Page 40 Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 2019
After this summer’s Lion King, the Hollywood
giant is cashing in with even more real-life
remakes of other classic cartoons — leaving
an army of infuriated fans VERY animated
by Tom Leonard
it’s friday!
F
IRST, think. Second, dream.
Third, believe. And finally,
dare.’ So said Walt Disney, a
man who built his career on
innovation and risk-taking.What he would say now of the
entertainment colossus his studio
has become is anyone’s guess — but
he probably wouldn’t call it daring.
The company has long relied heavily on
sequels and remakes, particularly live-action
versions (featuring real actors) of classic
animations that generally aren’t a patch on
the original. And now Disney is at it again,
with a vengeance.
One of this summer’s hit films was The
Lion King, a remake of the original 1994
animation. But it wasn’t the only nice little
earner — having spent vast sums buying up
other studios including Marvel (owner of an
army of superhero characters), LucasFilm
(owner of Stars Wars) and 21st Century Fox
(owner of The Simpsons and X-Men
superheroes), Disney distributed four of the
ten most profitable films at the U.S. box
office this summer.
It is also taking on Netflix by starting its
own online video streaming service, Disney+,
which will launch in the U.S. in November
and the UK next year.
So what does the world’s largest entertain-
ment company have in store for us now it
has its hands on so much of hollywood?
At a glitzy presentation of its film and TV
plans in California a few days ago, Disney
bosses unveiled a few new ideas — but these
were overshadowed by a vast array of
adaptations, rehashes, sequels and prequels.
From relatively recent hits such as Frozen
and Black Panther to golden oldies such as
101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty and The
Lady And The Tramp, take your seats for
MULAN
the Year of the Reboot...
REFROZEN HIT
The real question is why it has
taken so long to produce a sequel
to Frozen, the highest-grossing
animated film in history. The
original 2013 movie, inspired by
the hans Christian Andersen
fairytale The Snow Queen, is about
fearless young Princess Anna who
sets out to find her estranged
sister, elsa. Its infuriatingly catchy
highlight was the song Let It Go,
which helped earn Disney more
than £1 billion from the film.
Actress Kristen Bell, the voice of
Princess Anna, explained that the
delay was because Frozen’s makers
were determined it would have the
same impact as the first film: ‘It
was about, what are the emotional
undercurrents where we can show
growth and character develop-
ment in these people?’
Maybe, but millions of little girls
will just be happy to get some new
songs to sing ad infinitum.
Stung by accusations that its
films are too white, Disney has
added a black character. Despite
speculation that it was also
introducing a lesbian theme in the
form of a new female friend, one of
the sequel’s songwriters recentlyrevealed that elsa doesn’t have
time for romance in the movie.
Release date: November 2019PUNKY CRUELLA
YOU really can’t have too much of
a good idea at Disney. Cruella,
starring emma Stone as the
villainous, fur-loving fashion
designer Cruella de Vil, is the fifth
Disney film based on Dodie
Smith’s story The hundred And
One Dalmatians (so far there have
been two cartoons and three live-
action films, including the original
1961 animation and the 1996
reboot starring Glenn Close). Thistime, a youthful Ms de Vil is a punk
fashion designer in the Vivienne
Westwood mould and the setting
is London in the late 1970s.
The prequel — or ‘origin story’, as
hollywood likes to call them —
also stars emma Thompson and
explains why Cruella became such
a dog-hating monster.
Release date: Jan 2021BARKING AGAIN
DISNeY has dogs on the brain. A
forthcoming live-action remake of
Lady And The Tramp, the soppy
1955 animated film about posh
spaniel Lady and her downtownstray suitor, a schnauzer called
Tramp, features everything from
the original, including the smoochy
scene in which they share a bowl
of spaghetti. Well, almost every-
thing — the dastardly Siamese
cats (the best thing in the origi-
nal) reportedly won’t be portrayed
as remotely Asian for fear of upset-
ting the vital Chinese market.
Producers wanted Tramp to be
played by a real stray, and at an
Arizona ‘kill shelter’ (where dogs
are put down if no one adopts
them) they found Monte, a schnau-
zer-airedale cross puppy.
Disney is also working on live-DOUBLE TA
timetimeayouthfulMsdeVilisapunk straysuitoraschnauzercalledLADY AND
THE TRAMP
MEGA-DOLLAR
DI NEY’S
IN NEW YORK