Disney's Live-Action Thread

Completely. That has been a problem with all the live action adaptations other than those which mostly let go of the songs. Even Jungle Book is easily at its weakest when the singing scenes happen. And that becomes a problem with movies which are ALL about the songs (which is pretty much every single one of the Disney Renaissance).

Another detail that’s been lost is Aladdin’s behavior in the parade. In this clip, he looks nervous about this sudden fame and attention. This is not so in the animated film, where he’s proud and bombastic. Not only does he enjoy the riches, he’s posturing to impress Jasmine, unaware that smugness turns her off. His vain behavior is what keeps her from immediately realizing that he’s the street boy she met before.

At least Jungle Book recontextualized the songs. Trust in Me is turned into Kaa's leitmotif. Bear Necessities is now a song being sung in-universe. It's just a song that Baloo happens to enjoy singing. It's not a big musical number.

I Wanna Be Like You is the weirdest but that also benefits from being completely out of nowhere and jarring as all hell. IT's not going for the same tone as the animated film. It's more ominous.

This version of Prince Ali just feels like the animated film but not as good.

Edited by GNinja on May 14th 2019 at 6:15:58 PM

Someone said that the Alladin remake try to mimic the style of Bollywood movie, especially in the musical part. But i tell you, they are no where near as bombastic and over the top as Bollywood. Bollywood movie go over the top then take another jump to go higher, where here is look so restrained.

If that was the goal they should have hired a Bollywood director. Just saying.

Yeah, by comparison what this remake has presented so far looks pretty limp.

Something more akin to how the "Augustus Gloop" song was done in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would've sufficed.

For the sake of comparison, here’s all three versions

Original

Broadway

New:

My thoughts:

• The new one is slow. Like really slow. Even compared to the broadway version, which is slightly slower than the original, and has more of a Jazzy feel to it.

• I’m not sure if that’s the effect they are going for or not, but I find all the autotune to be a bit distracting.

Edited by megaeliz on May 15th 2019 at 1:11:09 PM

I think that user Cherry Slaughter had the best description of the extras in the comments: "This makes me want to cry... Everyone looks like their mothers died that morning. Everything is slowed down. I have never seen Will Smith look this drab. He has ZERO energy. They had everything to work with.. visually.. it was holding up.. but they just butchered it."

If anything, all we see is a driveway to the palace where everything takes place. Like they were making it for a live theater performance or a theme park review. There is no dynamism.

Hell, the Cave of Wonders is the same. The cave looks like the entrance to a Disneyland ride based on the animated film that people might walk through.

Emma Thompson is in talks to appear in the Cruella movie as the movie's...antagonist?

. Honestly, even the actual stage version is more dynamic then this.

Which is kinda impressive, since theoretically, one of the advantages of film, is the ability to cut and change perspectives through camera-work, to give the viewer a more dynamic and exciting experience.

The lifeless arrangement and glacial tempo doesn’t help either.

Edited by megaeliz on May 16th 2019 at 1:07:20 PM

... A film about an anti-hero has a real antagonist??

Honestly I couldn't figure out what the story is from the trailer!

Apparently, this movie is an insight into why Cruella's evil as shit. So I'm thinking Emma Thompson is going to be an unreasonable boss.

I would only be interested in a Cruella De Ville prequel film if they brought back Glenn Close, and used CGI to de-age her.

Reading the article, it doesn't say what role Thompson is rumored play in the film. Only that she will be "star opposite" of Stone, which could mean a variety of things.

Edited by chasemaddigan on May 15th 2019 at 11:01:21 AM

Agreed. Like... the parade itself feels like a Disney Theme Park parade. Cool, floats and dancers and shit, but... Its not spectacular? Its not over the top?

