It’s been very interesting to watch the recent controversy erupt around the new live-action Mulan film. With all of the calls to boycott the new film, I’m thinking that now might be a good time to share my thoughts on the push from Disney to produce live-action remakes of their classic animated films and the reasons why I have chosen not to watch them.
I should start off by saying that I am a big fan of Disney animated films with my DVD/Blu-Ray collection proudly containing over 50 of their movies. I and many others consider many of them to be amongst the greatest animated films of all time and I believe that the majority of these films take full advantage of the medium to tell unique stories in stylistic ways that would (at least theoretically) not be possible in a live-action setting.
While Disney had released several live-action film adaptations of their classic animated films before 2014 (a 1994 remake of the Jungle Book, 101 and 102 Dalmatians and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland), I would consider the Disney live-action push to have begun in 2014 with the release of Maleficent, a remake of Sleeping Beauty. Since then, we have seen more and more of these films every year with 2019 alone seeing 5 of these films released.
The answer as to why Disney continue to release these films is very simple. These films have proven exceptionally profitable with many of these films exceeding $1 billion at the box office. While they have not been without their misfires, Disney have an enormous lineup of future live-action remakes and it seems unlikely that they will stop production of these films any time soon.
Between Aladdin and The Lion King, Disney grossed over $2.7 billion in 2019 alone.
Now, let’s return to the main topic of this article. As a proponent of the wonders of animation, I have always been disappointed at how many people write-off animation as inferior to live-action. As far as I’m concerned, this could not be further from the truth with animation capable of creating worlds and characters that would be near impossible in live-action.
A great example of this is the recent Lion King movie which, depending on who you ask, is either the highest grossing animated film of all time or simply the seventh highest grossing film of all time. Disney refuse to call the film animated, referring to it instead as a live-action film (despite only 1 shot in the film being of a real location). Nonetheless, a common complaint about the film is how expressionless many of the characters are in contrast to the original film. By trying to portray the cast of The Lion King realistically, Disney drained the film of the emotional charge that was present in the 2D animated original.
With regards to the live-action Mulan film, I spoke with a friend who has seen the film and she mentioned how the film no longer has Mushu or the cricket. While I was a little surprised at this information, I knew that if Disney had tried to retain these two characters for the live-action film, they would not have been able to match the character design and animation quality of the original. Nonetheless, their exclusion is disappointing and reaffirms my thoughts on Disney’s overall strategy.
In conclusion, I have no intention to watch the Disney live-action remakes in the near future (I was tempted to simply say future but never say never) since I believe that many of these films are inferior to the animated originals. I would even go so far as to say that they are actively harmful to the medium of animation and I hope that general audiences will continue to appreciate the original films and to not place the live-action films on a pedestal simply because of the medium. Let me know your thoughts on this topic, if you have seen any of these films and how you thought they compared to the animated versions.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!