Disney‘s Live-Action Remake Strategy is Stifling Original Animation – and “Treasure Planet” Holds theโข Key to Fixing It
By Julia Evans, World-Today-News.com – July 12,2024
LOS ANGELES,CA – โdisney’s โฃrecentโฃ box office results paint a stark picture: while live-action remakes can deliver blockbuster profits,theโ relentless pursuit of this strategy is demonstrably harming the studio’s original animated output. The success of films like the recentlyโข released Lilo โ& Stitch (2024),which surpassed The โLion King (2019) to become the highest-grossing animated-to-live-action film โof all time,masks a troubling trend – a decline โคin both the quantity and quality of โขDisney’s original animated features.
The financial failure of Snow White (2024), grossing aโข mere $205 million worldwide against a $250 million budget, initially signaled aโข potential shift. Though, Lilo โ& Stitch‘s billion-dollar success has seemingly doubled down on the studio’s reliance โon familiarโ properties. This โฃisn’t simply aโ case of capitalizing on nostalgia;โ it’s a self-perpetuatingโค cycle that actively disincentivizes risk-taking โand genuine creativity.
Since 2015, Disney has โconsistently released โฃat least one live-action remake annually. In contrast, Walt Disney Animation Studios has released โคonly six original animated features in the same period. Moreโฃ concerningly, the performance of these originals has steadily declined since theโฃ critically acclaimed and โcommercially accomplishedโค Zootopia โฃ and Moana in 2016. Recent releases Wish (2023) and Strange World (2022) were both box office disappointments, with โ Strange World earning the dubious distinction of being one of modern cinema’s biggest flops.
This isn’t to say all remakes are โฃinherently bad. but Disneyโข needs to โคfundamentally rethink which stories it chooses to revisit.Currently, the studio favors guaranteed hits, leveraging pre-existing popularity. A more innovative approach would be to โbreathe new life into films that underperformed upon โtheir initial release – offering a chance for redemption and demanding a higher degreeโฃ of originality to attract audiences.
Enter โค Treasure Planet. Releasedโฃ in 2002 alongside Lilo & Stitch, this ambitious sci-fi adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure โขIsland was โขa monumental box office failure, costing a reported $140 million and grossing just $109.6 millionโ worldwide.
Yet, Treasure Planet was, andโฃ remains, a critical darling. The film garnered praise for its groundbreaking blend of traditional hand-drawn animationโข and cutting-edge โCGI, creating a visually stunning and unique aesthetic. It even received anโค Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.
A live-action remake of Treasure Planet presents a compellingโข prospect. The film’s ethereal outer โฃspace setting and innovative visual style โwould be perfectly suited to modern CGI techniques. More importantly, reimaginingโค a film โthat was initially undervalued allows Disney to demonstrate genuine artistic vision, rather than simply rehashing well-worn territory.
Disney’s โฃcurrent strategy is a dangerous game. โPrioritizing safe bets over creative risks threatens the future โคofโ original animation, not just at Disney, but across theโฃ industry.By looking beyond the obvious choices and embracing โthe potential of forgotten gems like Treasure Planet, Disney can reignite its creative spark and ensure a vibrant future for cinematic storytelling.
Keywords: Disney,Live-Action Remakes,Animation,treasure Planet,Box Office,Filmโ Industry,Wish,Strange World,Lilo โขand Stitch,Snow White,Zootopia,Moana,CGI,remake Strategy,Film Criticism.