The Disney Remakes Problem - Is Disney Selling Out?

[AGXStarseed]

An interesting video in my opinion that analyzes the current Disney trend of remaking their original animated properties into live-action movies (such as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and Pete's Dragon as well as their upcoming remakes such as Dumbo, Aladdin, Mulan and The Lion King).

The video also talks about whether or not this is a good thing - going into how the trend started and took off, what the Youtuber who made this video thinks of the remakes both current and upcoming and the pros and cons of this trend - such as how the live-action remakes may be providing a new experience of an old classic to generations young and old, but if it's also just plagiarizing the hard work of people who made the originals while possibly reinforcing the stereotype that 2D/3D animation is 'just for kids'.

Also, the bit with Mickey singing at the beginning is quite funny in my opinion.

What do you guys think?

 

[Judge]

The video also talks about whether or not this is a good thing - going into how the trend started and took off, what the Youtuber who made this video thinks of the remakes both current and upcoming and the pros and cons of this trend - such as how the live-action remakes may be providing a new experience of an old classic to generations young and old, but if it's also just plagiarizing the hard work of people who made the originals while possibly reinforcing the stereotype that 2D/3D animation is 'just for kids'.

Good capitalists exploit perceived demand. Great capitalists create it when and where it didn't exist.

It's all about money and has been since 1971 with the death of Roy Disney. Not the vision of his brother and founder, Walt Disney who died in 1966.

I'm just thrilled that most of my childhood happened while Walt was still alive, and very much in control of the company he founded. That's the image of Disney I will always think of first and foremost. Not the post-Disney trends in animation and film that seem to reflect mostly profit-making potential as opposed to artistic merit that is methodically delivered to shareholders first rather than their fans.

 

[Moomin]

I’m in two minds regarding remakes. I enjoyed the remakes of Pete’s Dragon and Beauty and the Beast because I either hadn’t seen the original or felt that it expanded on the storyline and characters quite nicely: Beast’s Evermore is my favorite song. But I didn’t feel wowed by the Alice in wonderland remake, jungle book was okay but I felt that the cgi made the movie, and Cinderella didn’t add anything. I’m apprehensive for The lion king. The cgi looks nice but I’m not happy with some of the casting choices (Seth Rogen as Pumbaa? No thanks!). As the lion king is one of my favorite Disney films, perhaps I’m biased but unless they really expand on the story or characters, like the broadway , I’m probably not going to see it.

 

[Fino]

I love Disney!!!

 

[Autistamatic]

I wouldn't be able to make the comparisons 'cos I've not seen many of the originals. I think I've seen about half a dozen and I saw all them as an adult. Disney is just a mega corporation these days, buying up competitors left right and centre. Now they own Fox they own the Alien franchise. Disney's Alien?!?!?!

 

[Bolletje]

I don’t like the remakes, I have so many good memories of the originals - which I still think are great - that I’ll probably just get annoyed and shake my fist at the screen while ranting about everything that was better about the original.

 

[Pats]

I like the really old stuff - That Darn Cat. The Gnome Mobile. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Shaggy Dog. The Ugly Dachshund and Pollyanna. I wish they would re-do some of these. But I do like the Disney cartoon movies better than the remakes, but I haven't seen any of the remake realistic versions.

 

[Tom]

The Lion King is my favorite modern Disney film. But I don't look forward to the remake really except in a minor way that it might generate some new products for my collection. I don't see how it can be bettered by live action. It might provide opportunity with people characterizations, but animals? It just seems the product of a fad.

I am also very upset with the all new casting of the Lion King also (except Mufasa - James Earl Jones). Nearly all of the original are still alive (all except Robert Guillaume - Rafiki and Madge Sinclair - Sarabi, I believe).

I don't know the rationale behind it but do they really think they can do better then Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick, Rowan Atkinson, Ernie Sabella, etc...

The original was a true blockbuster. The remake I think on shakey ground. I doubt a flop, per se, but expect a lukewarm response and box office performance.

If I am wrong I will shout 'Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba' outside at the top of my lungs.

 

[Pats]

Actually, it just seems like all the movie industries are just running out of ideas and using old ones.

 

[AGXStarseed]

The Lion King is my favorite modern Disney film. But I don't look forward to the remake really except in a minor way that it might generate some new products for my collection. I don't see how it can be bettered by live action. It might provide opportunity with people characterizations, but animals? It just seems the product of a fad.

I am also very upset with the all new casting of the Lion King also (except Mufasa - James Earl Jones). Nearly all of the original are still alive (all except Robert Guillaume - Rafiki and Madge Sinclair - Sarabi, I believe).

