation will view both the original films and their remakes as symbols of their nostalgic childhoods.  By releasing these live-action remakes, Disney fans can compare them to their animated counterparts.  Essentially, that is one of the aspects that composes the beauty of film as an art form.  From a specific point of view, yes, Disney releasing live-action remakes could be seen as just a corporate practice of greedy cash grabbing.  In reality though, Disney is just expanding upon some of their greatest films and exploring more of what they could do with them.  Films go through development, undergo production, and are eventually released, but the ideas that inspire them never truly die.  

Cons

Walt Disney forever changed the world with the characters he brought to life, and the light these characters brought with them. The impact of Disney is felt globally,  millions of lives have been affected by the heart-warming plots and character interactions that have been presented on the screen over the years. Few are immune to the infectious sappy feelings and smiles caused by Disney cinematic films. Although Disney has this sort of immortality in the cinematic world, shows its weakness through making a large and excessive amount of remakes of older animated films into different, live action versions. This displays how Disney is at a loss for ideas and how this deficiency alters the younger generation’s perception of these age-old classics.

Although it is grudgingly admitted, Disney has never been incredibly original in their ideas, at least not in terms of most of their big-time films. Even as the creative flow in Disney juice revolves around the molding of the plot, rather than the creation of the plot, this is not the issue; it is Disney’s decline into even less originality as of late by remaking numerous previous Disney films. Disney currently has sixteen to eighteen confirmed live action remakes for the future. Disney started this new era of remaking films with “Alice in Wonderland”(2010) and continued on with “Cinderella”(2015) and “Jungle Book”(2016). These few mark the beginning of Disney’s next string of live action remakes, ranging from Dumbo to Sword in the Stone. Originally the remaking of animated classics into newly envisioned, live action films was anticipated, but as the declaration of more and more was announced, one began to question whether or not Disney merely wanted to relive the old days, or was simply running low, yet again, on original ideas for movies. Granted, movies such as “Maleficent”(2014) that put a twist on characters such as the villain are unique in adding to the flavor of the tale rather than changing and taking away from it. Many of these to-be remakes come from the famed Renaissance period of Disney movies, such as the “Lion King”(1994) and “Aladdin”(1992) that are also to be remade. Not to be misunderstood, you can bet that yours truly is excited to see Belle(Emma Watson) in “Beauty and the Beast”(2017) and CGI Mushu in “Mulan”(2018), but how much is too much? Although all of these reincarnations of past memories may seem like a “dream come true,” to what extent must they continually reproduce these trademarks of this generation’s childhood until they can come up with new ideas?

Trademarks of childhood indeed, consisting of anyone that grew up watching all of these Disney movies before they had even considered digging up their blessed remains to be disfigured into a story that is barely comparable. Yes, these are more harsh accusations but this is pointing at the 2016 remake of “Pete’s Dragon”. The remake of “Pete’s Dragon”(1977) was a good movie, pity there was little resemblance in to the original, save for the very base skeleton of it. The issue that lies herein is that younger generations do not know the difference because few to none ever saw the obscure originals. This relates to all of the remakes to come, as much as creative twists on the old tales are appreciated, this alters the younger generations original perception of the film and they are then unable to value its significance, contorting their view of many classics.

“It is excessive to be remaking all of these movies, you shouldn’t mess with grandma’s pie,” senior Arianna Barreras said. “You know how there is the original, and the original is really good? You have to enjoy the original, and then you remake something, why mess with perfection, that’s what grandma’s pie is.”

Altogether, hakuna matata. Though bristled by Disney’s excessive plan of reproduction of older classics, you can bet that theaters playing all of these remakes will be as full as any other Disney movie ever is. Of course there is nothing to be done on the matter anyways, being as Disney will “just keep swimming” with this until the audience fervor for this new film style declines. Nonetheless, the Dumbo in the room had to be addressed and the public had to be alerted, at the very least, of Disney’s recent increase in lack of creativity; drawing them to remake an excessive quantity of older films, along with the looming, altering influence over generations to come.