Do Disney’s Reboots Recapture the Magic?
Insights data shows that some of Disney’s remakes are even more popular than the iconic animated films they’re based on.
Ready to feel old? The first live-action remake of Disney’s classic animated movies was released 28 years ago.
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book was released on Christmas Day, 1994. Though we tend to think of these reboots as a more recent trend in the output of the Mouse House, they’ve been premiering in theaters for almost three decades now. With the release of The Little Mermaid on May 26, there will be 22 remakes and spinoffs starting with that 1994 film, including two other Jungle Book movies. That gives Disney more than enough data to figure out which approaches to the live-action reboot work — and which don’t.
Ranker voters have visited dozens of lists of Disney movies over the years, both animated and live-action, to tell us which films they like best. We’re taking a look at the most recent Disney remakes and comparing the total ratio of positive-to-negative votes for each to their respective original films. The results will tell us which movies lived up to or even exceeded the standard set by their animated forbears, and which ones were better off in 2D.
The bar graph above illustrates the respective approval ratings (measured as the percentage of positive votes received for a given movie) of Disney’s original animated classics and their live-action reboots. The list is presented in the order that the movies were released, and excludes older remakes like Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, sequels like 102 Dalmatians, and spinoffs like Cruella and Maleficent.
As you can see, it’s difficult for a reboot to do better than its animated prototype, but far from impossible. Both older and newer reboots have eclipsed Disney classics in terms of popularity among Disney fans on Ranker, while others trail the originals by only 2 to 3 percentage points. Still, some reboots simply fail to live up to audience expectations, with a few trailing the classics on which they’re based by over 10 percentage points. Let’s see what, if anything, is common among the most and least successful adaptations Disney has done of its own prized films.
Victories in 3D
Photo: 101 Dalmations, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
101 Dalmations (1996) — 67% approval
The Jungle Book (2016) — 64% approval
Beauty and the Beast (2017) — 64% approval
Lady and the Tramp (2019) — 63% approval
Given the status these animated movies enjoy as classics not just in the world of animated film, but in movie history generally, any reboot outdoing an original Disney classic is an incredible feat. According to the die-hard Disney fans who vote on our lists, though, four reboots have managed it — starting with one of the first that Disney released.
With 67% positive votes, the 1996 version of 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil has the highest sentiment score of any movie we looked at for this post, animated or live-action (the second-highest sentiment score belongs to the 1950 classic Cinderella). The original 101 Dalmatians has a sentiment score that is 4 percentage points lower, though it has strong rankings on lists like The Greatest Animal Movies Ever Made (71K votes), where it sits at #3, and The Best Movies For Kids (246K votes), where it’s #9.
The other reboots more popular among our readers than the originals were all released during the latter half of the 2010s. Jon Favreau’s 2019 take on The Jungle Book beat the 1967 original by 7 percentage points, the largest margin of victory put up by any of these four movies. The Beauty and the Beast reboot starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens is #1 on our list of The Best Disney Live-Action Remakes Of The Last Few Years (11K votes), indicating that a significant portion of our fans feel the movie tops Favreau’s Jungle Book. And 2019’s Lady and the Tramp eked out a victory over the animated original released in 1995 by 1 percentage point.
Does anything link these successful reboots? The big connection among the four movies is their focus on animals (if you count Beast as an animal, that is) — though the 2019 The Lion King doesn’t quite beat the original with our viewers, it’s just 2 percentage points short, with a total of 61% positive votes. That bodes well for the upcoming Little Mermaid, which will feature a healthy mix of human and piscine characters. The takeaway for Disney marketers: don’t be afraid to give your fishy characters plenty of screen time in your promotional campaigns.
Live-Action Losses
Photo: Pinocchio, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
Pinocchio (2022) — 44%
Aladdin (2019) — 54%
Alice in Wonderland (1993) — 55%
Cinderella (2015) — 63%
The majority of the reboots that have been released over the last 28 years are less beloved than the animated films they’re based on, but for many of these reboots, the margin is quite small. The 2020 reboot of Mulan, for instance, has 59% positive sentiment compared with the 1998 original’s 61%, while both The Lion King and Cinderella trail their predecessors by just 3 percentage points. For other Disney classics, however, there’s plenty of daylight between the sentiment score of the original and that of the remake, begging the question: what went wrong?
The least successful reboot in the eyes of Ranker voters is also one of Disney’s most recent. Only 44% of votes cast for last year’s Pinocchio, starring Tom Hanks, indicated positive sentiment, the lowest score of any of the movies we looked at. It also has the largest distance between a reboot and an original, with the original getting a sentiment score 13 percentage points higher.
The 2019 film Aladdin, directed by Guy Ritchie and featuring Will Smith as the Genie, also fell short of the standard set by its original, with a sentiment score 11 percentage points lower than the beloved 1992 version. Ritchie’s remake had especially large shoes to fill, as the original Aladdin has a strong sentiment score of 65%. Still, the fact that the movie is featured on lists like The Worst Movies Of 2019 (5K votes) indicates that, even as a movie of its own era, Aladdin failed to connect with many audiences.
On average, the reboots in this second category were released slightly longer after their originals — the less successful reboots premiered, on average, 51 years after their respective animated antecedents, while the more successful reboots came around 44 years later. That’s more good news for The Little Mermaid, which is coming 34 years after the 1989 original (around the same amount of time between Disney’s two 101 Dalmatians films).
Betting Big on Little Mermaid
Photo: Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures
Will the upcoming The Little Mermaid be able to match the reception of the 1989 animated flick? The task will be more difficult for this film than for any previous reboot — the original Little Mermaid has a sentiment score of 69%, higher than any live-action or animated movie discussed so far. But before viewers can evaluate the film, Disney needs to get them to see it. Who should Disney be marketing The Little Mermaid to?
It’s a tough question to answer because, according to Ranker Insights, the audiences for Disney’s previous reboots have widely differing tastes. Those who love the 2019 Aladdin tend to like classic live-action Disney films of the 2000s, like The Princess Diaries and Freaky Friday. Those who love the version of Dumbo released the same year like dramas from every period of film history, from All About Eve, to Fried Green Tomatoes, to A Dog’s Way Home. Those who like the 2020 Mulan enjoy contemporary frightening fare, including the 2019 Child’s Play, Kristen Stewart vehicle Underwater, and the recent Adam Sandler horror-comedy Hubie Halloween.
There is, however, some crossover between these audiences. Superhero film Shazam! is at least 4X more likely to be beloved by fans of reboots of Mulan, Dumbo, and The Lion King, as well as of the original Little Mermaid. Fans of the original Mermaid film are 6X more likely to also love Tangled, the 2010 movie that’s also 2X more likely to appeal to Aladdin fans. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is 3X more likely to appeal to fans of both The Jungle Book and Aladdin. Targeting fans of these movies and franchises would be a good start for Disney as it approaches the release of its latest reboot.
As Disney already knows at this point, its strategy of restaging the company’s most popular films is no guarantee of success. But these results indicate that, while it’s far from guaranteed, these new movies do have the ability to earn as much or more positive reception from the studio’s most dedicated fans. Hopefully, with The Little Mermaid, the Mouse House is looking at another Beauty and the Beast, rather than another Pinocchio — but to ensure the movie is a success at the box office as well as on Ranker, Disney will have to effectively market it to fans of both the old and new movies.