I don't know the rationale behind it but do they really think they can do better then Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick, Rowan Atkinson, Ernie Sabella, etc...

The original was a true blockbuster. The remake I think on shakey ground. I doubt a flop, per se, but expect a lukewarm response and box office performance.

If I am wrong I will shout 'Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba' outside at the top of my lungs.

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
Is that Swahili or Nyanja?

 

[AGXStarseed]

Actually, it just seems like all the movie industries are just running out of ideas and using old ones.

Sadly, as has been said on multiple occasions, an audience is more likely to react positively to something they're familiar with rather than something new; this is because what we're familiar with (be it Smurfs, Transformers, TMNT, Pokemon, Jem and the Holograms, etc.) has already won us over in the past and so we get a sense of nostalgia from it.
This is the case here (or at least one of the reasons why the remakes keep happening), as Disney is using our nostalgia for the original films to draw us back to the live-action remakes.

 

[tree]

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
Is that Swahili or Nyanja?

 

[Fino]

I just hope they keep making Winnie the Pooh movies forever.

Otherwise, I'd have to make my own, and that would just be me holding a stuffed Winnie and saying, "Oh, wow, here comes Winnie the Pooh, what's he gonna do, probly not much, we have no script," then I'd start singing the Winnie the Pooh song.

 

[Mr Allen]

To be honest I didn't rate the Beauty and the Beast remake, the original was a classic, not that there was anything particularly wrong with the remake, apart from I didn't really think Emma Watson was right for the part, she's not bad looking but she's no Belle IMO

Also, it pains me to say this but Disney are kind of persona non grata at the moment because of angry Star Wars geeks who are upset about The Last Jedi.

 

[Tom]

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
Is that Swahili or Nyanja?

Zulu. Translated: "Here comes a lion, Father”

 

[Adora]

I’m split about it,while I loved both the Beauty and the beast and Cinderella remake and I am interested in the Aladdin movie coming out next year I think Disney is going into overdrive with this,next year they are bringing out a number of remakes and they definitely seem to be trying to created some type of new cinematic universe with these movies,it is coming across as Disney is starting to lose their creativity and are now relying on nostalgia and past successes.

 

[sidd851]

coming across as Disney is starting to lose their creativity

It does seem that way, but I'm of the mind that audiences have changed.
I dearly love most of those Disney classics.

Have you had the opportunity to watch children of the same age as we, when we first saw these classics, watching them?
(I'm a dinosaur, probably not)

When I was a child, we would sit, enrapt at the all-encompassing and immersive experience created by these movies.
When one ended, it was sometimes a challenge for me, and other children, to "come back" to the real world.
The cinematic experience was that gripping.

Disney, for the longest time encorporated simultaneous levels of understanding in their cartoon movies, as well. They appealed to all, but were understood slightly differently by, different age groups.
Adults might understand a tongue-in-cheek reference to likely honeymoon activities, where 17, 13, 9, 5, and 2 yr olds would hear respectively exactly what their expectation and understanding was, appropriate to their age. Movie. Magic.

Children today seem incapable of the attentiveness necessary to watch a film plot develop. While "watching" these "slow developing" stories, they will often and repeatedly lose interest, often just playing near the screen, to look up only at a scream or a boom.
Heartwarming, endearing, touching, seems to have fallen out of vogue.
Story Telling seems to be a dying art.

I'm afraid that we are witnessing the passing of an age. An age to some degree limited, but also defined, by the technology available at the time.

Entertainment is now largely of the "smash and grab" variety. Wall to wall danger, betrayal, destruction, harm, speed, interspersed with the biggest explosions, the highest heights, the deepest depths, the "best", "hardest", and most unbelievable kills.

We live in a society of "junkies of extremism", it seems. If their minds aren't being thrashed with moment to moment thrills, surprises and twists, they aren't paying.
Ultimately, industry and audience together drive what is seen on the big screen.

I'm not so confident or comfortable in what that says about us as a society, or a civilization.

And that, it seems, is what has led, driven, and dragged Disney to where it is today.

It is possible to see the progression(digression) in film series' that span more than a decade.
The Terminator series.
The Star Wars series.
The Alien series.
(Wait! Disney owns that now?)
What 14-23yr old now has the patience to watch Alien, that lumbering, slow moving behemoth of a "sci-fi horror" flick.

I digress.

My most memorable cinematic experience was Fantasia, in the theatre, at age 2 1/2 -3.
It, as well as all those other old Disney Classics, probably shaped a great deal of who I am today.
I shudder to think what is currently shaping 2 1/2-3 yr olds.

