In 1994, Disney released The Jungle Book, a live-action remake of their 1967 classic starring Jason Scott Lee. Though it was liked as a fun adventure movie, it was criticized for not following the original story by Rudyard Kipling and the fact that the animals couldn't speak. Fast-forward to today and live-action remakes are not only coming out quite frequently, but they're also turning in a massive profit for Disney. Four have even made over a billion dollars at the box office.
However, financial success doesn't always mean critical or audience success. The live-action remakes have garnered a reputation comparable to Disney's straight-to-DVD sequels from the 1990s and 2000s, especially as each subsequent remake has felt more disconnected from the original film. Several of these films have felt rather soulless, either due to being shot-for-shot remakes of the original, fundamentally missing what made the original films so good, or other baffling decisions. For the sake of this list, we will also be including sequels to live-action remakes, as they are still counted under the umbrella term.
10 'Lady and the Tramp' (2019)
Directed by Charlie Bean
A man named Jim Dear (Thomas Mann) gives his wife, Darling (Kiersey Clemons), a Cocker Spaniel puppy for Christmas, whom they name Lady (Tessa Thompson). She grows up happy in their home, but things change when the couple prepare for their first child, causing them to neglect Lady. She then meets a stray dog named Tramp (Justin Theroux), and though they don't get along at first, they begin to warm to one another when Tramp helps Lady after she is muzzled by Jim Dear's dog-hating aunt, Clara (Yvette Nicole Brown).
Lady and the Tramp is a textbook example of a pointless live-action remake. The decision to keep the dogs as close to lifelike as possible means that we lose the fantastic expressions from the 1955 classic, and iconic moments like the spaghetti dinner now look ridiculous instead of romantic. On a technical level, the film doesn't even try to capture the original's dog-eye perspective, meaning audiences lose out on the sense of immersion from seeing the world closer to ground level.
9 'Dumbo' (2019)
Directed by Tim Burton
Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a World War One amputee, reunites with his children and returns to his old place of employment, the Medici Brothers' Circus, where he is re-hired as a caretaker for their pregnant elephant. She gives birth to a calf with oversize ears, which earns him the name Dumbo from a jeering audience. However, everyone changes their tune when they discover that Dumbo can use his ears to fly.
Aside from the circus aesthetic and featuring a flying elephant, Dumbo has nothing in common with the 1941 classic. Rather than focus on Dumbo himself, the film focuses on boring human characters and a villain played by Michael Keaton meant to evoke the image of both Walt Disney and P. T. Barnum so that it can have an action-packed climax in an amusement park. Farrier's two children are also lackluster replacements for Timothy Mouse and the Crows, due to flat performances that fail to capture the animal character's larger-than-life personalities. Finally, the film often feels like it's trying to lecture the audience about the unethical treatment of circus animals, which leads to a hollow ending where the circus gets rid of its animal acts and destroys the film's attempt to portray post-World War One America.
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Dumbo
- Release Date
- March 27, 2019
WHERE TO WATCH
8 'Peter Pan & Wendy' (2023)
Directed by David Lowery
Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) is unhappy about leaving for boarding school and proclaims that she never wants to grow up. This attracts the attention of the eternally young Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), who takes Wendy and her brothers, John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe), to the magical island of Neverland, where they can stay kids forever. Upon arriving, they are attacked and scattered by Captain Hook (Jude Law), a pirate who wants revenge on Peter for cutting off his hand, allowing Wendy to meet a native princess named Tiger Lily (Alyssa Wapanat?hk).
Peter Pan & Wendy feels like a film that is out of touch with its audience and the source material. It doesn't add anything to the Peter Pan story, and in some ways contradicts it, such as with its more selfish and aggressive depiction of Wendy, which is the opposite of her role as a kind matronly figure. Combine this with muted colors, a watered-down version of Tinker Belle (Yara Shahidi) who has gotten over her jealous streak, and lackluster action sequences, you're left with a rather boring film that makes you want to watch any other adaptation of J. M. Barrie's story.
7 'The Little Mermaid' (2023)
Directed by Rob Marshall
Ariel (Halle Bailey) is the youngest daughter of Triton (Javier Bardem), the sea king and ruler of all mermaids, who forbids his subjects from going to the surface world after humans killed his wife. Despite his law, Ariel is fascinated by the human world, and during one expedition to the surface, she rescues Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from drowning. Meanwhile, Triton's evil sister, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), watches Ariel, hoping to use her new infatuation with the prince to usurp control of the sea.
The best way to describe The Little Mermaid is muted. It plays the same iconic songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman while the CGI does its best to create a thriving underwater world, but the end result feels like a cheap imitation of the film that kicked off the Disney Renaissance. Speaking of the CGI, the decision to once again make the animal characters look realistic makes them terrifying instead of charming, and the CGI hair used for the underwater sections sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the gorgeous animation from the 1989 film.
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6 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' (2016)
Directed by James Bobin
Upon returning home from a merchant voyage, Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska) learns that her deceased father's company has been seized by her ex-fiancé, who hopes to claim Alice's ship. Alice then follows a butterfly into the magical world of Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) has been spiralling further into madness while trying to find his missing family. She visits Time (Sacha Baron Cohen), who refuses to help, so Alice takes it upon herself to travel back in time to save the Hatter's family and maybe prevent the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) from becoming a tyrant.
