Hello again friends. In this blog post I will be giving my opinion on the Disney live-action films whether ya’ll asked for them or not. To clarify, I will be starting with Maleficent and covering up to Mulan. I will not be doing anything previous to Maleficent because I feel that Disney’s rollout of live-action films true to the essence of the originals began with this film akin to Iron Man of the MCU so I am not including Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton which I consider a completely different interpretation from the original 1951 version. I will also only be discussing Disney Animation Studio films adapted into live action so you will not find Pete’s Dragon here. Lastly, I won’t be covering sequels, only the first installments. Sequels will be done for another review in the future. Maleficent began the line-up of true-to-essence Disney films and with the bomb that was Mulan recently released last September in North America, I feel it’s time for me to say how I feel about each one. I will be speaking about 10 films so with that, let’s be off.

Maleficent (May 30, 2014): This may be the shortest opinion on this blog. Maleficent is a decent film: the plot isn’t contrived, overcomplex, nonsensical or lacking. Sure, the characters could have more depth but they’re fine the way they are. Angelina Jolie and Sharlto Copley give fine performances, Elle Fanning did fine as well, and the special effects were decent. The movie was aiming for the audience to empathize with Maleficent and I feel it did that- you could understand things from her point of view better after learning that Stefan is actually the aggressor and Maleficent only retaliated after he cut her wings off causing her to take her revenge out on baby Aurora. She did that not only because Aurora was Stefan’s daughter but also because Maleficent once loved Stefan and is jealous that he had a child with another woman. The story change of Maleficent giving Aurora true love’s kiss instead of the prince was odd for me at first but makes sense as a motherly/guardian love and also because Maleficent spent years watching over Aurora whereas Prince Philip only met her once before he kissed her. 7/10

Cinderella (March 13, 2015): Cinderella had more heart and soul in it than Maleficent did. This is most likely because the themes of the story were love, overcoming challenges, and finding confidence in one-self plus the lead character was younger, warmer, and more humble and kind than Maleficent. I speak of Maleficent because there are similarities. They both involve young blonde girls but one film has one of them as a lead where the other is a supporting character. Although Maleficent and Cinderella both revolve around one main character, Cinderella has a greater supporting cast with Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, and Stellan Skarsgard. Only one supporting character really has any influence on Maleficent and that’s King Stefan. Aurora is in turn influenced and impacted by Maleficent’s actions. In Cinderella, Prince Charming, her stepmother, her fairy godmother, and even the Grand Duke impact her in some way. If we did HAVE to compare characters it would go down like this: Cinderella vs Aurora- not a fair comparison because Lily James has almost 10 years on Elle Fanning and can portray a more mature princess and had much more screen time; Prince Charming vs Prince Philip- again Richard Madden looks the more mature and less puppy-dog-eyed prince compared to Brenton Thwaites who is 9 years older than Fanning while Madden is only 3 years James’ senior; and lastly Maleficent vs The Evil Stepmother- Cate Blanchett seemed more convincing to me as Stepmother than Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. While both can play evil or sinister females well, I feel it has to go to Blanchett. To add one more point to Cinderella, it had more life, charm, and humour than Maleficent which felt a bit dry in comparison- Cinderella is upbeat while Maleficent is downbeat. That being said, 7.5/10

The Jungle Book (April 15, 2016): The Jungle Book is an enjoyable family film. With a mix of CGI and motion capture, this live-adaptation/remake does the 1967 version justice. The animal characters are lovable and show expression in their facial movements. The voice cast picks were inspired choices as Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, and Christopher Walken demonstrated they were the perfect picks for Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan, and King Louie but let’s not leave out Lupita N’yongo and Giancarlo Esposito as Raksha and Akela respectively. My only slight disagreement is Scarlett Johansson’s pick as Kaa for, while she performed just fine and I understand she was chosen for her hypnotic voice, all I heard was Johannsson who didn’t alter her voice at all and too high-toned for my liking. I would have liked a deeper, more sinister sounding Kaa. The lead actor’s (Neel Sethi) acting is a bit awkward at times but nothing that ruins the movie- his good moments outweigh the awkward ones. Being the first adaptation to incorporate the songs from the original into the story of the movie itself (Maleficent’s Once Upon A Dream was sung in the after credits by Lana Del Rey and A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes sung by Lily James as a music video not found during the movie), is a welcome addition, especially Christopher Walken’s I Wanna Be Like You. For a film that had not much plot in the original, they added just enough for a tolerable lengthened plot albeit the pacing of it is a little slow. That being said, 7.8/10

