You’d think that, based on their last few failures, Disney would slow down their greenlighting of live-action remakes. It turns out that, after Pinocchio (2022) and the most recent, The Little Mermaid (2023), they just can’t stop. They’ll never stop.
The mouse house is already working on “Lilo & Stitch” and “Moana” remakes, but we can now add “The Princess and the Frog” and “Tangled.” (via The DisInsider).
They have Snow White (‘24), Lilo & Stitch (‘24), Mufasa (‘24) and Moana (‘25) ready to go. Also in development, not counting ‘Tangled’ and ‘Frog,’ are live-action remakes of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Aristocats, Hercules, The Sword in the Stone, Bambi and Robin Hood.
Here’s what I wrote I wrote on 06.08.23:
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.