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, Golly what a day.

sidd

 

[Pats]

It does seem that way, but I'm of the mind that audiences have changed.
I dearly love most of those Disney classics.

Have you had the opportunity to watch children of the same age as we, when we first saw these classics, watching them?
(I'm a dinosaur, probably not)

When I was a child, we would sit, enrapt at the all-encompassing and immersive experience created by these movies.
When one ended, it was sometimes a challenge for me, and other children, to "come back" to the real world.
The cinematic experience was that gripping.

Disney, for the longest time encorporated simultaneous levels of understanding in their cartoon movies, as well. They appealed to all, but were understood slightly differently by, different age groups.
Adults might understand a tongue-in-cheek reference to likely honeymoon activities, where 17, 13, 9, 5, and 2 yr olds would hear respectively exactly what their expectation and understanding was, appropriate to their age. Movie. Magic.

Children today seem incapable of the attentiveness necessary to watch a film plot develop. While "watching" these "slow developing" stories, they will often and repeatedly lose interest, often just playing near the screen, to look up only at a scream or a boom.
Heartwarming, endearing, touching, seems to have fallen out of vogue.
Story Telling seems to be a dying art.

I'm afraid that we are witnessing the passing of an age. An age to some degree limited, but also defined, by the technology available at the time.

Entertainment is now largely of the "smash and grab" variety. Wall to wall danger, betrayal, destruction, harm, speed, interspersed with the biggest explosions, the highest heights, the deepest depths, the "best", "hardest", and most unbelievable kills.

We live in a society of "junkies of extremism", it seems. If their minds aren't being thrashed with moment to moment thrills, surprises and twists, they aren't paying.
Ultimately, industry and audience together drive what is seen on the big screen.

I'm not so confident or comfortable in what that says about us as a society, or a civilization.

And that, it seems, is what has led, driven, and dragged Disney to where it is today.

It is possible to see the progression(digression) in film series' that span more than a decade.
The Terminator series.
The Star Wars series.
The Alien series.
(Wait! Disney owns that now?)
What 14-23yr old now has the patience to watch Alien, that lumbering, slow moving behemoth of a "sci-fi horror" flick.

I digress.

My most memorable cinematic experience was Fantasia, in the theatre, at age 2 1/2 -3.
It, as well as all those other old Disney Classics, probably shaped a great deal of who I am today.
I shudder to think what is currently shaping 2 1/2-3 yr olds.

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, Golly what a day.

sidd

You make some interesting points and you're right! I have gone back and watched some old favorite movies and laugh because they are so corny and the effects were horrible. A couple weeks ago I I had dinner with my son and his family and he put on an old movie - "Night of the Grizzly". They year it came out, it received awards and was the highest netting movie of the year. It was so stupid it was hilarious. If we tried to show that to the kids today they would wonder what's wrong with us. Even look how Mickey Mouse has changed over the years.
Kids today are amazing to watch. It makes me wonder if they are that much smarter than we were or if it's because they have more available to them than we did. I remember a photo of my granddaughter with her back toward her dad (she was a year old) and they were both holding a cell phone. I said to my daughter that it was so cute, it looked like she was actually playing a game on the phone. She WAS. I'd have to ask my 3 year old grandson which remote and how to use it - never mind, I just had him turn the tv on. lol (This is in response to the audience has changed - definitely they have.)
And I do like the way the Disney movies include subtle things for different age groups. And by doing that - young adults are just as excited when a new Disney movie comes out as the kids are.
Yes, it's all profit oriented, but they know how to do it. I watched Moana with my granddaughter and I laughed so hard through the entire movie. While it was created in a way that small children would love it, they added enough that adults will, too, on a different level.
(I liked Robin Hood, too.) The songs always help make those movies, and I've never been into musicals. lol
Anyhow - you brought up some interesting points.

 

[Mr Allen]

I’m split about it,while I loved both the Beauty and the beast and Cinderella remake and I am interested in the Aladdin movie coming out next year I think Disney is going into overdrive with this,next year they are bringing out a number of remakes and they definitely seem to be trying to created some type of new cinematic universe with these movies,it is coming across as Disney is starting to lose their creativity and are now relying on nostalgia and past successes.

And just like all those angry Star Wars geeks, fans of the original movies will complain hard about the remakes.

 

[Fino]

And just like all those angry Star Wars geeks, fans of the original movies will complain hard about the remakes.

A discovery I found interesting was that people complained just as much about some of the original movies, too! Basically, people loved the first one made then never stopped complaining afterwards!

Maybe the best thing would have been to make the first a bit more complainable?