Disney's Live-Action Thread

Jock will now be played by Scarlett johansson

The Jungle Book, followed by Aladdin and Cinderella.

The Jungle Book was pretty solid, it reinvented the overall story while only making a few nods to the original. It was about the sequence were Shere Khan chases after Mowgli and he escapes in a water buffalo stampede that made me realize the original movie was very episodic in nature, and this movie was ramping up more cinematic encounters.

I also liked Aladdin somewhat, not everything worked but I think it captures at least a little of the spirit of the original. Maybe about half the changes made I kind of liked, such as the party and dance sequence.

The Lion King is not necessarily bad, but it was so beat for beat replicating the original that it made every small difference that much noticeable, with very little actually contributing to the story. I can't get too upset because it is mostly the original movie repackaged. While Dumbo expands a little more on the original story, I had a similar "meh" reaction in that it doesn't really add much.

Maleficent had a rather strong opening, but once it started deviating from the original story entirely (Maleficent interacting and caring for Aurora) the rest of the movie fell flat.

All the other remakes remind me of a high school play where people are quoting their favorite movies and singing karaoke to the songs. Original musicals like The Greatest Showman have more energy, excitement and choreography, and these all feel so lifeless.

The Jungle Book and Pete's Dragon are honestly much better than their original counterparts.

Dumbo's different, but I'm not sure whether it's better or worse.

The Lion King is basically the same movie but prettier. I actually like it more and more as I think about it even though I should be outraged.

The only reason I like Aladdin is because of Will Smith as the Genie. Same thing with Maleficent; I only like it because of Maleficent herself.

Beauty and the Beast is downright miserable. The only good part of it is Evermore. Otherwise, I could do without it existing.

I don't really care about Cinderella either way, and that's why it's at the bottom.

One thing I know for certain as I watched Fox and The Hound,there is no way Disney is going to do live action remake

I wouldn't mind a Fox and The Hound remake.... provided they kill off Chief this time.

I would just like to point out, that I feel like we need to clarify which Jungle Book live-action remake we're talking about, since there's two of them. I mean, I get most people are probably referring to the recent one by Jon Favreau, but at the same time, the 1994 film keeps popping into my head.

Unrelated to the current conversation, but watching Aladdin in live action really made me notice how much Abu is The Load in both versions of the story - at least in the first half. Most of Aladdin's problems before finding the Genie end up being effectively Abu's fault.

Hell, the live action version adds a scene where Abu saves the day towards the end that wasn't there before, but still counters it by also adding a bit where Abu nearly ruins Aladdin's relationship with Jasmine in the beginning.

I love the cute little guy, but that is one unhelpful monkey is all I'm saying.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 10th 2019 at 1:38:54 AM

I like the theory that Abu is basically a physical representation of Aladdin having a monkey on his back.

At the very least, Abu was the one who stole the lamp back from Jafar and stopped him from killing Aladdin at the Cave of Wonders.

Edited by chasemaddigan on Aug 10th 2019 at 5:49:09 AM

Plus it contrasts nicely with Jafar having a parrot on his shoulder,cos you know he'd only be interested in having his views parroted back to him

And the Cave of Wonders has a living carpet and a lamp with a genie in it because... it wants to live comfy, I guess?

Once upon a time someone decided the Genie was too much trouble and wished for a cave where it could be safely stored,thus the cave of wonders was born

And this is why I hate clickbait...

…You baited me to click, ironically.

Well, Frozen 2 will take the throne back in a few months anyway.

That's absolutely bonkers to think about.

Yes, I'm like "Frozen 2, please fix this." Because The Lion King remake doesn't belong at the top of that list.

I mean, come on. Disney is so desperate to have The Lion King judged like a live-action movie, marketing it as such, and I'm pretty sure even the director said it's not really animated because of the way people look at it. The Lion King didn't have to struggle to the top like Frozen did. Frozen had to fight through the stereotypes of animation/princesses etc, when Disney didn't even have faith in this movie. The Lion King is literally riding on nostalgia, and the fact that live-action movies automatically do better, so it didn't have to struggle as much as Frozen or any of the other animated movies on this list.

If anything, The Lion King is a hybrid film. It only contains animation in the technical sense. Because of the way it's marketed, nobody thinks of "2019 Lion King" when you say "animated film". Of course, there's an irony in that Frozen was never the "highest-grossing animated film of all time" either. Inflation exists and nobody seems to care about it. Though I suppose it was inevitable that Frozen would be "dethroned" because we count dollars rather than tickets, for some reason. I guess it's more exciting to see records be broken every year than to examine the box office more deeply. But yeah, TLDR, Frozen 2 is going to get its revenge in 3.5 months.

Edited by dmcreif on Aug 11th 2019 at 8:31:28 AM

I just realized that The Lion King is now the highest grossing 2D and 3D animated film. That's kind of nuts.

Maybe the next step will be for Disney to have a true live-action remake that features genetically-altered lions that can sing and dance. That way, they can also have The Lion King be the highest-grossing live-action film for reals this time.

I joke, but who knows what the next 20 years will bring.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat this:

The Lion King remake doesn't deserve that spot.

Frozen 2 outperforming The Lion King remake is very tall order. They would have to have at least 2 "Let it Go" level of songs to bring in the fourth viewings.

It'd be hilarious if The Lion King (2019) ended up passing Avengers: Endgame to be the highest-grossing film of all time. The shitfest that would cause would be amazing.

Don’t jinx it.

Man, this news annoys me to no end. I don't even like Frozen that much, but the new Lion King just wasn't a good movie. The technology was impressive, but the original was just a better film in pretty much every way that matters.

It's kinda like the hyperrealism movement in painting. An impressive but ultimately futile exercise.

Edited by Lyendith on Aug 12th 2019 at 9:32:13 PM

Don't act like you're the only people in the world and your opinion is universal and the only real and true one.

I would watch (one/some of) those movies, someday, soon...

For me the Lion King remake is the sort of film you waste a Regal movie pass on.

I do think The Lion King remake shouldn't be grouped together with the other films on the Wikipedia list. Because it was never marketed as an animated film and would have undeniably been live-action had the film had even one human actor (like The Jungle Book remake). The fact that it was made fully animated was more of an affect than a cause.

I mean, seriously, there wasn’t any other way Disney could've effectively recreated The Lion King story besides animation. But since they already made a 2D animated version and wanted to make the remake like the other live-action ones, they settled for photo-realism...but never referred to it as animation, at least from what we've seen. So in other words, it’s like they didn’t want it to be “animated”. But since they had no other way to make such a movie, they did their best not to call it an animated film so it could be set apart from the original, unlike all the other films on the Wikipedia list which were thoroughly marketed and represented as animated films. Its circumstances as an “animated” film are so different from the others on the list, and I’m sure most people don’t view it in the same way as the others, that it really shouldn’t be grouped with them.

Edited by dmcreif on Aug 12th 2019 at 8:59:09 AM