I’ve been trying to think about why I’ve not been too interested in all of these remakes that Disney has been churning out. I mean no one can discount the work that has gone into them or how close they look to the original animations. They really are nothing less than spectacular and properly deserve all the kudos they’ve been getting.
The problem though is that I don’t really have any interest in them and I don’t know why. Or at least I didn’t until recently when I had an epiphany. You see when companies remake a movie – let’s take Spiderman for example – I mean he’s had 3 no make that 4 different actors play him in movies at this point (I think they finally got it right by the way). With Spiderman even though they had multiple different actors They also had multiple different stories.
And I think that is the key differentiator. The fact that each time they are telling something new and giving me something you to enjoy. With Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast that’s almost the exact opposite. They are taking painstaking care to try and emulate and match the animation as close as possible. Basically, it just means that they’re telling me the same thing once more.
Now I am definitely a fan of Disney I mean Marvel is something we all love and I love Star Wars. I also love when they take the story in a different direction. Take Civil War for example – did it follow the comic book? No, not really, there were some similarities but many more differences. The Infinity War is another case in point. When done right it’s enjoyable. When done wrong – Batman vs Superman, for example, it really isn’t. In that case, they really should have just followed the Frank Miller Dark Knight storyline.
Maleficent, for example, is the perfect case to make my point here. This character while definitely, a key character In Sleeping Beauty had no back story.
The film with Angelina Jolie takes what was just a small part and create an interesting and enjoyable story that I have watched several times.
Now, will I watch Aladdin? I don’t really know. I don’t know if you caught it in the previous paragraph but I do enjoy watching movies multiple times.
I watched The Matrix 3 or 4 times in the Theatre and I expect I’ll do the same with Avengers End Game. Aladdin was great as an animated movie and I absolutely love Robin Williams as the Genie. I just don’t know if Will Smith can do it for me nor do I know if I’m going to go and watch it multiple times. In all honesty, this might be one that I wait until it comes to Disney +
That is something we all have to consider now as In addition to Netflix and other services Disney + is also coming which is going to make things really interesting. There is a lot of amazing content that there’s a lot of stuff I’ve already seen.
Does Disney Really Care?
I have to be honest about this also … probably not. I’m not really the demographic for this film. I enjoyed it as a teen & I’m sure it will appeal to the current generation of teens and their younger siblings. The original story was great and I’m sure they will be as delighted as I was when I first saw it on the big screen.
I sincerely wish them the best but I also hope that Disney stops remaking their old stuff and continues producing new, original content that tells a different story. There was nothing wrong with the original and a new generation should not, in my opinion, be deprived of the brilliance that is Robin Williams.