Once upon a time, a preschooler in a poofy, yellow Belle dress hopped and twirled around her living room cluttered with Aurora, Ariel, Cinderella and Jasmine Disney princess dolls. As a VHS tape of “Beauty and the Beast” played on a small television in the back, she belted out the opening song “Belle” at the top of her lungs along with her favorite Disney princess. She knew every lyric by heart and was ready to prove it to anyone in her family willing to sit through her performance.
That Belle-wannabe and Disney fanatic was (and still is) me.
Although the days of fitting into my Belle costume are long gone, I found myself counting down the days until the release day of Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” on March 17, 2017. When I finally found my seat at the Ward Parkway AMC and the iconic Disney castle opening sequence filled the screen, I knew the magic was about to begin.
Disney movies bring me a special type of joy and nostalgia that no other studio can replicate. Moments like when Timon and Pumbaa sing “Hakuna Matata” to Simba in “The Lion King,” the Genie pops out of the magic lamp in “Aladdin” or Mulan trains to defeat the Huns in “Mulan” are completely irreplaceable to me. Now that the animated Disney films I sang along to as a child are being remade into live-action movies, I can sing along to my favorite Disney songs all over again.
Despite the claims that remakes are proof that Hollywood is running out of ideas, the casts put their own spin on each of the characters and bring human feeling that animators simply can’t recreate. For films such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio” and “Cinderella,” Disney animators modeled their drawings off of actors and actresses. It only makes sense that we would get to see these characters portrayed as they were meant to be — as real humans. Now instead of singing along to “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” with a drawing, I can do so with a real actress playing Cinderella.
It’s not about replacing or surpassing the original classics either. Instead, I think the remakes are exposing Disney’s stories to a new generation and bringing nostalgia to older moviegoers.
Today’s children would never have had the opportunity to see characters like Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” or Mowgli from “The Jungle Book” on the big screen had it not been for the remakes. They wouldn’t have been able to learn to be caring from Belle when she helps heal the Beast or to remember the “Bare Necessities” from Mowgli and his best friend, Baloo the bear.
Hate on the remakes as you will, but the numbers prove that these types of movies perform well at the box offices. The live-action “Beauty and the Beast” made $1.3 billion and The “Jungle Book” made $966 million at global box offices.
When I go into the theater, I’m curious to see what the characters I grew up with will be like in their live, reimagined form. In the live-action “Beauty and the Beast,” we learn that when the Beast was a prince he was spoiled, he threw many luxurious parties and his mother died.
People seem surprised that Disney is remaking many of their movies, but they don’t realize that Disney has been recycling their stories, reinventing them and reintroducing them to a new audience for a long time.
It used to be common for studios to remake popular movies with a new cast. In 1944, Disney began re-releasing classics like Cinderella and Bambi every seven to 10 years to make sure no one forgot the girl who lost her glass slipper at midnight or the deer who lived in the forest with his friends, a rabbit and a skunk.
Whether you love or hate ‘em, it doesn’t look like Disney reboots are going away anytime soon. Disney has plans to release live-action versions of “Dumbo,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” and “Mulan” in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
While I’m no longer twirling around my living room in a ballgown, you can bet that I’ll be watching the trailers for each of the upcoming Disney remakes and continuing to sing along to “A Whole New World” at the top of my lungs whenever I hear it playing.
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