The 10 Animated Classics Disney WON'T Remake In Live Action

A live-action The Lion King just sounds dangerous.

The Lion King.jpg
Disney

Disney are on a live-action remaking binge at the moment, taking any and all of its animated classics with vague audience recognition and turning them into big budget blockbusters. Don't believe me? Let's just take a look at what they've got in the pipeline.

We've already had Alice In Wonderland (which started the whole thing and was so successful it's getting a sequel this year), Sleeping Beauty (made modern by focusing on Maleficent) and Cinderella, now joined by The Jungle Book, but that's just the start. Already rolling in various stages of development are Beauty And The Beast (with Emma Watson as Belle), Dumbo (with Tim Burton directing), Pinocchio (with Robert Downey, Jr. as Geppetto), Cruella (with Emma Stone as the 101 Dalmatian baddie) and many, many more have been announced; Mulan, Tink (based on Tinkerbell), Winnie The Pooh, Genies (a prequel to Aladdin), The Sword In The Stone, Night In Bald Mountain (based on the nightmarish sequence from Fantasia), a Prince Charming film (Princess unconfirmed) and The Chronicles Of Prydain (based on the same book as The Black Cauldron).

There's also several remakes/sequels to previous live action movies; Pete's Dragon arrives later this year and will be followed by Mary Poppins 2 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. It won't stop there, either, with Maleficent and The Jungle Book both already planned to get sequels, and no doubt many of these (especially the prequels) aimed for more.

I am not making any of this up - these are all announced movies that will be coming from Disney in the next decade or so. It's getting to the point where instead of theorising what could be next, it's better to look at what won't be remade.

And there are a few candidates. If you look at what Disney seems to be looking for in its projects - a CGI showcase with potential for big action set-pieces starring either a masthead name or an unknown prime for a multi-film contract that offers a unique branding angle on a beloved name - you can work out which films will stay in the 2D realm.

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Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.