It seemed like a good idea when Walt Disney Studios first started live-action remakes of their animated classics. Some of them turned out great, Beauty and the Beast (2017), some of them were just okay, The Lion King (2019), and some were just unnecessary, Peter Pan and Wendy (2023). But now, with a release schedule full of live-action remakes, it appears that Disney has run out of ideas, and the audiences have just had enough.
But now, the newest Disney live-action remakes have been shrouded in controversy. Online trolls were upset over the casting of Halle Bailey, who is African American, as Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2023). There are dozens of controversies surrounding the new Snow White (2024), which hasn’t even been released.
The upheaval isn’t just from the internet; it’s now coming from inside Disney. Famed Disney lyricist Sir Tim Rice gave a wide-ranging interview with GBNews, in which he tackled the Snow White controversy and called Disney’s live-action remakes a “mistake” despite working on some of them.
Tim Rice has written some of Disney’s most famous songs for Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994) with Elton John. Rice also wrote new songs for the live-action Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aladdin (2019).
Rice said about the new live-action Snow White:
The story, as I understand it, the new version of Snow White; the story is being changed so much, the characters are being changed, the dwarfs are not all dwarfs. And you think well, ‘Why call it [Snow White] a remake? Why not just make a new film with an exciting new story?
The Rachel Zegler version of Snow White has been controversial, with the internet taking exception to nearly everything Zegler has said. There is also the controversy over removing the seven dwarfs, having been replaced by seven “magical creatures.”
Despite wanting to see new, creative ideas, Rice defended the casting of Zegler and Bailey, saying:
I think anybody if you’re an actor, should be able to play any part, and the only thing really that matters is whether the actor is good and right for the part….the only thing that really matters is, are they any good? Can they convince in the role? And I think that’s what should apply to all the Disney films as well. Do they work as a movies?
The Walt Disney Company has announced live-action remakes of Lilo and Stitch and Moana, and rumors are swirling about the possibility of Tangled and the Princess and the Frog live-action remakes.
So, despite what Sir Tim Rice thinks, the era of the remake is here to stay.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