Beauty and the Beast (March 17, 2017): Beauty and the Beast is my favorite one so far and so far, no other ones have come close to it. I feel like it’s up there as a film, an actual film that cinephiles can look back at and say its one of Disney’s best live action adaptations. In fact I think it is Disney’s best one. While Jungle Book and Maleficent are practically remakes, Beauty and the Beast adapts the original 1991 version beat for beat and adds more. Cinderella is also another loyal adaptation but Beauty and the Beast’s story is much more captivating and has much more charming, interesting, likeable, and interesting characters. Emma Watson outshines even Angelina Jolie’s somewhat expressionless portrayal of Maleficent because she has much more life, personality and energy in her. She outshines Lily James as well but that’s easily thanks to Emma’s larger star power. Emma does a good job as Belle- she’s not the definitive Belle but she does the job pleasingly and her singing voice isn’t Paige O’Hara’s but like I said. Unfortunately I do still see Hermione Granger, I think I will forever haha but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In terms of the singing, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, and Ewan Mcgregor all upstage Emma. The original song Evermore, is just as good as the classics from the original. Though you could tell Beast was CGI, it didn’t look fakey and he had several human moments making him more relatable and being able to empathize with him. For some, the placement of the magic teleporting book was off-putting but it didn’t bother me none- it didn’t feel outlandish or ridiculous and we know magic and sorcery exists in this world. Of course, it was just another element to extend the original from 85 min to 130 min which I had no problem with because it didn’t leave me bored unlike Maleficent and Cinderella and even The Jungle Book at times. We don’t really see any big growth among the title characters of those movies except for Mowgli a little but nothing compared to how we see Belle and Beast change. My final two nitpicks for this movie are 1. Was the LGBT representation of Le Fou really necessary? I don’t know about you but to me it felt awkwardly forced. The character himself isn’t the problem, I enjoyed his comedic relief, but the whole trying to represent LGBT through him felt a little odd. Trying a bit too hard there Disney; 2. I know films require suspension of disbelief and this one’s no different, but did Belle and Beast fall in love too fast? How many moments did they have together before professing their feelings? Didn’t seem like much, maybe 5? But then again, movies usually don’t specify how much time passes and sometimes weeks or even months pass by BUT, if it was going by real time, I suppose all the quality time they spent together is somewhat realistic and it is possible for them to fall in love in a manner of say, a week and half, two weeks tops. 8/10

Christoper Robin (August 3, 2018): Let’s clarify here, Christopher Robin is a sequel to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and retcons The Search for Christopher Robin since in that film, Robin returned from school whereas here he left to live out his adult life. I would not say it is an adaptation of The Many Adventures but it is based off of it and continues the story. As long as these live-action movies are based off the original animated films, they count. The movie definitely has a different tone than it’s predecessor in that it’s more mature, obviously because Christopher is now a grown man and has left his childhood behind and deals with real-world concepts such as war, loss of family, taking care of a family of his own, and work. You can tell by the bland tones of the colours of the film that the bright, imaginative, wonderland of Robin’s childhood has been left behind and entered into the dull reality of adulthood. The animation of the stuffies was a bit off-putting as they looked like faded, overused, and aged versions of their cel-animated and much more cheery-seeming counterparts. All this being said, I had no problems with any of it. Christopher Robin’s biggest strength however, was touching upon the attachment that Pooh had to Robin. That even throughout so many years (I’m thinking about 30), Pooh still sought him out and never forgot him. The strongest moments were when Robin let his frustration go on the bear, whose timing could not be worse (Robin was under much pressure and stress from his job), and then reconciled with his old friend. It’s arguably the most emotional scene of the live-adapted Disney films to date but we’ll see if there are any in the upcoming opinions for the other films. Not a popcorn flick by any means (what Disney film is other than Incredibles and the POTC franchise), but it’s a meaningful and heartfelt movie that I think Winnie the Pooh fans would enjoy. 7.9/10

