From Charming Classics to Lifeless Remakes: The Disney Animated Canon Then vs. Now

The year is 2036. Disney has depleted its whole back catalog of animated masterpieces. Not only the sacred canon, but also their second-tier “classics,” and even the gritty reboot of Atlantis: The Lost Empire was met with a general shrug. And the trailer for the grittier adaptation of Song of the South has just come out. It is a Beloved-like, magical realist drama helmed by Classy Director — and the usual crowd is complaining that, you guessed it, it ruins the original by making it “political.” It’s almost as if they refuse to understand anything. These are dark times (but the DC vs. Marvel movie sure was awesome, wasn’t it?).

Still, this situation is not new. No, not the gimmick for this intro, don’t be mean. We mean the whole Disney remake situation. Disney has been doing live-action, CGI-infused adaptations for a while, mostly with subpar results. Some of them have been actually good, and even great, as we will see. But many of them (one could say, way too many) have been horrible CGI slugs tarnishing the reputation and legacy or their perfect and beloved originals because those juicy CEO bonuses ain’t gonna squirt themselves, you know? In this Pictofact, then, we take a look at the whole Disney live-adaptation affair: Why it exists in the first place, but also the highs, the lows, and even the terrifying films (by which we mean Pinocchio).