In recent years, companies like Disney have been recreating our old favorite classics into live-action adaptations. Initially, everyone loved them. They gave people a chance to relive their childhood all over again, and they brought the magic into adulthood. However, are they still doing so? Are the newest live-action movies still giving us butterflies – are they all living up to their hype? We have collected together a few of them and decided whether or not they really were worth all the hype that came with them.
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Initially, the idea of Tim Burton getting his hands on Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was all anyone could talk about. It would have seemed to be a match made in heaven, but sadly, this wasn’t necessarily the case. Burton transformed the beloved Alice, who ventured innocently down a rabbit hole, into a real-life Joan of Arc. His live-action remake seemed to remove any amount of fun that was in the original and replaced it with melancholy and despair. To be fair, the stars who portrayed the iconic characters did a pretty good job at working with what they had – especially Johnny Depp, who took the role of the Mad Hatter to a whole other level. Sadly, it would seem that aside from the casting, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was probably best left alone and never adapted in the first place.
The Jungle Book (2016)
Of all the Disney remakes, ‘The Jungle Book’ was arguably the best one to date. It has allowed for a younger audience to be captivated by an older story, and they have done this so successfully that kids born 40 years after the original movie are now singing ‘The Bare Necessities’ down the street. Mowgli’s journey has been made to look more beautiful, more terrifying, and most of all, more adventurous. The young hero, played by Neel Sethi, has captured the hearts of children and adults alike, as his kind nature ventures through the jungle.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
For a lot of people, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was their all-time favorite Disney movie. Thanks to this, Disney couldn’t wait to sink its mousy teeth into it, but it backfired slightly. Unfortunately, it would seem that the live-action remake tried a bit too hard to live up to the hype of the original back in 1991. Despite having an incredible cast – including Emma Watson and Dan Stevens – the story didn’t seem as strong as the original. They attempted to add a load of backstory, which ended up being generally too much. As a whole, the movie didn’t really live up to its initial hype, and it is likely to be forgotten with other failed movies.
Lion King (2019)
The live-action ‘Lion King’ has been put at the center of a number of debates recently, as people can’t decide whether they love it or hate it. We don’t think it’s bad, at all, but being one of the most famous movies of all time – not to mention a Broadway musical – it had a lot of pressure. It would seem that this live-action remake feared failure, and tried to do it as accurate to the original as possible. The movie offered an incredible photorealistic interpretation of the original that everyone so dearly loved. What some people have said is that it doesn’t deepen our understanding of any of the characters. Many fans were hoping that we would get a back story to some characters that were sidestepped in the original, but alas, this didn’t happen.
By the looks of things, some live-action movies are better than others. But, so long as people keep having kids, and so long as kids keep growing up to be kid-adults, Disney will continue to make live-action remakes. Why wouldn’t they? Essentially, they are bringing to life some of the most iconic characters in history and making a lot of money out of them in the process.
