“These remakes will never capture the magic of my childhood”

Eme Massarelli

Recently, Walt Disney Films has begun planning and producing live-action remakes of Disney animated classics. The first was “Alice in Wonderland” (2010), directed by Tim Burton, and featured an all-star cast of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. This remake won two Oscars, grossed $334 million, and Disney has already released plans for the sequel. This box office hit seems to have given Disney the incentive to pursue future ventures using live-action. However, quite frankly no matter how spectacular the acting or animation is, these remakes will never be able to capture the magic or imagination of the hand-drawn worlds of my childhood.

The next big live-action remake was “Maleficent” (2014), starring Angelina Jolie, which told the story of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the villainous Maleficent. This remake featured a twist of the original story, making Maleficent a sympathetic victim of Sleeping Beauty’s father and eventually surrogate mother of Beauty. Recently Disney released the remake of “Cinderella” and has starstudded casts planned for remakes of “The Jungle Book”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and terrifyingly, “Dumbo.”

Another factor that puts pressure on Disney to begin production of classic remakes, is competition for film rights with Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers. Universal Pictures produced “Snow White and the Huntsman,” starring Kristen Stewart, which grossed $155 million and has a spin-off movie currently being filmed. Basically, Disney’s motivation for remaking their classic films, all of which have sparked the imaginations of billions of children around the world, comes down to money. This is genius of them. No matter how outraged I may be to see an actor portray the fairy-tale characters that I love and grew up alongside, I will watch my once-drawn friends’ transformation in theaters.

“Live-action remakes strike me as a ploy by Hollywood”

Morgan Broadus

Personally, growing up during the generation when the classic Disney films were released, I am somewhat neutral to the fact of Hollywood remaking old films. While movies such as “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast” are each spectacular classics, both never failing to provide me with a feeling of nostalgia, the whole idea of making live-action remakes strikes me as a ploy by Hollywood to simply obtain profit.

The purpose of the original animated films was to boost creativity and create an imaginary “fairytale,” which I loved and cherished. I can’t count how many times I sat in my pajamas and viewed “Sleeping Beauty” on Saturday mornings. Although, with the new productions, which are filled with extravagant sets and costumes, it still doesn’t feel the same. Disney is trying to bring the fantasy and glam of the movies to real life, when I believe it should stay as it was. Some stories, like “Cinderella,” are adding on additional portions of the movie that weren’t necessarily there before. And while it is exciting to see how the Hollywood film industry is adapting to the growth of our generation, it is entirely a move just to make a large profit since they know our generation would pay to watch the classics again. The old magic was already produced in the original films, and I don’t think it can be brought back through these live-action movies.