Disney's Live-Action Thread

Well, Sebastian's original voice actor is at least black, so it's not that problematic. If they get somebody who's actually Jamaican to do the voice, I shouldn't see that many problems. Sebastian doesn't really embody any negative Jamaican stereotypes to my knowledge.

Also, I just learned that his voice actor was also Kron from Dinosaur. That kind of surprised me.

Now I'm picturing Sebastian declaring survival of the fittest and ruling with an iron claw.

He doesn't, mostly because he wasn't really written as Jamaican originally. The only reason he got the accent was because Menken wanted to switch the style from the typical Broadway style to something more modern and thought that it would feel more organic if they threw in the accent.

Oh god. Let's please not remake Little Mermaid. Its often considered THE Golden Child of the 90s movies. That's a REALLY tough film to try and be equal or better to.

You're setting yourself up to fail.

That's not to say that no one should ever do Little Mermaid. But Disney shouldn't copy and remake themselves.

As for Hercules, I'd heard of it going to Broadway but idk how. The musical score is all over the place with Gospel, Pop Balad, and Motown in the score. It makes no sense and the plot has... a lot of issues. But, hey, Hunchback had some issues and the musical ironed out those problems so I'll give it a shot.

I can't imagine what a nightmare the costuming is though. I wouldn't know where to begin on Hades.

Atlantis could do with a seriously reworked plot.

You know what movie I would really like to see them make into live-action? The Black Cauldron. Especially if they made it more like the book. And then made a series out of it. What? The Chronicles of Prydain were great. Admittedly, I only read them was I was a kid, but I remember them being great.

Edited by alliterator on Feb 18th 2019 at 1:08:31 AM

It's been a while since Disney's outright terrified an entire generation of children. The Horned King in live action sounds like a great idea for that.

Hell yes. I'm not a big fan of Cauldron, but I'm way more interested in genuine reimagining of the stuff that didn't quite land than in unimaginative rehashes of the greatest hits.

Well hey it’s better to remake a miss than something that was already great.

Hell they can give something like Pocahontas another try.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 18th 2019 at 1:23:48 AM

Oh no! They should have never tackled Pocahontas in the first place. The only retelling of Pocahontas which would work is one which would dismantle the myth altogether, and Disney is not the company to do this.

They actually did get the rights to Prydain again recently, so a Black Cauldron livemake could feasibly happen.

I've always felt that Pocahontas' big failing was that they turned it into a love story - a star crossed lovers story, at that. This was not only insulting to the actual history involved, but shunted the other messages they were trying to deliver to the background.

The actual history involved was that a bunch of white nobles got excited over made up a story about a young woman who got kidnapped to England, married and died only a few years later. Because she was so exotic and interesting.

There is really no way to tackle this in a non offensive manner without finally poking holes in the myth.

Yeah, the Pocahontas story is...not something I want Disney to tackle again.

Pocahontas is the weakest of the Disney Renaissance, but there's no way to be respectful to the actual historical figure without actually confronting the barbaric treatment of the Natives head-on. There isn't really a way I can see Disney tackling the subject matter in a way that will also encourage children to watch.

Honestly, Disney would be best to focus on getting Native Americans to tell stories from their tribes and help spread them to a larger audience. And if they do want to remake one of their own films with a Native American protagonist and wasn't that well-received, why not do Brother Bear instead?

Edited by chasemaddigan on Feb 18th 2019 at 1:53:15 PM

Speaking of Pocahontas, is it true that Don Bluth is a descendant of hers? I remember this was stated on a couple websites back in the day, but never saw any real confirmation from the man himself.

So that people can complain that the main protagonist is the whole time some sort of animal again?

As someone who is part-Native American himself, I thought the concept of Brother Bear was good. My main problem with it is Disney had already done the whole "Jerkass gets turned into an creature or animal until he learns to be nice" story twice before (Beauty and the Beast, and Emperor's New Groove). Heck, one of those two had just came out like 3 years prior! So, the setup wasn't entirely new, and the ending was mostly predictable.

I'd rather they adapted an actual Native American folktale rather than make something up or try to pretty up their actual history with a romance story, honestly. It's not like there aren't tons of interesting stories from all over the Americas to choose from.

The extent to which people complained about that with Princess And The Frog is very overstated, so that wouldn't be a problem. Especially given that a lot of Native American folktales involve transformations like that in the first place.

True. But the movie isn't really based on an actual native tale as far as I know. They just made something up which looks and sounds that way. (and the story is just extremely predictable on top of it).

That's why I said I'd prefer if they actually adapted one.

I believe there is a Russian folk tale that kinda fits with the plot of Brother Bear, except it obviously has nothing to do with Native Americans.

Do you think a Pocahontas live-action movie could work if Disney completely put it in the hands of a Native American director and creator? I think the story would most certainly change, and while I would be wary, it does seem like Disney has learned in recent years about being more culturally sensitive.

Disney is not that ahead of its time to do that, I'm pretty sure.

If Princess and the Frog had more street cred (which it sadly does not), I could see them going a Black Panther approach and handing out to a African-American team. But Native Americans sadly do not have that level of respect in Disney yet.

Eh, the issue is more that there are native americans which didn't want a Pocahontas adaptation at all. Disney at least hired some native American expert back in the day, and a lot of people saw him as a traitor for even agreeing to work with them.

Just...don't touch Pocahontas. Unless they do it under the Fox Brand with a non-Disney approach.

Awhile back I suggested they could do an animated film based around Sacagawea aiding Lewis and Clark to make up for Pocahontas