Just in case I haven't made it clear in this movie column over the last year, I love animation. I'll probably never stop watching cartoons and grow up to be like Stanley Ipkiss in The Mask.
In America, the undisputed ruler of animation is Disney. But lately, the company doesn't seem as eager to crank out animated movies.
As I look at the eight Walt Disney Pictures movies released in 2019, I'm disappointed. Why? Because only two of them are animated. This is a company that made its name and fortune with animated classics, from Snow White to Moana. Here's the list of their 2019 releases: Dumbo, Penguins, Aladdin, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Lady and the Tramp, Noelle and Frozen II.
Now, if we were going by original titles only, six of those movies would be animated. Unfortunately, we live in the worst timeline, where five of those movies are live-action remakes or reboots in some sense of the word. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil straddles the line because it's technically a spin off of Sleeping Beauty, but for the sake of my argument, we'll call it a live-action remake.
In what sane world does Disney look at its fans and think "You know what they'd like? How about we remake all of the animated classics they loved as children, but we'll do it in live-action?"
This craze seemed to start with 2010's Alice in Wonderland (before people were tired of the living cliché Tim Burton has become), and it just spiraled from there with Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and so many more unnecessary mistakes.
What fans want are new stories and characters to fall in love with. Or at the very least, creative continuations of stories we already adore. Though Disney proved it can blunder sequels as well with its notorious direct-to-VHS or -DVD films, like Cinderella II, Mulan II, Pocahontas II and so on for many dozens of terrible flicks.
But let's say Disney wanted to release a live-action cash-grab every few years. That'd be OK. I feel like the market could bear that and the fans could certainly tolerate it. That isn't what the entertainment giant is doing, though.
Five out of nine Disney releases this year were live-action remakes. That's WAY too many. None of them was great, which is certainly disappointing given that the animated source material for all these movies was nothing short of stupendous.
To quickly sum up the year, Dumbo bombed, Aladdin was OK at best, The Lion King was a soulless creation (which is perhaps the gravest travesty given the animated version is widely considered the best Disney movie of all time), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was so-so and Lady and the Tramp was uninspired.
None of these films was great. For Disney to have five shots and millions of dollars to make something fantastic and miss each time? Something is wrong. Maybe we are living in a simulation. Or maybe the entertainment conglomerate doesn't care so long as these cash grabs make lots of money. Thankfully for Disney, Aladdin and The Lion King each made a lot of money. So I expect to see live-action adaptations of The Return of Jafar and Lion King 2: Simba's Pride in 2021. I'm only half-joking.
Have any of Disney's live-action remakes been remarkable and impressive? Sure. The Jungle Book was excellent and Christopher Robin had lots of heart. But they are the exception, not the rule. By and large, these live-action remakes have been nothing but lukewarm disappointments. And I'd really like to see Disney cease making them and shift 100% of its effort back to animation.
I loved Toy Story 4. I laughed a lot. And I even cried at the ending. But I hesitate to give Disney any credit for that movie because it was Pixar's baby. Toy Story always has been Pixar's most well-crafted and perfect franchise. Each entry has shined and left me speechless by the ending.
Sure, Disney owns Pixar. But Disney also has its own animation studio capable of putting out quality movies.
One of my biggest fears for the future of Disney is now that company is so large, it'll get lazy and leave animation to other companies it owns like Pixar or Blue Sky Studios.
Disney needs to stick to what it's good at, animation. If I were Bob Iger, I'd waltz on over to Burbank, Calif. and tell Walt Disney Animation Studios it was getting a giant cash infusion. "Here's $1 billion. Triple your staff. Increase your cartoon output."
Over the last decade, Walt Disney Animation Studios has released nine movies not counting tonight's Frozen sequel: The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh (reboot), Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia (which I'm still mad at for beating Kubo at the Academy Awards), Moana and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Of those nine movies, there was one reboot and one sequel. All of these movies were marvelous (except maybe Ralph Breaks the Internet, which was just decent). Disney's only mistake with these movies was not making more of them. There should have been 18 animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios over the last decade.
Don't tell me Disney doesn't have the resources. That company is finding new ways to take my money every day. Of course, I signed up for Disney+ (The Mandalorian is excellent). So hop to it, Mr. Iger.
Look, people need cartoons. Reality is depressing enough. I need cartoons to show me new stories and worlds, to inspire me, open my horizons and provide some hope for the future.
Some of you may think it silly I look to cartoons for hope and inspiration, but you knew jumping into this column how much I love them. My wife and I just finished watching the newest season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power last week. Next week we'll start watching the new season of The Dragon Prince.
Cartoons are important. And I want as many of them from Disney as I can get, provided we don't revisit the direct-to-DVD age again, which I fear Disney+ may become. The last thing I want is for the streaming service to become a dumping ground for half-baked ideas. But that's another column for another day.
Stick to animation, Disney. It's what you're good at. Oh, and please stop making Pirates of the Carribean movies.
MovieStyle on 11/22/2019