Live-Action ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’

[Chi84]

Yep, the proof is in the pudding.

Make something that is loyal to the original, make money.
Make something that bares no resemblance to the original, lose money.

But what about TLM. It’s virtually the same movie with a couple of added songs, which they do for all remakes. It’s incredibly loyal to the original but didn’t do well.

 

[oogie boogie man]

Yep, the proof is in the pudding.

Make something that is loyal to the original, make money.
Make something that bares no resemblance to the original, lose money.

Exactly, I don't know why they keep giving IP's to people who want to do their own thing, and openly hate the IPs (The Witcher) they are working on. When companies started going with these hateful people over the fans it really started to go down the tubes. They always want to do the same thing and have an unlikeable girl boss.

Lord of the Rings = Success
Rings of Power = Failure

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

But yet The Lion King is a Billion dollar movie

And not a very good movie. I wonder if that is hurting the box office somewhat on these latest remakes.

 

[Frankenstein79]

But what about TLM. It’s virtually the same movie with a couple of added songs, which they do for all remakes. It’s incredibly loyal to the original but didn’t do well.

Not at all, they changed...

the characters, the story, the songs and the ending.... so Ariel could defeat Ursula.

 

[Frankenstein79]

And not a very good movie. I wonder if that is hurting the box office somewhat on these latest remakes.

Nope, it's not being loyal to their source that's hurting the box office. Aladdin and the Lion King Live Actions are horrible, but they are loyal. Both Little Mermaid and Snow White could have been successful too, if they stuck to the script.

 

[LittleBuford]

It's not about how faithful, the point was how was it promoted. I get what you are saying that Disney never said or claimed it was shot for shot and I said the same thing. There's a difference with saying sold as. Those trailers, again, in my opinion, sell the film as a near shot for shot remake. Almost nothing in them isn't lifted directly from the original. How well would mermaid have done if mermaid focused on scuttlebutt and the other new song instead of just using scenes and songs from the original? The funny part in all this is the fact that it's a lose lose for Disney. If they sell it as a new spin, like peter pan and wendy, people get mad because you change it too much. Rehash the original, and you're lazy bums with zero creativity. Either way you are making someone mad.

But, as you yourself noted, it was promoted in exactly the same way as the remakes that came before it. The claim I was responding to was that people rejected Mermaid because it misrepresented itself as closer to the original than it turned out to be. I don’t think anyone who’s actually watched the film and left a review of it here has expressed such a complaint.

 

[LSLS]

Not at all, they changed...

the characters, the story, the songs and the ending.... so Ariel could defeat Ursula.

Legit, from the director of Aladdin:

In the original movie, it felt like she was a Disney princess that was just looking for love. We wanted to have our version of a Disney princess, a modern-day version of it where she is looking to lead. That's ultimately the character that Naomi [Scott] plays.

There are a host of reasons why TLM didn't draw nearly what everyone expected. But I don't think you can say they changed all this in TLM and then say none of it was changed in Aladdin (at least based on the plots I read).

 

[TP2000]

Nope, it's not being loyal to their source that's hurting the box office. Aladdin and the Lion King Live Actions are horrible, but they are loyal. Both Little Mermaid and Snow White could have been successful too, if they stuck to the script.

The box office really supports your argument, as well. It's not even close how poorly Mermaid did compared to Aladdin and Lion King.

These numbers are adjusted for inflation to 2023 box office reality.

 

[Rambozo]

The most loyal movies have made the most money. Even though they are definitely all awful movies. Meanwhile the recent unloyal ones (which I have no interest in seeing) are being sent to Disney Plus. Like Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan and Wendy.

Lion King $1,656,943,394
Beauty and the Beast $1,263,521,126
Aladdin $1,050,693,953

 

[DisneyHead123]

I fully agree with you, which is why I’m trying to ask people to look beyond the feelings aroused by the topic and reflect instead on their firsthand experience of the films themselves. These discussions have become so ideologically overdetermined that the movies in question are barely talked about. I think another approach could be more fruitful.

For the purposes of conversation on this board, yes, I can see that.

In regard to the big picture of decreased fan support at the box office, I think Disney needs a reset of some sort. People may be judging their movies unfairly, but in today's world of hyper-entertainment, there are so many options that people can easily pass on a movie for any reason. You're not going to get people to pause and look reflectively and deeply at their choices because there's already more content than they could possibly watch anyways.

