Disney Head on Why Their Live-Action Adaptations Succeed

While there is a lot of criticism going around for Disney adapting animated classic into live-action, there's no denying that these films succeed at the box office. With The Lion King trailer just dropping, we have an insider opinion on why Disney thinks their remakes have been so successful.

Talking during CinemaCon 2019 (via DisInsider), Disney film head Sean Bailey explained:

"Over the past several years we've had great success in revisiting some of these stories and characters and reimagining them for moviegoers. The reason we've been successful is because we are never simply retelling. We always want to stay true to their spirit and protect what people love and remember about them."

Admittedly a lot of these adaptations have not been shot-for-shot remakes. Some of them expand on the story like Beauty and the Beast, while some give their own twist to the original like Dumbo or Maleficent. We don't really know what to expect with the upcoming Lion King yet, but I have a feeling there's going to be some kind of big change to the classic formula, whether it be another song or a change in a particular plot point.

While the movies are box office hits though, a lot of them end up not doing so well critically. There has been a lot of shade being thrown at Beauty and the Beast as well as Maleficent, and I personally wasn't a fan of what we got with Dumbo. It helps to be optimistic though, and I think Aladdin might end up doing good, as well as Jon Favreau's The Lion King.

Aladdin hits theaters May 24 and The Lion King comes out July 19.

See Also: Aladdin CinemaCon Footage With Will Smith's Genie Singing Divides Viewers