Recently, the first teaser for the new ‘live action’ (CG) version of The Lion King dropped.
My reaction to this is pretty much “Okay, what’s the point of this again?”
Don’t get me wrong; the visuals look pretty fantastic, and there’s a definite ‘cool factor’ to it. But if they’re going to be this slavish about it as to be practically shot-for-shot (it’s been a while since I’ve seen the original, but I don’t think there was one clearly new shot in the whole trailer), then why bother? This is obviously an extremely expensive film, so what’s the point of spending so much money just so you can claim that it’s now ‘live action’ (which it isn’t, obviously)?
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Disney felt that all the money they made off of The Last Jedi was tainted and wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. But I don’t think they have that much of a conscience (and besides, between A Wrinkle In Time and Solo, they’ve probably spent it already).
My one positive really is that I’m fairly sure it won’t be as slavish as it looks, just because Jon Favreau is too good a director for that. I can’t imagine he would have agreed to do the film at all if they were just going to force him to copy the original beat for beat. Still, not really very excited about this, and the Disney remake train is definitely growing old. I shudder to think what Uncle Walt would think of all this, given his dislike of repetition. These days, Disney isn’t just trying to top pigs with pigs, they’re trying to reanimate the bacon so they can sell the same pig over again.
Serpent's Den 
Walt Disney hated repetition? That makes sense; I wonder why I never heard of it before.
I’m not looking forward to their upcoming Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Mulan remakes. If they actually redo Lilo and Stitch…. *Shudder* Pass!!!
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I know; I can *maybe* see ‘Aladdin’ working, just because it’s so action-adventure heavy (though without Robin Williams it’s gonna be an uphill battle), but that’s about it. I really liked ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Jungle Book’, and *especially* ‘Pete’s Dragon,’ but those were all really creative films that did something original and were all based on films that could easily be improved upon. Now it feels like Disney is just trying to run entirely on nostalgia so that they don’t have to take a risk on original content.
Yep: the “you can’t top pigs with pigs” line came when the rest of the studio wanted to focus on more pig films after the success of “Three Little Pigs.” Walt Disney instead had them put the bulk of their efforts into making “Snow White.” He never wanted to stand still or get stale or, well, do exactly what modern Disney is doing.
Man, I would have loved to see what *he* would have done if he’d gotten his hands on ‘Star Wars.’
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True, true, and true! I have only seen the new Cinderella once, but it was the remake I disliked the least. Aladdin *might* work, but as you say, it will be an uphill fight since Robin Williams cannot play Genie. 😢 That’s a good quote – I’ll have to remember it.
Disney would have LOVED to use CGI. Star Wars under his guidance would have been truly glorious – and consider what he would have done with the Marvel films!! If he had had access to CGI, cinematically, the sky would have been the limit with his movies.
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Are you going to review the new Wreck-It Ralph? I’d love to hear what you think.
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