Disney Remake Marathon - Lady and the Tramp

With Disney+ launching in the US in 2019, they needed a film to showcase it, what better than… Lady and the Tramp?

Lady and the Tramp is the 4^th Disney remake of 2019 but because it’s on a streaming service it was made on a much lower budget, it had $60m to its name, less than ¼ of that of The Lion King. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but does have its drawbacks as we’ll get to.

The original falls into the same category in that it was made with a reasonably low animation budget, which shows in the finished product and has a few minor problematic moments. It was ripe for a remake, though I do understand why it was relegated to a streaming service, it’s not the most epic of films, it’s a fairly simple love story. There’s nothing wrong with that per-say, but I feel it’s not a story that needed an extra 30 minutes added on.

The film got a mixed reception, by this point par for the course, but we have little insight into viewing figures due to the nature of streaming.

The story of Lady and the Tramp is a cute story, but it isn’t one of my favourites.

Disney Remake Marathon - The Lion King

The third of the 4 remakes of 2019… I still can’t believe they released 4 of these things in 2019, was of Disney’s most popular animated movie, The Lion King. 

This really doesn’t qualify as a Live Action remake, nothing about this film is live action, it’s all computer generated. Apparently, filming began in a studio, why? Was it a recording booth… Wow, I’m making my feelings for this known early, aren’t I?

Jon Favreau is back as director, he directed the Jungle Book which is very similar, it’s also by far my favourite of the Disney remakes. Still, The Lion King is a Disney classic for a reason, so how do they remake it? Let’s take a look.

Disney Remake Marathon - Aladdin

We continue the slew of 2019 Disney Remakes with another 90s Classic, Aladdin. And directing this one we have Guy Ritchie, who’s mostly known for action comedies, this musical feels decidedly out of his wheel. Original trailers weren’t promising as the genie looked absolutely abysmal. I think the CG was unfinished which is a great way to have a trailer look, but a lot of money later, we got the final product. 

Critics were mixed on the quality of the overall product but unlike Dumbo before it, it made over $1bn at the box office.

The original Aladdin is among my favourite Disney movies, I’m a sucker for a coming of age story in general and despite the liar revealed story being a trope that I’m quickly souring on, the performance of Robin Williams as the genie and some really good musical numbers are enough to keep me near consistently entertained.

#79 Dumbo (Disney Remake Marathon)

OK, of all the films to give to Tim Burton, why this one?

I get giving Tim Burton another Disney remake, much as his Alice remake sucks, like a lot, it did make a lot of money for Disney and this was likely in production before Disney found out about the long-term damage it caused with the failure of Into the Looking Glass. But Tim Burton is more a visual director, he has a unique style and Dumbo, it’s a fairly simplistic tale.

But it’s not just Burton here, who did they get to write this? Ehren Kruger? OK, what’s his history?

Oh… Oh no!

The film had a quite substantial $170m budget, a decision Disney would live to regret as it made a $350m at the box office. With marketing costs factored in, the film needed a $500m win to break even, so the film lost money.

The animated Dumbo is perplexing and very much a production of its time, not just because of its unfortunate ethnic stereotypes. The film had a very low budget, partly attributed to the financial failure of Fantasia and partly to the war closing the European market, and it shows. Where the animators didn’t need to put in the detail, the detail isn’t there. That said, the main story focus is charming and it’s mostly harmless. How do they ruin that here, well let’s take a look.

Disney Remake Marathon - Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time

True as it can be

Barely even friends

Then somebody bends

Unexpectedly

Just a little change

Small to say the least

Both a little scared

Neither one prepared

Beauty and the Beast

Today’s Disney Live action remake is Beauty and the Beast, the first of the more modern Disney films to get the live action treatment. The original Disney Beauty and the Beast came out in the early 90s, this came out in 2017, only just over 20 years later, both versions are firmly remembered by people, even fondly so in some cases.   

In the director’s chair for this one is Bill Condon, who’d recently directed the Breaking Dawn Twilight movies. For balance I should also mention he directed Mr Holmes which I quite liked.

The film had quite a large budget, sources vary but it could well be as high as $250m, but the big investment paid off, with another $1bn hit. It seems as though no matter how much folks on the internet complain about remakes, they go out to see them anyway. We’ll see what happens when Mulan eventually makes it out to cinema [this joke was written before Mulan ended up becoming a Disney+ exclusive].

