How do you solve a problem like Disney’s live action remakes? Well, from the Mouse House’s point of view, it’s arguable whether there really is any problem at all. After all, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King all took more than $1bn at the global box office, while 2016’s The Jungle Book only just fell short of that milestone.
The pandemic (and poor notices for Tim Burton’s slightly pointless Dumbo) have led to subsequent remakes turning up on Disney+ instead, which makes it harder to judge their success with audiences. Mulan and Cruella both received fairly decent reviews (not so much Lady and the Tramp), yet all in all there’s an argument to be made that the studio could do with a major, transformative smash on a par with Jon Favreau’s spectacular The Jungle Book to get everyone excited again about its seemingly endless programme of remakes and origins stories.
