Disney Remakes Ranked

As the entire world is aware, Disney has been on a rampage recently with remaking all their classic movies into live action. For the most part the changes have been great and the animation has been fantastic. I saw online another post where they ranked the movies, and they used two of the Jungle Book remakes, which made the list a little off as they also left out a remake that has happened. For this list, we will only be using the recent Disney remakes, and not including any second movie that comes from it.

10. Dumbo

This was just bad. This was the one that really made everyone question why Disney was doing this. The whole movie was weird, the animation of Dumbo was slightly weird and almost scary-looking. Plus they completely changed the storyline when they added in actual human main characters when in the original there were none. It completely threw off the movie really because it was too drastic of a change. Also, I don't understand why they remade this movie in the first place. It was never a big hit, and most kids were not big fans of it because it was so heartbreaking. Just a strange move on Disney's part and a complete miss as well.

9. Christopher Robin

This was another one you wish that they had left alone. It was almost creepy that they made Winnie the Pooh and friends into stuffed animals. I was not a fan of that at all, as they just took the fun, lovable characters and turned them into something they are not. They really made the lovely characters from Hundred Acre Woods into stuffed animals, which was fine, but they made certain aspects of how they looked almost too simple, like how Pooh wasn't a bright yellow bear but more muted. There are stuffed animals out there that are very bright, so why not make these characters like this. It also was just a remake that was done in a strange way. To have Christopher Robin as an adult and Pooh and friends come back into his life was just a weird takes on things. It would have been a lot better if they had it placed back when Christopher Robin was a young kid again or taking it as far as him being a teenager or young adult instead of skipping through all of that and focusing on when he was an adult. What could have been a much better concept is having Christopher Robin try to find his way back to the Hundred Acre Woods after finding something that reminded him of Pooh and the rest of them.

8. Alice in Wonderland

This was less of a Disney remake and more of a Tim Burton remake. Not to say that there was anything wrong with it, but it was a lot different than what I think people were expecting. The remake made the story a lot darker. The Red Queen was a lot more evil this time around. It was a cool concept though to place this after Alice had first visited Wonderland and have her think it was all a dream until she remembers her being there before. It was meant to fit into the actual story instead of the Disney version of it. The movie was classic Tim Burton with the strangeness of the characters and the overall vibe of the movie. Still done very well to his credit, with ideas that I don't think anyone else would think that they could make work. Overall, it just was not a very strong movie, it was too polarizing as fans of the story wanted it to be closer to the story and fans of the Disney version wanted it closer to that. It was too different from either to fit in with anyone's hope for the movie. Still very fun and entertaining to watch if you don't consider it to be a remake or think of it as another Tim Burton type of movie.

7. Cinderella

From here on the list gets difficult. It isn't that this movie fell flat in any way, as it was very well done, this is just a matter of being the first reboot, things weren't as great. I found there were too many changes to the storyline in this. Like how Cinderella went out horseback riding on her own, which never came close to happening in the original. The changes in the later remakes were more subtle and went along with the story as there were little tidbits of it in the original. In this, there were too many changes that came from nowhere. They did work in the story yes, but it changed the story too much as well. Now the casting and everything was still great. The animation in the movie and the feel of it was as perfect as we can get. It was a great job, and not at all a terrible remake, there were just a few things that were a little too much for the movie. It still was every girl's dream to see a real Cinderella and we got that, and it was a whimsical journey to say the least.

6. Tarzan

Not many people know that this actually happened, but it did and it was a great rendition. First, the issue I had with this namely was the fact that in it, Tarzan takes on the name Clayton, and for those of us who have watched the original, you know that Clayton was the name of the original villain. So that was a problem for any true Disney fan. The other slight issue was the introduction of the native tribes, just because there was no follow-up of this from the original. It honestly makes a lot of sense that there would be natives living there and helped Jane and her father out, but in the original it was just them and the villain. The great parts about the movie definitely outshine the negative, and how it is all about Tarzan returning home to save not only the tribe he grew close with, but the entire nation was just a perfect story for him. In making it about saving the entire country of Congo, it really hit home, as they showed how the caucasians were beginning to take over, enslaving the people, and changing everything with money. It was done in a great way, but it could have been better nonetheless.

