While there is seemingly always something divisive going on in the film industry, few things divide people the way that discussion around Disney’s live-action remakes does. The simple formula of updating a classic and beloved story for a modern audience seems like it should lead to nothing but money bags and happy faces for Disney, but that hasn’t always been the case. There was a period where the average filmgoer could at least appreciate the novelty of seeing Disney movies retold in live-action, but now that novelty has worn out.

The world has moved to a point where most people roll their eyes when they hear about the latest and greatest Disney live-action remake. With how much goodwill Disney has lost thanks to negative fan reaction, a lot of people are happy to say that the company needs to call it quits on the live-action train. That’s not to say that the live-action remakes are terrible either, as even though Disney fans have been getting them since the nineties, there has been a bit of a mix of quality and some stinkers.

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Disney's Live-Action Remakes Have Been A Mixed Bag

While the live-action trend wouldn’t begin working full-time until the release of 2014’s Maleficent, the first live-action remake courtesy of Disney was actually 1994’s Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. With more than twenty live-action interpretations of Disney movies at this point, it would have been impossible for all of them to be absolute winners. The issue is that of all the live-action Disney movies, only a few are regarded as solid gems by both critics and fans, with two of those being 2015’s Cinderella and 2016’s The Jungle Book. Outside of those films, there can be some striking divides between fans and critics.

Two of the bigger divides are clear when looking at 2019’s Aladdin and The Lion King from the same year. Critics mostly panned both films, but the audience reception to both was stellar. On Rotten Tomatoes, only six of the live-action Disney remakes are considered certified fresh with another ten of those movies being considered rotten by critics. It seems that the rotten ratings, given out quite often by critics and fans alike, have seriously tainted audience opinions on these films. While many of the remakes do follow the classic storylines of the films they are updating, others opt to tell some kind of prequel story from another character’s perspective. Surprisingly, for many of the movies in which that happens, fans seem to appreciate the change more than critics do, as is the case for 2014’s Maleficentand 2021’s Cruella.

Regardless of fan and critical reception, a major thing to think about is just how much these movies make. Even commercially, the live-action remakes can be considered to be a serious mixed bag. The Lion King and Aladdin were both able to gross over a billion dollars at the box office, but many other remakes have struggled with performance. In fact, many of the movies could be said to be flops, especially if they had massive marketing campaigns behind the movies.

The Little Mermaid Underperformed At The Box Office

One of the most recent relative failures from the live-action remake train Disney is on is The Little Mermaid. Originally released in 1989 as one of the most imaginative animated films of all time, 2023’s live-action remake never managed to capture the same kind of magic that the original had. While there are plenty of people who love the movie, just as many hate it, and it’s never a great thing when the easiest criticism of the movie to come across is people simply wondering why the movie ever happened in the first place. Originally having much controversy centered around it, fans seem to love The Little Mermaid (on Rotten Tomatoes at least), while critics are a bit more lukewarm.

With how well Aladdin and The Lion King had performed, hopes were high for The Little Mermaid, but it failed to live up to the same standard the films before it had set. On a budget upward of $250 million, The Little Mermaid only managed to rake in $568 million worldwide. While $568 million isn’t anything to scoff at, it probably wasn’t anywhere near where the company had hoped the film would end up performing. While it wasn’t against much on its opening weekend, it did go up against Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse in its second week, something that caused a steep drop-off in revenue.

Disney Needs To Get Back To Original Content

While it’s obvious that it’s going to be a safer move to release content that is attached to a recognizable series, Disney really should create some more original content. It’s easy to fall back on those classic stories, but many fans aren’t connecting with the live-action movies in the same way that they did with the animated originals. The medium of animation has allowed for a lot more imagination and wonder to come across than in the darker and more realistic live-action movies. The fact that those same live-action movies also tend to be riddled with uncanny animation certainly doesn’t help matters.

Disney has been a leader in entertainment for decades, and their continued attempts to capitalize on the past just solidify a tired trend that many have already grown tired of. It’s not uncommon to hear people complaining about how it seems like Hollywood has run out of ideas, and the constant remakes only give those complaints more weight. If it’s any indication, all the incredible Pixar films that feature original stories are often enjoyed by fans, and even when they aren’t total hits, fans can at least respect the attempt at a brand-new story.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean, Moana, Encanto, and Wreck-It Ralph, all show that Disney is capable of taking small ideas and morphing them into something much bigger. Even 2009’s The Princess And The Frog is a fun surprise, and while it is based on older stories, that is where much of the original Disney magic came from in the first place.

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