Images from Oliver Ayala, Sassy, Farsroid1 on Wikimedia
Love them or loathe them, Disney’s live-action remakes are here to stay. Despite success in the box office, some of these CGI heavy reboots have lost all the magic. Here are the 5 worst offenders that made us long for the feeling that the originals provided.
5. The Little Mermaid (2023)
This film had a lot of potential, Halle Bailey made the perfect Ariel and her rendition of ‘part of your world’ was beautiful. Similarly, the casting of Melissa Mcarthy as Ursula was the right choice for a comedic villainous sea witch. However despite there being lots to be admired there was also lots to be disappointed about. Firstly, the CGI, I think the biggest thing that lets Disney’s remakes down is that as soon as you make our beloved childhood favourite characters look real they lose so much of the original magic. Flounder, Sebastian and Scuttle are no exception to this. Additionally, the film is too long – having added almost an hour to the run time of the original without adding any meaningful changes to the story. Overall, not the worst Disney has produced but certainly not their finest work either.
4. The Lady and the Tramp (2019)
Another example of a remake that lost all of its original spirit when transformed into CGI, is The Lady and The Tramp. The original 1955 film was based on a story written by Ward Greene for cosmopolitan. It was new and exciting and different from the fairytales that had come before. The magic came from the animation, the ability to make the two dogs so expressive and add all the emotion to their love story. This is completely lost when the CGI takes over and they are made to look so realistic. I think it makes the story harder to connect with when the characters have lost a lot of their expressions.
3. Pinocchio (2022)
Pinocchio (1940) was Disney’s second animated feature film. Today it is still regarded as one of the best ever made. The live action adaptation is possibly one of the worst. Similarly, to The Little Mermaid remake a combination of too many unnecessary additions to the plot and strange CGI creates an underwhelming combination. Characters like jiminy Cricket just ended up looking out of place next to the actors in the film.
2. Dumbo (2019)
The remake of Dumbo was Tim Burton’s second time directing a live action remake after Alice in Wonderland and I don’t think it was as successful. I think its biggest downfall was removing Dumbo’s ability to talk. I felt that it lost so much of the original emotion. Although I enjoy the remakes taking different approaches to a story i think it lost too much of the original storyline and did not develop Dumbo’s character enough to make it worthwhile and not even stand out actors like Danny De Vito could save it.
1. The Lion King (2019)
This is the most frustrating of all the Live action remakes. It is also the most successful, bringing in 185 million at the box office. It was almost a carbon copy of the original movie, with the same script and the same soundtrack and this is why I think it did so well. But this is what I find frustrating and misleading, it’s a good film but nowhere near the quality of the original. The CGI leaves Simba and the rest of the iconic film feeling emotionless and flat. Specifically, Simba’s reaction to his fathers death does not evoke the emotion that it did originally and felt incredibly disconnected.
Tune in to our podcast What’s Trending to hear the team’s take on old ad upcoming live-action remakes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qMS3W9n1OFA7nNDkqmN9x?si=f8cd129ff9ad4ff3
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