Disney’s Live Action Remakes: Creative or A Quick Move for Money?

As I filled up on turkey and mashed potatoes this past Thanksgiving last week, the usual chatter went about the table. We got to the topic of movies and my sister screamed, “HAVE YOU ALL SEEN THE NEW LION KING TRAILER?!” and everyone said yes and expressed their excitement for the movie. I couldn’t help questioning everyone’s excitement considering I can bet you any amount of money we have all seen it a minimum of 10 times each since we were babies. We know exactly what is going to happen, we know the entire plot like the back of our hands, and we know were all going to cry when Mufasa dies… AGAIN. So what is so creative about Disney right now? All they are doing is asking us to rewatch our favorite characters fall in love, die, and learn life lessons in a “higher definition”. So why do we go and spend literally millions of dollars in the theaters?

First let me say that there is no doubt that Disney is one of the most creative, if not the most creative, companies on this planet. It has been for decades. It is a global company that has touched everyone in one way or another. So why do they choose to remake movies that we have already watched in “live action”? Well there are two simple answers: nostalgia or money. Let us go through both answers. Nostalgia, aka that feeling of homesickness or bittersweet memories from the past, gets us all at one point. The majority of the movies Disney is remaking are movies from our (the 90’s babies) childhood. We are all in our twenties now so why do they expect us grown people to run to the theater? Nostalgia. Since we are 20+, we will go with our friends, parents, or younger family members. So we are bringing multiple generations to the theater just to relive that childhood moment. Remember that movie you and parent watched a thousand times and know all of the lyrics to the soundtrack? Disney bets you do. Wouldn’t it be so nice to relive that with them? Disney thinks yes. They are playing on our feelings to get us to enjoy their “new” movie.

The second answer, money, is the more pessimistic way to think about it… or maybe realistic. I can’t imagine all of the members of the Disney corporation are in their feelings thinking about us reliving our childhood. Some are definitely doing it for the money. Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the majority of us will drag a lot of people with us to the theaters. These days movie tickets cost around $15. Multiply that by a small family and you have got the answer to why each of these remakes makes millions every time they come out. Disney owns these stories, there is probably little to no money going into creating the plot. They do not have to advertise as hard as they would when creating a new Disney original to get people to the theaters. They put out maybe two trailers, a handful of movie posters, and we are all there because it is familiar to us. Also, these live action remakes bring in new members to the Disney fan club because of their amazing visuals. I would like to mention that I am in no way a finance major or know anything about a huge company and the way it profits. However, there is no denying that Disney definitely makes a good buck from these remakes.

So is it actually creative of Disney to remake these movies into “live action”? Depends on how you view it. We must also acknowledge that no matter the amount of nostalgia or money put into the movie, the audience stays because of the amount of creative work put into the live action remakes. Take the lastest Lion King trailer for example. The amount of creative design that must go into making the animals move, talk, and look the way they do is enormous. Disney brings today’s celebrities into their remakes because they know audiences will be intrigued to see how they play the rolls we are familiar with. Beyonce is literally Nala in The Lion King. BEYONCE! They are smart and in so many ways beyond creative with their process to remake each of these films. In the Lubart reading we were assigned for class, creativity was defined as a product-oriented, originality based phenomenon. In the reading it is discussed that creativity is bound to cultural context. I feel this goes perfectly with this because Disney is being creative through their remaking of their product.

However you view Disney remaking all of its movies, either as a quick way to make money or a creative way to bring back our childhoods, I will see you in theaters on July 19, 2019 to watch yet another Disney classic… again.

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/363736107396310446/?lp=true