While the 2010 Alice in Wonderland is an important film in Disney's history for kickstarting the current trend of remakes, Alice Through the Looking Glass is an uninspired sequel that only exists because the original made over a billion dollars. The plot continues to take a road trip story where a young girl interacts with a world devoid of logic and tries to overly complicate it with time travel rules and family drama. Except for Cohen, the cast feels like they're doing this film out of obligation, resulting in lackluster performances, especially from Depp and Carter, whose characters both long overstay their welcome.
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Alice Through the Looking Glass
- Release Date
- May 25, 2016
WHERE TO WATCH
5 'Beauty and the Beast' (2017)
Directed by Bill Condon
Belle (Emma Watson) is a brilliant young woman who is shunned by her provincial French town and dreams of a life of adventure. She gets her wish when her father, Maurice (Kevin Kline), is imprisoned by a Beast (Dan Stevens) for attempting to steal a rose, prompting Belle to take his place. Though the two start on understandably rocky terms, they slowly begin to see the good in one another and fall in love. Unfortunately, local war hero Gaston (Luke Evans) also has his sights set on marrying Belle by any means necessary.
Beauty and the Beast is a bloated and boring affair, which is especially glaring given that the original was under ninety minutes long. Most of its new scenes, such as Belle inventing a washing machine or the Beast using a magic book to help Belle learn that her mother died of the plague, don't go anywhere and feel like they exist to justify the film's longer run time. When the film does focus on the plot, it's not much better, due in large part to Watson's stiff performance and the horrible pitch correction during her songs. As for the Beast, his design has none of the original's stellar expressions, and his tone more often than not feels dismissive or condescending to Belle, even when they're supposed to be falling in love.
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4 'Mulan' (2020)
Directed by Niki Caro
To fight off an invasion by warlord B?ri Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and his shapeshifting witch Xianniang (Gong Li), the Emperor of China (Jet Li) orders that one man from every household be conscripted into the army. Since he has no son to take his place, Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) is forced to enlist, though his injured leg from previous military service means he'll likely die. To save his life, his elder daughter, Hua Mulan (Yifei Liu), disguises herself as a man and takes his place.
Since China didn't like the original Mulan, Disney tried to adjust this remake by placing a stronger emphasis on Chinese culture and removing the film's musical numbers and comic relief. However, all this did was turn the film into a hollow experience that pissed off audiences around the world. Fans of the original film disliked this one for stripping away beloved characters and making Mulan a bland protagonist who wins thanks to being born with lots of qi, while China hated it for butchering their culture even worse than the animated version.
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Mulan
- Release Date
- September 4, 2020
WHERE TO WATCH
3 'Pinocchio' (2022)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
When a woodcarver named Geppetto (Tom Hanks) wishes on a star that his puppet, Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) could be a real boy, a Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) brings the puppet to life. SHe tells Pinocchio that, to become a real boy, he must prove himself brave, truthful, and selfless. She appoints a cricket named Jiminy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to be Pinocchio's conscience and help him make good choices, but despite his best efforts, Pinocchio gets roped up in a series of dangerous and shady situations.
One of Disney's worst films, Pinocchio trades away the original's groundbreaking hand-drawn animation for horrific CGI that makes the characters come across as demonic rather than charming. While the original was dark and often unfair at times, this one decides to go for a more juvenile tone through the addition of an annoying seagull and a scene where Pinocchio smells poo. Perhaps its worst sin is that it muddles its own message by refusing to let Pinocchio make bad decisions. Even the iconic scene where his nose grows from lying is botched, as this time he is lying so Jiminy can use his long nose to get the keys to a cage.
2 'The Lion King' (2019)
Directed by Jon Favreau
Simba (JD McCrary and Donald Glover) is a young lion cub born to Mufasa (James Earl Jones), king of the Pride Lands. Unfortunately, his uncle, Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor), covets the throne and manipulates Simba into going to the elephant graveyard, where he is almost killed by hyenas. Mufasa rescues Simba and his friend, Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), so Scar proposes an alliance with the hyenas, offering them hunting rights in the Pride Lands if they help him become king.
The Lion King might have made enough money to take the title of highest-grossing animated film, but it's also one of the least justifiable remakes. First, it's not even live-action: outside the opening sunrise, the entire film exists in a computer, and though the designs are impressive thanks to how lifelike they are, the decision to limit the character's facial animation kills the dramatic moments. Then there's the fact that it's a near shot-for-shot remake, which only serves to remind audiences of the 1994 masterpiece that still ranks among the most essential Disney films.
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1 'Mufasa: The Lion King' (2024)
Directed by Barry Jenkins
After losing his parents in a flood, Mufasa (Braelyn and Brielle Rankins and Aaron Pierre) is reduced by a lion prince named Taka (Theo Somolu and Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who helps Mufasa join his pride. The two grow up as brothers, but one day, they are attacked by white lions and Mufasa kills one. This earns him the wrath of the lion's father, Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), who slaughters the pride, forcing Mufasa and Taka to join up with a mandril named Rafiki (Kagiso Ledig and John Kani) on his way to the mystical land of Milele.
Mufasa: The Lion King perhaps best encapsulates the soulless nature of these live-action remakes due to its unnecessary and corporate-approved tone. The film feels the need to over-explain everything from The Lion King, from how Taka got the scar that he'd be named after to the creation of Pride Rock itself, which feels as if it was done to pander to nostalgia without adding much to the world at large. The narrative is also frequently interrupted by cuts to the present so the film can justify including Timone (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen). Finally, Mufasa's story doesn't reveal anything that couldn't have been inferred from either version of The Lion King, making the film feel pointless except to give Disney more money.
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