Live-action and more―Re-living childhood the Disney way

Look for the bare necessities

The simple bare necessities

Forget about your worries and your strife

I mean the bare necessities

Old Mother Nature's recipes

That brings the bare necessities of life.

Many of us rode along on the nostalgia wave and sang this song from The Jungle Book when the live-action movie was released in 2016. Disney set the live-action movie trend in 2010 with the release of Alice In Wonderland and followed up by live-action re-imaginings like Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Christopher Robin (2018), an adaptation of Winnie the Pooh.

The anticipation about upcoming productions such as Dumbo, Aladdin and The Lion King are noteworthy and are much awaited by children and adults alike. The remakes of these classics from the “Disney Renaissance” and eras before that are turning into quite a trend in recent years, and are likely to have two sets of audience―those who grew up with them and those experiencing the magic of these movies for the first time. The former will have a more critical approach to the movie, finding discrepancies and unnecessary modifications, while the latter would be more impressionable. The victory behind the movies lies not in the box office collections or ratings, but in bringing together the old and new fans. A sense of warm nostalgia envelopes the old fans while the new ones are welcomed into its universe.

Live-action movies released so far have mostly positive reviews and feedback. Some of them leave quite a mark in the industry like Beauty and the Beast, which grossed over USD 1.2 billion worldwide becoming the highest-grossing live-action musical film, the second highest-grossing film in 2017 and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. CGI on some of the movies have had amazing feedback like The Jungle Book, which won Best Visual Effects Award at the 89th Academy Awards. But not all of them were well received. Alice Through the Looking Glass, a prequel to the 2015 Alice in Wonderland, received a myriad of criticism as the worst prequel or spin-off.

It still remains to be seen how filmmakers and studios revamp these classics and successfully execute and present it. Fans are often concerned about the changes made in the movie including expansion and improvement of the existing plot as long as they do not overstep or alter it too much. The audience would want a wave of nostalgia and a sense of familiarity to wash over them as they watch it. The music of the original movie is also crucial as fans will always be rooting for classics like 'The Circle of Life' and 'Hakuna Matata' in the upcoming The Lion King, and 'Arabian Nights' and 'A Whole New World' from the remake of Aladdin.

Look out for these movies in the near future:

Dumbo (March 29, 2019); Aladdin (May 24, 2019); The Lion King (July 19, 2019); Mulan ( March 21,2020); Maleficent 2 (May 29,2020); The Little Mermaid (To Be Decided); Cruella (TBD); Peter Pan (TBD); Tink (TBD); The Stone in The Sword (TBD); Pinocchio (TBD); Red Rose (TBD); Prince Charming (TBD)