 

[doctornick]

Nope, it's not being loyal to their source that's hurting the box office. Aladdin and the Lion King Live Actions are horrible, but they are loyal. Both Little Mermaid and Snow White could have been successful too, if they stuck to the script.

I don't really agree with Aladdin being "horrible" but I think the general point is correct. That bein said, there is certainly some box office depression post-pandemic compared to before. So, I would probably consider movies right now to be "on par" box office wise with pre-pandemic if they were grossing say 80% of so of what we saw pre-pandemic. But that is not happening by and large for Disney.

 

[TP2000]

I don't really agree with Aladdin being "horrible" but I think the general point is correct. That bein said, there is certainly some box office depression post-pandemic compared to before. So, I would probably consider movies right now to be "on par" box office wise with pre-pandemic if they were grossing say 80% of so of what we saw pre-pandemic. But that is not happening by and large for Disney.

Agreed.

At least for Little Mermaid, the biggest problem it had was its truly disastrous overseas box office.

Using Aladdin and Lion King as comparisons, both of those films had overseas box office that was roughly double their domestic box office.

But Mermaid did horribly at the overseas box office, and actually got less than its domestic box office. If Mermaid had followed Alladin and Lion King's path, Mermaid would have gotten $600 Million overseas instead of the pathetic $265 Million that it got.

With a normal overseas box office pattern based on its modestly successful domestic box office, Little Mermaid would have been profitable for Disney. But the overseas markets doomed it to money-losing failure at the global box office.

 

[Disney Irish]

The problem now is Disney is tarnishing their image which is going to hurt all films

You make it seem like this is the first time in their 100 year history where they've had problems with a string of films doing poorly with audiences.

Their image will be renewed if they start producing films that get audience acceptance.

 

[TP2000]

You make it seem like this is the first time in their 100 year history where they've had problems with a string of films doing poorly with audiences.

The difference between now and then is that The Apple Dumpling Gang and Herbie Goes Bananas didn't have budgets of $200 Million.

Their image will be renewed if they start producing films that get audience acceptance.

The unknown to that is do Disney's senior leadership and their sycophant staffs have the ability to course correct? Do they even know why family audiences don't want to see their films in numbers that justify their mega-budgets?

What is witty in Silver Lake, is offensive in Salt Lake City. What plays well in Brooklyn, bombs in Baton Rouge.

Do they even know that? And will they be able to admit it out loud? I'm not convinced they have the proper level of self-awareness yet.

 

[LittleBuford]

I don't understand why Disney thinks "Love" is such a bad thing.

It doesn’t. Have you seen the remake of The Little Mermaid? It’s a beautiful love story that actually expands on Ariel and Eric’s relationship.

 

[LittleBuford]

Yep, the proof is in the pudding.

Make something that is loyal to the original, make money.
Make something that bares no resemblance to the original, lose money.

As I pointed out before, The Little Mermaid is closer to the original than Aladdin is. Yet Aladdin made more than a billion.

 

[LittleBuford]

Both Little Mermaid and Snow White could have been successful too, if they stuck to the script.

Have you actually seen The Little Mermaid?

Snow White is a year away from coming out, so I’m not sure how any of us is in a position to judge how successful it is.

 

[LittleBuford]

The box office really supports your argument, as well. It's not even close how poorly Mermaid did compared to Aladdin and Lion King.
View attachment 738112
These numbers are adjusted for inflation to 2023 box office reality.

You haven’t even seen The Little Mermaid to judge how faithful it is! This is my third time saying it, but Aladdin is notably more divergent from the original yet did significantly better at the box office. That’s evidence to the contrary of what you and @Frankenstein79 are claiming.

 

[TP2000]

You haven’t even seen The Little Mermaid to judge how faithful it is! This is my third time saying it, but Aladdin is notably more divergent from the original yet did significantly better at the box office. That’s evidence to the contrary of what you and @Frankenstein79 are claiming.

So why do you think Mermaid did so badly at the box office, especially overseas? I can only assume it was because they chose to cast Ariel as a young Black lady instead of a redheaded white girl. Is that cool that foreigners would dislike it so much because of that? No, it's crummy. But there it is. It just has to have played a sizeable part of Mermaid's box office failure overseas.

And do you think Disney should course correct any issues for future live action remakes, or keep doing what they're doing now?

I think they need a course correction.

 

[LittleBuford]

So why do you think Mermaid did so badly at the box office, especially overseas?

I have no idea, but certainly not because its plot wasn’t faithful enough to the original film’s (something you’re in no position to speak to).