Recently, you may have noticed a bit of a trend with the films that Disney has been releasing. In the past year, the studio has released movies such as Lilo and Stitch, Moana 2, and Mufasa: The Lion King. All of these, especially the live action Lilo and Stitch, did very well in theaters, with flocks of people returning to watch another movie starring their favorite characters. But are these movies actually good?
It has increasingly been trending in the past decade to revamp old franchises instead of making new content. Whether it’s Frozen Two, Inside Out Two, or any of the many live action remakes of classic films, these movies only serve one purpose: to make the studio more money.
As Disney has bought other smaller studios, they have been investing more and more money into these expensive movies that require extensive CGI and highly paid, famous actors. In fact, the recently released Lilo and Stitch live action movie had a budget of over $100 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The movie broke box office records, grossing more than $900 million globally.
Surprisingly, the movie wasn’t even rated that highly. It has a Rotten Tomato score of just 71%, and IMDb rated it a 6.9/10. Even though these aren’t terrible ratings, they just aren’t that good for a movie that made so much money. Personally, I found it to be an entirely mediocre movie, with strange CGI characters and a plot that just didn’t live up to the incredibly well-made original. This tends to be a trend for Disney’s recent films.
The only reason that Disney is able to continue profiting off of movies that are “just okay” is that their earlier films amassed such a large and devoted fan base. People who loved the earlier, creative kids movies will go and watch the new ones purely because of nostalgia and love for the franchise. The thing is, though, that this strategy is just not sustainable. Eventually, Disney will run out of old, better quality movies to remake and create sequels for, and by then they’ll have lost the fan base that they created in the first place.
Creativity and expression are things that seem to be getting lost in this age of profit driven consumerism, and they are especially important in media that children are exposed to. Not only does it make good movies, but it teaches kids that new, imaginative ideas are important and necessary.
So, the next time Disney releases a rerun of something that’s been seen time and time again, opt for something else at the theaters and advocate for creativity.
