From beloved animated classics to superhero blockbusters, Disney's remake strategy has left many fans questioning their approach. Join us as we examine how these iconic properties have been transformed, reimagined, and sometimes mishandled through various adaptations and sequels. Which remake disappointed you the most?
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00The people need some kindness.
00:02You know, I really don't remember you being this opinionated.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, in the aftermath of Snow White 2025,
00:11we're taking a closer look at it and the other classic properties
00:14that Disney has ruthlessly run through the mud in recent times.
00:18I realize it doesn't make much sense.
00:20It makes perfect sense to me.
00:23If you love games, be sure to check out WatchMojo's new game Terrible Influence,
00:27launching soon on Kickstarter.
00:29Terrible Influence is a satirical board game about the dark side of fame
00:33from the writer of the most popular girls in school and us, WatchMojo.
00:36Boom. I can make an apology video.
00:39Oh, you so would.
00:40Click on the link in the description to follow our Kickstarter campaign
00:43and be the first to play Terrible Influence.
00:45I need to pay a PR wizard to make this go away.
00:48Four million dollars.
00:50What did you do?
00:52It was bad.
00:53Snow White.
00:541937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is where it all began for Disney.
00:59Really, for feature-length animated movies in general.
01:03You're sure you'll be comfortable?
01:05Oh, yes. Very comfortable.
01:08So, in another world, it might have been exciting to revisit
01:11and reimagine something that's so entrenched in Hollywood history.
01:14But that world is not this world.
01:16The live-action remake made headlines, sure,
01:19but only because it seemingly managed to annoy everyone.
01:22This was my father's kingdom.
01:25A place of fairness.
01:27Let the queen change everything.
01:31Take him away!
01:32Controversy dogged the project from announcement through to release,
01:35with rumors of feuds between the cast
01:37and reports of scale-back premieres as Disney aimed for damage limitation.
01:41Rachel Zegler's turn as the title character did receive some praise from some reviewers,
01:45but the rest of it was relentlessly panned.
01:48It's a human!
01:49What did you think I was?
01:50Nothing.
01:51Ghost!
01:51It goes down as a cash-grab poison apple,
01:54which left audiences relating to one particular character far more than the rest.
02:03Pinocchio
02:03If Snow White was where it all began,
02:05then the original Pinocchio was what proved that the magic wasn't a one-off.
02:10Go on. Say something.
02:14You're funny.
02:15Do it again!
02:17The tale of a wooden boy searching for real meaning
02:19is easily one of Disney's most popular films of all time.
02:22But then, they went and did what they did in 2022.
02:25Father, what's that big shining thing?
02:29That is the sun, my son.
02:31It goes around the Earth once a day.
02:33It's basic, simple science.
02:34You'll learn all about it in school.
02:36The Robert Zemeckis remake fell flat, to put it mildly.
02:40Critics and fans rallied against the soulless rehashing
02:43of what should have been a timeless tale.
02:45Disney threw Pinocchio into the modern world
02:47by trying to polish him up with some shiny CGI.
02:50Stop! Do not!
02:52I hate you!
02:54But in doing so, they rubbed out all the charm.
02:56It came three years after Tim Burton's remake of Dumbo,
02:59which reportedly lost the studio a ton of money.
03:02Pinocchio certainly couldn't regain those losses.
03:04For many, it couldn't even justify its own existence.
03:07And let me tell you, it's no easy job!
03:12The Lion King
03:13When will Disney just leave their best work be?
03:16The Lion King was a huge driver of the studio's renaissance
03:19over the 1990s.
03:20Simba, being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble.
03:26But you're not scared of anything.
03:29I was today.
03:30It was a movie that could make you sing, laugh, cry,
03:34sing some more, and still, when it was over,
03:36you felt compelled to rewind it back to the start
03:39and watch it all again.
03:40In truth, perhaps Jon Favreau's 2019 remake
03:43wasn't quite so bad as many of Disney's other misfirings.
03:46You stay with the other cubs.
03:50I am not a cub!
03:54Come on, let's go home.
03:56It definitely made a fortune at the box office,
03:58as fans flocked to see the new take.
04:01But that doesn't make the photorealistic animation
04:03any less jarring.
04:05It doesn't make the slow, methodical pace
04:07any less tedious.
04:09Nala, Scar is the king.
04:11Simba, he's decimated the Pride Lands.
04:14From a commercial point of view,
04:16the huge takings of the 2019 version
04:18do justify the 2020 for follow-up Mufasa.
04:21But was anyone really asking for this particular origin story?
04:25Probably not, but where Disney's concerned,
04:28relentless re-dos are apparently the circle of life.
04:31Simba, you must take your place in the circle of life.
04:39I can't.
04:40Star Wars.
04:41When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012,
04:44a heady mixture of fear and excitement among Star Wars fans
04:47soon bubbled up to make 2015's The Force Awakens
04:50one of the most hotly anticipated movies ever.
04:53Chewie, we're home.
04:58Could the House of Mouse be trusted
05:00to do the iconic saga justice?
05:01Many were doubtful, but on first showing,
05:04the signs were good.
05:05For the most part, The Force Awakens
05:07earned Star Wars new fans,
05:08and it didn't royally anger those
05:10who'd been with it since the 70s.
05:12We're not done yet.
05:14Rogue One, as well, was genuinely great.
05:16But over time, the good feeling gradually faded,
05:19and by the sequel trilogy's close
05:21with the rise of Skywalker in 2019,
05:23the now-muddled story left many dissatisfied.
05:26We've decoded the intel from the First Order spy,
05:28and it confirms the worst.
05:32Somehow Palpatine returned.
05:34Sure, there's nothing catastrophic about these movies,
05:37but the fatigue is real.