Dumbo (March 29, 2019): I preferred Dumbo over Maleficent and Cinderella because I think the latter two are meant for a female audience. As a male, I don’t relate to princess stories- I relate to cute, lovable animals more. Princess movies tend to be cheesy and they just ain’t my cup o’ tea. Maleficent technically isn’t a princess movie but it involves caring for a princess and that plot thread is what changed the title character. Beauty and the Beast has a princess too, but the story is Beast’s first and foremost and about his character growth. This being said, I related to Dumbo better than Maleficent and Cinderella but not more than Jungle Book or Christopher Robin. The facts are Dumbo is a baby elephant which only acts as a baby should (told what to do) so it’s harder to relate to it as compared to a young human boy who can communicate with talking animals or talking stuffed animals. This creates an absence of personality and character in Dumbo that Mowgli and Pooh possess. Dumbo was also mostly carried by the morally-guided actions of the children (Farrier children) who influenced the tertiary-role adults (Colin Farrell, Danny Devito, Eva Green). While not completely bland, the characters of the film are not that well-rounded leaving audiences looking to Dumbo to deliver the goods of the plot but like I said, a non-anthropomorphic baby elephant can only give us so much. Not even Michael Keaton was enough as he played yet another Hollywood, evil, corporate, over-the-top, get-rich-quick business man. The movie is quite childlike (not childish) compared to its predecessors on this list but that’s not a bad thing- it just means this film was meant to be more family friendly than the ones that came before which makes total sense seeing how the title character is a baby animal. 7.5/10

Aladdin (May 24, 2019): Aladdin, Aladdin, Aladdin……….ok. Interesting one Aladdin…….yes indeed. I found that it was not as good as I thought it was the previous two times I viewed it. Let’s make one thing clear: with Disney live-action remakes/adaptations/whatever it is INEVITABLE to compare them to their original counterparts. When I first saw this movie in theatres, I didn’t compare it to the 1992 original nor did I the second time because it was only the 2nd time and I needed to see it again to make better sense of it. With the third time though, the flaws became apparent. I’ll start from the very start of the film with the introductory narration by Will Smith as Genie. Let’s be honest guys, he’s no Robin Williams. For anyone who is nostalgic about the 1992 film, any of the Genie’s songs will immediately remind them of Robin and they’d have to resist that thought quite a bit to not let it stay on their mind. Like Beauty and the Beast, all of Aladdin’s songs are in this interpretation but they are sung with different intonations which I get it was done that way to not sound like carbon copies of the originals but I don’t think I appreciated that myself. Since we are on the topic of music let’s discuss the obvious song that was meant to be the big hit original song for the movie- Speechless. I got the How Far I’ll Go and Let It Go vibes in that it’s meant to be the big popular song of the movie meant to inspire young girls and in this case fighting the patriarchy and people will think that because of its powerful message and the emotional tones of the song that it’s a great song- sorry to blow your bubble but it’s just ok. In my opinion, Evermore from Beauty and the Beast is a much better song about character growth and introspection whereas this is a song written with Disney’s agenda in mind to merely send another mantra to a specific audience for the 100th time. In terms of character, Jafar was dealt the greatest injustice. He was underwhelming and least like his cartoon counterpart. He had no menace whatsoever- this is Jafar for crying out loud, the greatest animated Disney villain besides Scar. I respect Will Smith for bringing his own game as Genie and incorporating his dancing and rapping skills which I might add is what he should stick to, not singing. You could hear him straining to hit the same notes that Robin Williams did so well when singing Prince Ali. Never Had a Friend Like Me was enjoyable though, I think it was the best-done song in this movie. The movie lacked the dramatic essence of the original and it was clear during scenes such as the cave escape and battling Jafar in his genie form which was just him but bigger and with a red skin tone surrounded by smoke. Why couldn’t they just make him look like the same genie from the original? I could not take him seriously when he changed and as cool as the big bird Iago was, it holds nothing to the giant cobra. I also did not buy the love story between Aladdin and Jasmine who should have been creeped out that the boy she met only once before in the city managed to find where she lived but oh “he’s so handsome and dreamy so I’m gonna let him touch my face and take my hairpiece and I’m gonna swoon when he does because reasons”. He doesn’t come back the night he promised to give the hairpiece back and when she realizes it’s Aladdin again, it’s after she sees through his disguise as Prince Ali and falls for him after one carpet ride. “Where’s my hairpiece homeboy?” Realistically, she should see that he’s no good but Disney is Disney and we must have a love story no matter how nonsensical it may be. The movie was a little awkward like when Prince Ali met Jasmine and the odd humour there of making himself look like a fool in front of her, obviously to extend the moment and story. The lead-up to the carpet ride is lame as Aladdin merely offers Jasmine to see the world she hasn’t seen which she easily accepts as opposed to Jasmine not wanting to see Ali at all and tells him to jump off a balcony in the animated version. She’s more accepting in this one and the other Jasmine is ready to reject any man at a whim. To end this review, I will say something on a good note. The best moment of the film is Genie and Aladdin’s conversation after Sultan expresses his desire to make Aladdin his son-in-law. Aladdin gets a big head and claims he’s Prince Ali now but Genie asks why live a lie when he can be himself? He should confess the truth to Jasmine but Aladdin is against the idea since he thinks he’s got everyone convinced and also thinks Genie is just being selfish and is concerned with just being wished free but Aladdin don’t see that he is the one actually being selfish. Genie was concerned about how the wishes would taint Aladdin’s character and he was proven right and it leads to an altercation between the two. All in all I think the film is very dependent on how one wishes to see the movie. If one wants to view it as the modern live-action take of Aladdin without comparison to the original then it’s better than I made it sound but if your mind inevitably thinks back to the original, then this film leaves quite a few things to be desired. 7.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-oRBA7x8fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfBfMKwz1qc