Kind of a filmmaking point that I doubt others might care for, but the bad editing and planning result in a parade I can't track. Like, We have the flag bearers up front in the far shot and the long dressed dancers behind them with the parade float in the back. Then we cut away and suddenly Genie is with the dancers and Elephant!Abu has replaced the parade float. But then the peacock ladies appear between edits and the flag bearers now have swords. The 'Golden Cammel' guys come out of nowhere between edits and disappear between edits. Peacock women come up and then we have... Ostriches behind them running into the street and I don't know where Elephant Abu is anymore, only to INSTANTLY cut back to Elphant Abu in the street. Then the Flag guys switch between flags and swords between edits and Elephant Abu is back behind the swords and peacocks, or so it looks.

Point is, I'm having a hard time following where people are here. Which, fine, I don't NEED to know the order of everyone in the parade, but the problem is that the scene is shot in a way that keeps me aware of everyone in the parade and it becomes really obvious that it's not consistent.

The original got away with this because we never got a massive establishing shot of one group's relationship to another in the entourage. Every shot has some new and fantastic group of people following Prince Ali. Additionally, the scene focuses almost just as much on the different people in the crowd as the parade goes by creating a sense of going through the streets and the changing crowds. But since we don't have that and we can see the same arch we started at, it creates problems.

If the problem is that they had a small set, then they needed to get more creative; give the sword and flag bearers different costumes between which prop they were using, focus more on the people in the crowd (and change them out regularly), and never give the camera enough time to build an establishing location of the street. Also, closer and tighter cuts to build energy and also distract would help. Stuff like that shot from the side of the parade float should have been cut: It's a BAD shot because it's not showing anything except prop and location and from a bad angle where too much is obscured; I don't know what the subject is.

What might have been a better shot might have been a shot-reverse of some kids running between adult's legs on the street level and then a ascent-slant shot onto the parade giving us a establishing POV.

Again, probably pretty minor, but it's a bad film making thing. I shouldn't be thinking about the parade in this way. I should never be given enough details and be too swept up into it to care.

Edited by InkDagger on May 15th 2019 at 8:02:17 AM

This one clip definitely embodies all the problems with the live-action remakes: slow pacing because humans can't move as fast as animation can, actors who have a hard time showing any emotion vs. animated characters with a wide range of expression, "impressive" CGI that ends up in the uncanny valley half the time, unnecessary changes made to certain characters in the hope of filling "plot holes" that were never an issue in the first place, a desperate attempt to copy as much of the animated movie as possible because trying something different takes too much effort and they want to capture peoples' nostalgia goggles, butchering the songs because the big name actors they chose can't sing (resulting in having to auto-tune)...

I’m glad people are beginning to see the problems with Disney’s live-action remakes, but I also have a feeling people will just as quickly forget about them once the Lion King comes out.

Edited by dmcreif on May 16th 2019 at 3:10:49 AM

Those problems aren't exactly new. The general audience doesn't seem to care, though. It's like the Transformer movies.

You've been told once already to stop being condescending to people who might enjoy this film,makes you something of an Single-Issue Wonk

I cannot bring myself to find the new version of Prince Ali bad in a world where this exists.

…But yeah, it's weirdly slow and unimpressive. And no, making Will Smith sing wasn't the best idea, but then again it would be weird to have a different voice during the songs… and having him rap it would probably be a tad out of place (though I kinda wanna see that ).

Does this one work?

Edited by Lyendith on May 16th 2019 at 3:16:39 PM

Video unavailable.

Look, I am not interested in this movie either, but this is still a very, very dickish thing to say. And this is not the first time you have done this. You have been called out before. Could you stop?

Edited by Nightwire on May 16th 2019 at 7:56:22 AM

I have no idea what that is supposed to be, but yes.

The funny thing about them using auto tune in that song, is that you don’t actually have to be an amazing singer to play Genie. It’s not a particularly difficult part to sing, and if actor brings enough charisma and charm to the part, people will overlook a just okay singing voice.

Edited by megaeliz on May 16th 2019 at 1:12:45 PM