05:38Not that that'll stop Disney from going at it
05:40again and again and again.
05:43I am all the Sith.
05:49And I...
05:56I'm all the Jedi.
05:58Winnie the Pooh.
05:59Was there ever a happier, more whimsical,
06:01generally light and enjoyable bunch of Disney characters
06:04than Winnie the Pooh and friends?
06:06Hello, Pooh.
06:08I'm Tigger.
06:09T-I-double-guh-er.
06:11That spells Tigger.
06:14I know.
06:16You've bounced me before.
06:18I did?
06:19Yet somehow, they managed to misguidedly turn
06:21all that fun and brightness on its head
06:23for 2018's Christopher Robin.
06:26Pooh?
06:27Christopher Robin.
06:29No.
06:31No, no, no, no, no.
06:33You can't be here.
06:34Now, Here Again is a movie that does have its plus points.
06:38For one, Ewan McGregor's performance
06:40is effective and affecting.
06:42But ultimately, all the story boils down to
06:44is a stereotypical swipe at how grumpy adults
06:47lose their joy and imagination
06:48in favor of working themselves to the bone.
06:51You can't just keep saying hello to people.
06:53People can't see you moving and talking.
06:56But why?
06:57Because, because you're different.
07:01And people don't like things that are different.
07:03All the Winnie the Pooh-ness is just kind of lost.
07:06Of course, rather than think up new characters and stories,
07:09Disney opts to go to the well again
07:11with a supposedly fresh, but ultimately thin,
07:14alternative perspective.
07:16It's a formula that we've come to know and expect.
07:18In this case, though, it simply missed the mark.
07:20And in the concurrent era of Paddington,
07:23new Winnie lost out big time.
07:26Oh, bother.
07:30Whenever there's a sequel to be made,
07:32you can bet your bottom dollar that Disney will make it.
07:34But...
07:35What?
07:36Why, you're a cat.
07:38A Cheshire cat.
07:39Doll-a-mimzy.
07:42For better or, more usually, for worse.
07:44Moana was an awesome original with a forgettable follow-up.
07:47The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
07:49has been steadily sailing into rougher and rougher seas
07:52for years now.
07:53But, with Alice Through the Looking Glass,
07:55Disney apparently plumbed new depths of pointlessness.
07:59Hatter?
08:02Hatter?
08:05It's you!
08:06You're you again!
08:08Well, if I'm not, I wish I was.
08:10This Mad Hatter backstory was exactly what no one needed.
08:14The look and feel of the film followed on
08:16right from the first live-action Alice,
08:18which in itself was only mildly well-received.
08:20While the incessant kookiness in Looking Glass...
08:23No!
08:24Stop her!
08:26...seemingly meant that they could just skip over
08:28there being any kind of actual story at all.
08:31No amount of bright colors and set pieces
08:34can excuse such blatant and lazy pillaging of a classic.
08:38You did it, Alice.
08:40An impossible thing.
08:43Not as impossible as saying goodbye to you, my friend.
08:46Captain America.
08:47Like it or loathe it, the MCU has had an incredible run,
08:50and Disney has been a large part of its success.
08:53How does it feel?
08:56Like it's someone else's.
09:02It isn't.
09:03But all good things do come to an end,
09:05and the tide has been steadily turning against
09:07the seemingly never-ending Marvel movies
09:09even before Brave New World in 2025.
09:13Your inner circle's been compromised.
09:14Let me fix it.
09:16Watch yourself.
09:18You're not Steve Rogers.
09:20You're right.
09:21I'm not.
09:22Nevertheless, Brave New World did become
09:24something of a dumping ground for everyone's growing grievances.
09:27Anthony Mackie's starring role worked well.
09:30Harrison Ford as a rampaging Red Hulk turned heads.
09:33But other than that, this long-awaited revamp
09:35for one of Marvel's greatest-ever characters
09:38was a whole heap of nothing much.
09:40Captain America.
09:42You ever ask yourself, who's playing who?
09:46Place a villain with incredible power here,
09:47add a clunky, crashy fight scene there,
09:50insert ambiguous easter eggs throughout,
09:52it's tried and tested and tired,
09:54and the pressure's only mounting on Disney to stop the slump.
09:58You want me?
10:00Come and get me!
10:02Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
10:05and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
10:08You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
10:11If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings
10:14and switch on notifications.
10:18Toy Story.
10:19You'd be hard-pressed to find a better, more influential,
10:22more universally-liked cinematic trilogy
10:24than the first three Toy Stories.
10:26Come with me.
10:27What?
10:28Andy will play with all of us, I know it!
10:30With Andy passing on his toys at the end of three,
10:33the bittersweet move from childhood to adulthood
10:35caught many by surprise in how goddamn emotional it all was.
10:40You think you can take care of him for me?
10:44Okay then.
10:49With Toy Story 4, Disney perhaps pushed its luck but survived.
10:58While it could reasonably be described as the weakest installment,
11:014 did still carry most of the magic.
11:03Lightyear, though, in 2022 missed the high bar of its predecessors.
11:07After borrowing a ship from Star Command, I've achieved hyperspeed
11:10and I'm ready to finally leave this planet once and for all.
11:13While in the last decade or so,
11:14we've learned that apparently every mainstream leading character
11:18needs an origin story, perhaps Buzz just didn't.
11:21And with Toy Story 5 coming over the horizon,
11:23some fans are growing concerned.
11:25Okay, so this is a classic that hasn't yet been milked to death exactly,
11:29but is the time when it will have been fast approaching?
11:32To infinity and beyond.
11:36So what do you think?
11:37Is Disney destroying legacies?
11:39Or are things actually not so bad as all that?
11:41Let us know in the comments.
11:43Is everyone okay?
11:45Did you enjoy this video?
11:46Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
11:49and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.