Disney live-action remakes: Who even wanted this?
Exploring how fan-hate fails to incentivise Disney to stop remaking their beloved classics.
On August 10, 2024, Walt Disney Studios uploaded the trailer for Snow White (2025). The film is a live action musical remake of the original Snow White from 1937 and will come to theaters on March 21, 2025. The trailer revived a question I wondered as early as October 2023, when Disney first unveiled pictures of Rachel Zegler dressed as Snow White: who wanted this?
As a seven-year-old, I gawked at the fantastical effects in Alice in Wonderland (2010) in theaters with my mom. At 11, I avidly watched the Maleficent (2014) trailer with my classmates, huddled over a school monitor. I loved Cruella (2023) which was an unexpected, villainous delight sandwiched between its abhorrent siblings, Mulan (2020) and Pinocchio (2022). Now, I avoid Disney’s newest sequels.
Like most, I’m underwhelmed by the carbon-copy screenplays emulating self-plagiarism, and the CGI rendering of the entirety of The Lion King, Pinocchio, and Snow White’s seven dwarves. Unsurprisingly, Snow White’s trailer is the most downvoted trailer in Disney history and the comment section is riddled with viewers’ abysmal expectations.
Unfortunately, hate is Disney’s new business model. In three weeks, Snow White’s trailer gained over 54,000 comments and 8 million views. Some viewers find hate-engagement a bonding experience: @jamesshepard9398 says, “I came here purely because I saw on Facebook that this video has over a million downvotes and I REALLY wanted to be a part of that community,” while @justcallmemoses proposes, “Let’s make it ‘Snow White and the 7 Million dislikes.’”
I wonder if me writing this article is another coin lining Disney’s pockets, and maybe you’re like me and a 30-minute hate-watch inspired video essay[KJ1] with dinner is also how you enjoy your Friday nights. In our efforts to be heard, Disney adopted a new motto: any publicity is good publicity.
But all hope is not lost. Cruella stunned me with its humanized character arc that even film critics found refreshing.“It’s a welcomed change from the recent corporate-productional feel of the most recent crop of Disney films like Call of the Wild and Mulan,” writes film critic Joshua Polanski. Could Cruella inspire live action sequels to construe new meaning into existing characters and worlds? Perhaps there’s still hope with the upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) which follows in Cruella and Maleficent’s footsteps in evolving an iconic character’s humble origins.
Is Disney adopting a new style of storytelling, or are we heading into an endless era of CGI remakes? Only time and YouTube downvotes will tell.
In the meantime, here are some upcoming Disney live-action remakes coming to a nearby screen soon:
Mufasa: The Lion King (Barry Jenkins) – December 20, 2024
Snow White (Marc Webb) – March 21, 2025
Moana (Thomas Kail) – June 27, 2025
Lilo & Stitch (Dean Fleischer Camp) – Summer 2025