The Lion King (July 19, 2019): Although Aladdin and The Lion King are my two favourite Disney animation films, Lion King live-action gets the edge over Aladdin live-action because it is based on my favourite Disney film of all time, favourite animation film of all time, and one of my favourite films of all time, period. So with that let’s get into it. Let’s start with the voice cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Donald Glover had nothing on Jeremy Irons and Matthew Broderick as Scar and Simba respectively. Ejiofor lacked the menace and malevolence of Irons’ voice and Glover did not carry the angry tones of Broderick’s voice such as was demonstrated when Broderick argued with Nala and confronted Scar at the climax of the original. James Earl Jones, despite now carrying an air of seniority and an elderly tone in his voice, still holds up and actually sounds more wise especially when teaching young Simba the philosophies and wisdoms of life and John Kani was a perfect Rafiki emulating Black Panther’s father T’chaka. The scenes of the movie are beat for beat, even more than Beauty and Beast but that is made up for by adding more context to the screenplay. Lion King has the best score of any Disney film and I really appreciated how the composer used segments of the original score and used it for different moments throughout the film. One of the best examples of this was a rendition of King of Pride Rock as Simba walked through the desert in his exile (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwNBhRh0S9g), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5uYB9T_GlY) 3:25-3:52. JD Mcrary as young Simba could be a bit annoying and is not as charming as Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The 2nd time I watched the film, I noticed how expressionless the faces of the animals are and it turned me off for the whole movie but the 3rd and recent time watching it it didn’t- because the voice tones were there to save them. They didn’t speak in monotone and spoke so that the lines gave the animals character. During I Just Can’t Wait To Be King, while the animals were gathered at the water hole, it reminded me of Jungle Book though it was probably a deliberate nod since Jon Favreau directed both films. There are several scenes in the movie which are very underwhelming compared to the original: 1. The hyena chase scene in the elephant graveyard; 2. The stampede scene; and 3. Mufasa appearing to Simba in the clouds. The songs from the original are all sung fine though Be Prepared was obviously done differently, not in a bad way, but a little cheesy. In terms of the score, Hanz Zimmer’s original To Die For is unmatched by the less impactful and less heavy version in this film. The reunion between adult Nala and Simba felt rushed thus Can You Feel the Love Tonight felt rushed and insincere where in the original the feelings and care they had for each other was much more apparent. In this film they basically abandoned Timon and Pumbaa right in front of them where in the 1994 version Simba asked his friends to give them privacy after which he and Nala embraced and wandered off leading into the romantic overtones of the musical hit song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQeMRrfKP2I), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2cdp7hDi6E). Speaking about Nala, I had mixed feelings about Beyonce voicing her. She upstaged everyone and when she began singing for the scene where Simba was running back to Pride Rock, she dispersed the more relaxing and serene African chants which preceded her- it might as well have been Nala singing behind him as they ran. As much as I love Pumbaa, I don’t love Seth Rogen’s voice. How I wish they could have chosen a more inspired voice for him than that par-funny comedian. Last but not least I want to compare certain scenes in the movie to the original so that you can all see how the live-action incarnations are truly not what their predecessors are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy4UdBcyh3c, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw0DXswF5MI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TZxtNjmDiQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSti-2Z_XoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSeaEXrXl_A, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TeZY6Nvn9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbc2iBM2hkM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gzUVVpezU

