Cognition Dissemination: Get Ready for More Disney Live-Action Remakes

The reception to the live-action remake of The Lion King from critics and some longtime fans has predictably been very divisive. The new movie lacked the charm of the hand-drawn animated 1994 original from the several trailers and clips released in the lead-up to its theatrical release on Friday, thanks to opting for a realistic style. The comparisons worsened when directly compared to scenes from the original, like the performance of Hakuna Matata and Mufasa’s death (that’s not a spoiler anymore, right?), easy to make considering it’s a nearly 1:1 remake. It’s tougher for realistic-looking lions to animate like their animated counterparts, and it shows.

This also isn’t getting into other changes made to the film, like Scar’s “Be Prepared” song being much shorter than the original and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” occuring in the middle of the day. Many critics who didn’t like it thought the movie didn’t justify its existence, while others who did like it still felt it was inferior to the original.

On the other hand, its box office performance shows how this is just the beginning for Disney’s live-action remakes. The movie earned a massive $185 million in its opening weekend in North America alone, making it the second-best opening of the year after Avengers: Endgame (which just topped Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, by the way). It was clear the movie would be big everywhere else after its stellar opening in China, where it’s made $97.5 million to date. Total, it’s made $531 million worldwide, and considering the average moviegoer seems to like it a hell of a lot more than critics and vocal longtime fans, the total gross will keep rising.

Okay, this is actually close to the beginning for Disney’s initiative, since its performance is a repeat of another remake that hit theaters less than two months ago: Aladdin. That interpretation also looked iffy from trailers and previews released, despite the good decision involved with casting actual people of color for the roles. Will Smith’s interpretation of the Genie was particularly easy mockery bait. Despite the critical reception also being divided with this film, and those who liked it saying they still preferred the animated film, it performed incredibly well at the box office worldwide. The movie has made over $340 million in the NA box office thus far, and its worldwide gross is mere steps away from $1 billion. The Lion King is set to top even this.

This is, of course, not to say these two remakes are the first of their kind to perform exceptionally well. Disney likely put these plans into motion after the overwhelming success of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake, which made over $1.2 billion worldwide (and received a better critical reception, by the way).

It’s easy to see why moviegoers adore this style, which jives with the logic Disney is approaching these movies with. Hand-drawn animated films are for 90s kids, which the original Aladdin and The Lion King films were occasionally called at the time — including by kids who desperately wanted to be grown-ups. CG animated movies are for modern kids. But live-action films are for everyone. As The AV Club feature from Charles Bramesco examined, the “realism is best” mindset mimics a dilemma that occurred among video game companies not too long ago, and still does to a lesser extent. There are several different approaches in gaming now with the rise of lower-budget games and mobile titles, so Disney and moviegoers could simply be behind video games in terms of progression.

You can bet that Disney is taking this as further validation of their plans to go all in on live-action remakes and films. The gap between the releases of Aladdin and The Lion King being less than two months didn’t hurt the performance of either film one bit. There’s a good reason why Disney’s upcoming film schedule is full of live-action films, and they have several more planned compared to the animated films — especially before the 20th Century Fox acquisition. In terms of other movies due for a 2019 release: A remake of The Lady and the Tramp is coming on November 12th to Disney+, the company’s upcoming streaming service. In terms of a live-action film that isn’t a remake, but features a live-action version of a character from the animated films: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the sequel to the 2014 Maleficent film, will open on October 18th.

I don’t intend to be too cynical here and imply that all Disney’s future live-action movies will be mediocre, since they have plenty of potentially good ones. From The Lion King’s result, movies that focus on humans could be the best examples. Take the Mulan remake, which looks pretty good from the first trailer, but will be notably different from the animated version. Early details for The Little Mermaid also sound intriguing, not exclusively due to how it’s pissing off the worst people. I’d like it if they also remade movies whose animated versions went underappreciated in their time, like The Black Cauldron — in CG or live-action. They’d better be careful with their current schedule, since they could burn out the audience with too many movies too soon.

The success of these movies, along with those from Marvel, the Star Wars films, and potentially others from the Fox deal, show how Disney will be too healthy in the future. We’re going to start missing when viable competition was a thing soon. In the meantime, it will be best for everyone if all these movies are good, though some are bound to be hamstrung by meddling executives and the supposed demands of the market.