Originally published April 13, 2019. Updated July 23, 2024.
Liam Hoofe ranks all of Disney’s live-action remakes from worst to best…
Last Friday, Disney released their latest remake of an animated classic, with Tim Burton attempting to bring Dumbo into the real world. The movie has been met with mixed reviews but will no doubt clean up at the box office, with Disney realising that remaking their old movies is effectively a license to print money.
Dumbo is not going to be the only animated classic to receive a live-action remake this year either, with both Aladdin and The Lion King both set for releases in the coming months.
A quick look at box office figures will tell you exactly why Disney continues to do this, and while there is an undeniable cynicism to remaking all of their animated movies, there is always an element of intrigue that will keep fans coming back for more.
The company has released 10 live-action remakes since 1996 (including a sequel) and that number looks set to double in the coming years. With that in mind, let’s take a look back at all of Disney’s live-action remakes so far and rank them from worst to best.
10: 102 Dalmatians
As far as shameless cash-ins go, there are few films on this list that compete with 2000’s 102 Dalmatians. The film was basically a vehicle for Glenn Close and nothing else, and while she is, as she was in the first film, a lot of fun, the rest of the film fails to justify its own existence.
9: Alice in Wonderland
On paper, a Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Alice in Wonderland should have been a runaway success, and while was certainly a smash at the box office, it left an awful lot to be desired in the quality department.
Casting all of his regulars in iconic roles, with Johnny Depp taking on The Mad Hatter, and Burton’s then-wife Helena Bonham-Carter being cast as The Red Queen, the movie was a self-indulgent mess, one that took all of Burton’s bad traits as a filmmaker and brought them all into one place.
Burton attempted to put his own spin on Lewis Carroll’s source material, effectively combining the writer’s two novels and making the whole thing incredibly incoherent and confusing to follow.
The film lacks the visual flair necessary for the source material as well, with Burton’s dull colour palette really putting a dampener on what is one of Disney’s most creative and enjoyable worlds.
8: Alice Through the Looking Glass
Despite Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland being a misfire, hopes were reasonably high for the follow up when James Bobin was replacing Burton in the director’s seat. Bobin had a solid history, having breathed life back into The Muppets franchise and being a co-creator of the cult classic, Flight of the Conchords.
While Bobin did manage to brighten up Wonderland a little bit, the movie’s narrative, which focused on the Mad Hatter and time-travel was a bit of a mess, and the whole thing never really comes together as a coherent piece.
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