5. Aladdin

This probably was one of the most controversial of the remakes to happen, being that in the original the genie was voiced by the late, great Robin William, so people were not happy in regards to that. This remake was probably one that stuck the most to the original script, though there were very few adaptations. The acting and the production of the movie were all great. It is incredible how spot on it seemed that all the cast resembled their cartoon counterpart. The movie just had a "blah" feel to it really, nothing in it felt over-the-top or brand new. I think this is one of the cases where adding newer ideas would have benefited it all, hence why it landed at number 5; it was neither really good or really bad, it was just so-so. Some of the scenes just felt messy in a way and chaotic where in the original everything worked together so well. I think this was one that almost should have been left alone just because of the love people had for Robin Williams as the genie. People, even myself a little, are not giving it an open viewed opinion on it because the iconic role is changed. It would be like if they had someone else voice Mufasa, there would be an uproar. Will Smith does a great job at being the genie, but I think everyone was missing a little of the Robin spark and improv that made the original so good. This was a big repeat done with cooler graphics.

4. Maleficent

Can we just give respect to how fierce Angelina Jolie is in this? And thank her for bringing a cartoon character to life simply with the power of cheekbones! It was a great film and the concept was so strong, and it also made great sense. This was one of the best depictions on why someone turned evil. How the king had Maleficent attacked, and her wings brutally cut off; it totally explained why she turned evil. It was also a really cool spin on Sleeping Beauty really. I almost found it better than the original just because there was more to the movie than just a classic damsel in distress viewpoint. Also, having a character that was so badass is never a bad thing either. Pretty sure just the fact that the thought of explaining a story where the evil character turns out to be justified was something new and exciting for Disney and made this a great film. Again, it is too hard to rank these, but this is in this slot just based on the fact that while it was a remake, there really isn't an original for this. The original is Sleeping Beauty, and while this a version of that, it cannot really be classified as a remake, landing it here on the list.

3. Jungle Book

This movie set the tone when it came to the Disney remakes. It was a perfect combination of the classic and the new. The CGI was spot on as well. It was so well done in every aspect, though I am not sure why it just does not come to mind when talking about the best Disney remakes. Maybe since again it is not really a live-action remake. Though there are human actors in the movie, the screen time for anyone but Mowgli is not substantial. Also, it really did not add any new ideas to the movie, except for the water hole and the elephant significance to the movie. It was still breathtaking to watch and such a good film. It was just too predictable in a sense, which is weird to say being that it is a remake, but everything followed the original almost too closely. In the two movies that beat it, there was a decent amount of original script in it that you were not really expecting, but added to the story.

2. Lion King

Now I am a huge Lion King fan, so it pains me to place it in the second place spot but I had to. Namely because really the movie is CGI and not live action, technically. The remake was amazing, let's just make that clear. It was spot on to the original but with subtle changes to the story which made it even better. The fact that they made the humour a little more adult-friendly was a great nod to the true fans of the original movie, a.k.a. those 20 or older. Also, the best part was how they added in certain backstories in order to make things more clear. Like how Scar got a relationship with the hyenas and why Nala runs off in the first place to look for help. All these little additions made so much sense in the movie it made the story more complete. The cast was pretty perfect actually, and the fact that James Earl Jones managed to be able to voice Mufasa again was everything this movie needed. If this iconic voice was not in the movie, no way would it have been as good. The rest of the cast also was great, and one of the standouts was Seth Rogan as Pumba. It was unexpected how good that performance was. The biggest accomplishment of this movie was that it took an already loved movie and did not re-imagine it. Instead, they just tweaked things here and there to make it even more perfect than before.

1. Beauty and the Beast

This movie was the perfect version of a live-action remake. Namely, because they had real people in it (hence why it is here rather than the Lion King). The casting could not have been more spot on from the original movie, and Emma Watson was the perfect role for Belle, as they could have been twins really. Again, as we have learnt the key to success is to not remake the movie but to follow the original with only a few additions that really make sense. In this case, it was the addition into what happened to Belle's mother. Probably one of the most asked about questions in the original and this remake gave it the answers we needed. Another little bit I appreciated was the fact that they kept the faces of the inanimate objects true to the real-life vibe. They could have easily made them to be more cartoon-like but this really would have thrown the entire thing off. But they kept the animation fitting of the look they were going for a it really did work well for them. They took their time with all of this, they made sure that every detail down to the Beast's horns were done correctly. All this made it the absolute best remake there has been yet!