A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse holding hands towers over visitors in the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOE PENNISTON/FLICKER.
Kaitlyn Leister
Staff Writer
The live-action “Moana” movie has been announced, and while I do look to see who they cast for the roles, I also find it all a little much in the realm of live-action Disney movies.
“Moana” was a movie that came out in 2016, and already it was announced that a live-action remake will be hitting the big scene sometime in the future.
While we have been told this news, trailers for the live-action “Little Mermaid” are circling while we wait for the May 26 release date, as well as trailers for the live-action “Peter Pan” on April 28. If you look up online, there are quite a few titles getting a live-action remake, including “Lilo and Stitch”, “Hercules”, “Snow White”, “Hunchback of Notre Dame”, and so many more. If we are complaining or loving it is up to time to tell.
I can understand wanting to remake old classics to help breathe new life into old stories for the next generation, and it is important also to fix problems with the originals. The addressing and fixing of problematic issues and stereotypes that were in the old classics is something rather important, which we have seen in the previous live-actions remakes such as “Aladdin”, “Dumbo”, “Mulan”, and “Lady and the Tramp”.
I have previously written my opinion on the live-action “Pinnochi”o movie that came out last year. There are also many who have voiced their opinions on how bad or good they found the recent renaissance of remakes or even ones formed on their own after watching the films for themselves. Some were good, others nowhere near the original magic the classic 2D animation held, and overall many are just tired of all these live-action remakes.
Frankly, I am too, due to the fact that it appears Disney is not focusing on creating many original works anymore, and riding on the nostalgia the classic movies had to try and profit off of them for a new generation. Many have also watched the classics, and while some of the movies greatly diverge from the original plot in either a good or bad way, normally many already know how the story will end. There is no real drive to watch them unless to see what they do change or fix, and that really does not make a decent audience want to see your movie.
Even over a talk while writing this article with my mother, she keeps asking why they are doing this because they are clearly not getting a lot of money with how much no one likes these movies all that well. I cannot help but agree with her, and I have concluded it seems more feeding off the nostalgia they know their audience has for the classics, rather than holding a passion for their work anymore.
We can all only just watch and wait as Disney continues to cancel original works after not even completing a full season show, while the few original ideas coming out are greatly being anticipated if they will hold magic or flunk with the waves upon waves of unoriginal remakes.
