In a since deleted tweet, actress Zoe Kazan criticized the recent onslaught of Disney live-action remakes:
Woke up in the middle of the night thinking “D*sney has no reason to make ‘good’ live action remakes because that would render their earlier ‘product’ obsolete. It’s smarter for them to make new movies that are different but not better than the old ones
A lot of truth serum in that rant. Why did Kazan decide to delete it? Maybe her publicist begged her to. You can’t criticize the mouse house.
Regardless, she’s right. There is absolutely no conceivable way that these live-action remakes can artistically surpass the original animated classics. Why? Because Disney wouldn't take the risk of messing with the original formula — audiences want what they already know, that's the sad truth.
So here's how it usually works these days in Hollywood. A formula working well at the box-office? Well, how about we just recycle it again and again and again ... And, once that idea stalls, then how about we bank on the nostalgia of the original and reboot it into a whole new package.
Disney have caught on to this like capitalist vultures. Not a single original thought conceived, they have to stick with what people already know, what people are comfortable with, what doesn't provoke new thought. It's all really a big fat brainwash, if you ask me.
Forbes' Dani Di Placido wrote a piece on this disturbing trend of live-action remakes and how it's hampered down any kind of creativity from not just them, but also their competitors.
So, why is Disney watering down their most iconic stories by rebooting them in “live action?”
The answer is pretty obvious; reselling old stories with a new, shiny coat of CGI is an immensely profitable activity. The film industry is rife with immense financial risk; it doesn’t take many box-office flops to bankrupt even a major production company, and the surest way to stay in profit is to stick to familiarity.
As much as we complain about Hollywood’s lack of original ideas, we want to see reboots; or at least, the majority do. The film industry is a democracy, and we all vote with cinema tickets. We seem to want to take a trip back into childhood, however brief, and see our memories reconstructed in glossy photorealism.
But photorealism is not inherently superior to 2D animation; those old Disney animators didn’t draw cartoon lions as a backup plan because they couldn’t train an animal to say lines. They chose that medium to tell a beautiful, stylized story, a story that resonated with children and adults alike.”
Disney won’t stop, can’t stop. They have Snow White (‘24), Lilo & Stitch (‘24) and Mufasa (‘24) ready to go. Also in development are live-action remakes of Moana, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Aristocats, Hercules, The Sword in the Stone, Bambi and Robin Hood.