Is It Just Me or are Disney’s Live-Action Remakes Looking Worse?

When Disney started making live-action remakes of some of their most popular animated films I was super excited about the idea. And at first, it seemed like a great idea but as the years have gone by and the films have come I’m beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t as good an idea as it sounded. The live-action remake of Cinderella turned out to be a mediocre film with 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.9 on Imdb. I tried to watch it about a year ago but when I saw Prince Charming (who was not charming at all by the way) I couldn’t go any further.

If you’re going to cast someone to play Prince Charming! he’s got to look a little bit better than this. Excuse me for my bluntness.

The Jungle Book was pretty good. I mean, I enjoyed it but I didn’t find it to be that incredible. The critics, however, say otherwise as they gave this movie a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. At the time, it truly seemed like Disney was doing a good thing by remaking their most loved animated classics.

So, I ended up not watching that movie. Then there was the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast which I actually happened to enjoy.

Surprisingly Beauty and the Beast ended up obtaining a dismal 71% on Rotten Tomatoes but its Imdb score is slightly better than Cinderella‘s with a 7.2 score. It, however, ended up making a little over $1.2 billion dollars, proving that it had still managed to wow many people around the world.

Since Beauty and the Beast, however, the live-action Disney films haven’t done as well. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms ended up obtaining a dismal 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Mary Poppins Returns received better reviews but still only garnered 78% on Rotten Tomatoes and a surprisingly dismal $306 million dollars as of today.

Now this year we’re getting three live-action Disney remakes and honestly, I’m not too excited for either of them.

While the teaser for Dumbo did look absolutely incredible when I saw it in the movie theaters last year I’m not jumping up and down to see it this March. It looks like it’ll turn out to be a mediocre Disney movie that’s simply rehashing the old story with nothing new or exciting added to the story other than real people other than animated characters. There’s nothing exciting about that.

Aladdin looks absolutely terrible. People are upset about this film for several reasons. Some people are immediately disliking Will Smith’s role as The Genie and I happen to be one of those individuals. Robin Williams did a PERFECT job playing The Genie and I honestly can’t see Will Smith doing a better performance at the role.

There are also those who think that Naomie Scott as Jasmine is whitewashing the character and after seeing the pictures I’m starting to kind of agree. Yes, Naomie Scott is a woman of color but does she truly resemble Jasmine from the animated film?

She’s close but just a little off. She, however, isn’t the worst thing about the upcoming live-action Aladdin remake.

And Jafar looks TERRIBLE! Oh my gosh, I am so furious. Disney, come on! If you’re going to make a live-action remake of an iconic animated film it has to feel somewhat similar.

The reason why Beauty and the Beast did so well at the box office was that it managed to capture a bit of the same magic from the animated movie and yet was able to still feel a bit fresh and new. This just feels like a complete annihilation of what is clearly one of the greatest Disney movies ever made.

And then The Lion King just isn’t screaming awesome to me. I saw the trailer, it was beautiful, but did it make me want to watch this film? No. It practically looks like a fancy carbon copy of the movie that came before, and frankly, I’ve already enjoyed The Lion King in the movie theaters when they brought it back in IMAX.

All in all, the idea of the Disney live-action remakes seemed brilliant at the time it was conceived but now that we’re seeing the results of that idea I’m not sure if I’m very excited about this concept anymore. Of course, there’s still the live-action Mulan to look forward to and hopefully, it’ll look better than all of these films combined.

How do you feel about the Disney live-action remakes? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a beautiful day.