7.9/10

Lady and the Tramp (November 12, 2019): Disney’s first live-action remake of the classics to debut on Disney Plus, let’s talk about Lady and the Tramp. Right off the bat the first half is boring. Now, people think that because something is boring that it is bad. Let me tell you that is completely UNTRUE. Boring doesn’t mean bad- for me it just didn’t have me invested. Compared to the other live action films, it was putting me to sleep and made me want to fast forward to the second act where Lady begins her adventures with Tramp. This is where the story picked up for me and the movie’s strongest moments were Tramp’s backstory of him having had a family and Lady being thrown into the pound. The 3rd act where Tramp is impounded after killing the rat and the horse carriage tramples over Jock are loyally done as is the Bella Notte spaghetti scene. It’s too bad that the We Are Siamese song was changed to something less memorable: “What A Shame”. What a shame, truly. 7/10

Mulan (September 4, 2020): Okaly dokaly. The most recent live Disney film to be released to date. Gonna be honest- I’m so glad I didn’t spend $30 to RENT this on Disney Plus. Let’s begin with the phoenix talked about at the beginning. Some people were miffed that Mulan’s guardian was the phoenix instead of Mushu but in my opinion, what difference does it make? The only difference is it’s a fire-bird instead of a fire-lizard and missing Eddie Murphy. Right off the start we step into the puddle of ridiculousness: how did nobody from the Fifth Battalion notice Mulan was a woman? They had to be pretty stupid, blind, or deaf to not notice her voice or get a good look at her face. And am I supposed to believe that Chen Honghui is the love interest for Mulan? Give me a break, he’s the guy who’s supposed to be trying to get the girl- the beta male, he ain’t no alpha like Li Shang. The songs from the original movie were only in this version as reprises and the one that got the most love in that department is Reflection. I got the vibe that this film was trying to stick it out to the patriarchy and really prove a point that woman can be just as heroic as men in film which I think it didn’t need to and I also got the hint that they were trying to make men look like helpless fools- a role reversal, damsels in distress, if you will. My big question is, why was the Fifth Battalion even needed when Mulan literally could have taken Bori Khan’s “army” (if you could call that an army) single-handedly? The use of chi as a plot device in this film was odd to be sure. Mulan is basically a superhero and that’s the problem- Mulan from 1998 is not a superhero and this is supposed to be a remake/adaptation based on that incarnation. If she was a Jedi or freed from the matrix, then sure it’s believable but here……not so very much. Her easy control of her chi gave her no growth as a character, in fact I think she has less character growth than Rey and is more of a Mary Sue than Rey and that is definitely saying something. Her character arc is basically non-existent- it’s a simple join-the-army-in-my-father’s-place-and-reveal-my-true-self-so-I-can-use-my-chi-and-settle-the-score-with-the-enemy-then-come-home-with-zero-consequences-and-live-happily-ever-after type deal. The conflict, if there was ever any, was WAY too easy for her. There was no challenge and no peril. The movie had barely any suspense, no real conflict, the action was poor- it might as well have been written or told by a child. Who honestly did write this? The mountain scene was a GIGANTIC letdown and the biggest so far in the history of live-action adaptations and Boring Khan (yes boring) is a stage 1 crony, hardly a final boss. Where the hell is Shan Yu at, come back please. The witch was right when she showed surprise at Mulan leading the battalion which would NEVER happen that easily. Only in a Disney mov…….oh wait and why did the witch suddenly jump ship, and decide to aid and protect Mulan…….because they were both women suppressed by the patriarchy and wanted to make a point??? Hmmm. The film is VERY VERY underwhelming compared to the original and is certainly the weakest on this list. It plays out like a B movie and the accents don’t help- I could hardly take Boring Khan seriously with it. There are no layers or depth to this story or strong emotional moments, just acting out a screenplay and saying lines then acting them out. Poor Donnie Yen, it’s a far cry from Rogue One. I will end by expressing that the best part of this movie is Ming Na Wen’s cameo at the end and for those who do not know who she is I recommend you look her up on Wikipedia. 5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65myP9ryy4

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Opinions on Live-Action Disney Films