Disney Live Action Remakes: 2015-2019
Created | Updated Oct 21, 2019
Cinderella (1950 / 2015)
| Category | 1950 Animated Original | 2015 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi | Kenneth Branagh |
| Plot | Cinderella's widowed father married a widowed woman, Lady Tremaine, before his untimely death, leaving Cinderella in the care of a wicked step-mother and two ugly stepsisters. They force her to work as their slave. When a ball is held to determine who will marry the kingdom's prince, Cinderella is able to go to the ball through the help of her fairy godmother. | |
| Length | 72 minutes | 101 minutes |
| Setting | An unnamed mediæval kingdom | |
| Characters |
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| Source | The French fairy tale popularised by Charles Perrault, 1697 | |
| Songs: | By Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman.
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| Sequels |
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| Bechdel | ||
The Jungle Book (1967 / 2016)
| Film | 1967 Animated Original | 2016 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Wolfgang Reitherman | Jon Favreau |
| Plot | Mowgli, an abandoned baby boy, is found in a basket in the jungle by Bagheera, a panther. He is raised by wolves in the jungle, but when he is older his life is threatened by Shere Khan the tiger, who hates all humans. Although Mowgli wishes to stay in the jungle, developing a close attachment with Baloo the carefree bear, Bagheera feels only by living in a village surrounded by people will he be safe from Shere Khan. | |
| Length | 76 minutes | 102 minutes |
| Setting | A jungle in India. | |
| Characters |
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| Source | The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895) by Rudyard Kipling | |
| Songs: | All by the Sherman Brothers, except 'The Bare Necessities' by Terry Gilkyson.
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| Bechdel | ||
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
| Category | 1951 Animated Original | 2016 Live Action Sequel |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson | James Bobin |
| Plot | Bored with life in Victorian England, Alice wishes she could live in a world of nonsense. Soon after, she follows a waistcoat-wearing white rabbit down a rabbit hole to Wonderland, a world where nothing makes sense. | |
| Length | 75 minutes | |
| Setting | Wonderland, a fantasy land found down a rabbit hole. | |
| Characters |
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| Source | Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) | |
| Songs: | The songs are strongly based on the work of Lewis Carroll, using many of his verses. Lyrics adapted by Bob Hilliard, Music by Sammy Fain except where stated:
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| Bechdel | ||
Pete's Dragon (1977 / 2016)
| Film | 1977 Animated Original | 2016 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Live Action: Don Chaffey Animation: Don Bluth | David Lowery |
| Plot | A young boy named Pete flees from his abusive adopted family in the company of an invisible dragon named Elliot1 to the fishing town of Passamaquoddy. Although most of the townsfolk dislike Pete, he is adopted by Nora and her father, Lampie, who keep the lighthouse. Also in town is the quack Doc Terminus, who would stop at nothing to own a profitable dragon, while the Gogans close in on Pete... | In 1977 a five-year-old boy named Pete survives a car crash that claim the lives of his parents, and shortly afterwards meets a dragon. Six years later Pete, who is used to a feral existence, meets humans for the first time; a woman named Grace and her partner's daughter Natalie. After escaping from hospital he is taken back to Grace's house. His survival is considered impossible and his tales of a dragon initially dismissed except by Grace's father, who is renowned for telling tall tales, and by Natalie's uncle Gavin, who seeks to exploit the dragon. |
| Length | 124 minutes | 99 minutes |
| Setting | Edwardian Passamaquoddy, Maine | Woodland in Pacific Northwest in the 1970s/80s |
| Characters |
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| Source | Inspired by a short story by Seton I Miller and SS Field | |
| Songs: | By Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn:
| None |
| Bechdel | Fail | Pass |
This is the only live action remake to date to be shorter than the original film. Other than the title and the character names Pete and Eliot, the two films have nothing in common other than both being slow and ponderous. This is the only live action remake to be adapted from being a musical to a straight drama.
Beauty and the Beast (1991 / 2017)
| Category | 1991 Animated Original | 2017 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise | Bill Condon |
| Plot | A generic prince is transformed into a handsome Beast when he is unkind to a passing gypsy woman. She also, rather unfairly, takes her vengeance out on his servants too, turning them into household items. Unless the Beast can learn to love before petals drop off a rose, the curse will never be broken. Meanwhile, a young woman called Belle struggles to find her way in the world. | |
| Length | 91 minutes | 124 minutes |
| Setting | Once Upon a Time in Mediæval France | |
| Characters |
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| Source | La Belle et la Bête (1740) by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, popularised by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1756) | |
| Songs: | By Alan Menken & Howard Ashman
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| Bechdel | ||
Christopher Robin (2018)
| Film | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) | Christopher Robin (2018) |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Wolfgang Reitherman and John Lounsbery | Marc Forster |
| Plot | Deep in the 100 Aker Wood, where Christopher Robin plays, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends enjoy their enchanted neighbourhood and have a series of adventures, usually involving a small smackerel or two of hunny. | |
| Length | 71 minutes | 100 minutes |
| Setting | Ashdown Forest, Sussex in the 1920s | |
| Characters |
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| Source | AA Milne's books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) | |
| Songs: | All by the Sherman Brothers (Richard and Robert Sherman)
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| Bechdel | ||
Dumbo (2019)
| Film | 1941 Animated Original | 2019 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Ben Sharpsteen | Tim Burton |
| Plot | Many of the animals who live in a circus train receive babies delivered to them by stork, including Mrs Jumbo, an elephant. She has a son whom she names Jumbo Junior, but the other elephants cruelly nickname him 'Dumbo' because of his extremely large ears. After defending Jumbo Junior from an extremely aggressive child, Mrs Jumbo is locked away. Jumbo Junior fails to provide a successful climax to a circus stunt and as punishment is relegated to a being a clown. He has only one friend in the world, Timothy Mouse, before a group of crows persuade him he can use his giant ears to fly. | |
| Length | 61 minutes | |
| Setting | Florida in the late 1930s/early 1940s | |
| Characters |
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| Source | Dumbo the Flying Elephant by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl (1939) | |
| Songs: | Music by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace, Lyrics by Ned Washington
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| Bechdel | ||
Aladdin (1992 / 2019)
| Film | 1992 Animated Original | 2019 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Ron Clements & John Musker | Guy Ritchie |
| Plot | In the land of Agrabah, a power-hungry Grand Vizier, Jafar, seeks a magic lamp which has the power to grant wishes. The only one capable of getting the lamp is a street urchin named Aladdin, who meets and falls in love with a beautiful princess. | |
| Length | 87 minutes | |
| Setting | Fictional Arabian country of Agrabah | |
| Characters |
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| Source | Included in Les Mille et Une Nuits, aka Arabian Nights, translated into French by Antoine Galland in 1710 | |
| Songs: | Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman unless stated:
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| Bechdel | ||
The Lion King (1994/2019)
| Film | 1994 Animated Original | 2019 Live Action Remake |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff | Jon Favreau |
| Plot | The birth of baby lion Simba means that Scar is no longer first in line to the throne of the Pride Lands after his older brother, King Mufasa. Through an alliance with hyenas, Scar successfully gains the kingdom, however Simba survives. Simba, blaming himself for his father's death, lives a life of no worries, before one day returning to reclaim his inheritance. | |
| Length | 85 minutes | |
| Setting | African Pride Lands | |
| Characters |
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| Inspiration | Hamlet (c. 1599) by William Shakespeare | |
| Songs: | Written by Tim Rice and Elton John:
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| Bechdel | ||
1According to Pete, Elliot has the head of a camel, the neck of a crocodile, the ears of a cow and is both a fish and a mammal.