The film was successful critically but it’s been subject to some rather damning deconstruction post-release that this will be a part of.

The original Beauty and the Beast is a classic for a reason and it holds up rather well. The one song you remember from it is really good, the voice acting and the animation is at the high quality of Disney in the 90’s renaissance era.

Disney Remake Marathon - The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is clearly a favourite among Disney execs, despite them not owning exclusive rights to it. It got the animated treatment in 1967 and has had 3 live action films, one in 1994, another a mere 4 years later, and of course the big budget one in 2016.

Jon Favreau is at the Director’s helm for this one, he was the director of the first 2 Iron Man films so had some clout with Disney, not to mention experience handling special effects. He would later be one of the creators of the one bit of Disney Star Wars material that isn’t horribly divisive in the Mandalorian.

The film needed a sizeable budget to accommodate all the CG necessary for this production, and got $175m, the film made $966m at the box office and was well acclaimed by critics at the time of release.

The 1967 animated feature came after production budgets for animated features were slashed across the board, and this is very obvious in the film, a lot of animation is recycled and some of the faster-paced stuff looks like it has frames missing. It’s unfortunate as this one is somewhat reliant on cartoon slapstick, something that requires a fast pace. That said, the two songs you remember are just as entertaining, they have remembered how sound-effects work with the impacts feeling like they have impact now, the voice cast is on-point and the painted backdrops are beautiful to behold.

Disney Remake Marathon - Cinderella

Whilst Alice in Wonderland’s billion-dollar success got the ball rolling for live action Disney Remakes with big budgets and big actors, we wouldn’t see another one until 2014, with Maleficent, but I’m not covering Maleficent as part of this Marathon, as it doesn’t share its name with the original. Perhaps another time. With 2015 came of the remake of Cinderella, another adaptation of a book, maybe there’s a pattern here 

At the directors helm this time is Kenneth Branagh, who has certainly a mixed history with me. I liked his Murder on the Orient Express, was underwhelmed but not entirely displeased with Thor and then came Artemis Fowl… I don’t really need to say anymore, do I? Stay tuned for that review in 2021/2022.

The film didn’t have the budget of Tim Burton’s Alice, mostly because this shouldn’t need to create expansive worlds using special effects and made about $500m at the box office, a reasonable success for the house of mouse.

The original is another movie I’d describe as a 20-minute short stretched over 75 minutes. But with this it’s far easier to identify exactly what could’ve been cut. The cat and mouse chase scenes. Looney Tunes and MGM’s Tom and Jerry had cornered the market in this regard and their slapstick was lacklustre, missing the timing and sound of the true slapstick greats. But does the 2015 improve on this? Let’s take a look

Disney Remake Marathon - Alice in Wonderland

I’m not going to be doing another 4 horror films for Halloween, you want a horror show, you can just look at the latest news or your twitter feed for that. I will still be covering season 3 of Stranger Things and have a Halloween special but for the most part, I’m going to be doing something else.

Disney live action remakes have been a part of society since the 101 Dalmatians remake, but it was 2010 with the release of Alice in Wonderland where it was shown they could make big money, resulting in a slew of remakes and oh my god, Disney, make it stop.

I’m not gonna be covering the 101 Dalmatians remake at this time, but I will be covering all the Disney Live Action remakes of the 2010’s. Oh boy, this is gonna be a rough ride.

We start with… oh f*ck, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. OK, to Burton’s credit, he’s not a bad director. For all the problems I have with the Michael Keaton Batman run, it certainly captured the gothic look I’d expect of a gritty adaptation of the Dark Knight, Beetlejuice was weird but fun and I did like Mrs Peregrine’s home for Peculiar Children but oh man is he the wrong choice for this particular aesthetic.

Tim Burton’s style is dark and gritty. Wonderland is a place of magic, colour and madness, only one of those really appeals to Burton. As for the original, and I mean the Disney original, not the book… It’s fine, it’s not really my thing, I prefer a story with a bit more meat to it, but I understand why that isn’t the case here, unlike some people, which I’ll get to in a bit. It feels like a 20-minute short, stretched out to 75 minutes. And if that’s what I think of the original, imagine what I think of the nearly 2-hour long remake, let’s take a look.