[ad_1]
Moana will be the next movie in Disney’s ever-growing list of live-action remakes, and the studio will hopefully learn from its past mistakes. Overall, the live-action or photorealistic adaptations of the House of Mouse’s animated classics have performed well enough, which is why it continues to produce more and more. The live-action Moana will be unique since it’s the first to be adapted from one of Disney’s 3D animated films. This opens the door for movies like Tangled and Frozen to follow—but hopefully, Moana will prove that Disney has learned some lessons over the years.
Dwayne Johnson, who voiced Maui in the original 2016 Moana, took to Twitter to announce that a live-action remake was in the works and could be expected from Disney in the coming years. This was a significant surprise since the House of Mouse has so far focused its remakes on its older films that would benefit from a modern twist or the ever-advancing technology for special effects. This means new territory for the studio, which makes it all the more important for the creatives at work to take a look at some of the criticisms from their previous live-action movies and take some notes.
9 Moana Can’t Ruin Heihei Like Little Mermaid Did Sebastian and Flounder
The Little Mermaid learned from several of the mistakes in past live-action remakes but continued the ongoing issue of uncomfortably realistic talking animals. This was a problem seen in The Lion King, where the animals looked so realistic that they became unsettling to watch. This was taken even further in The Little Mermaid since characters like Sebastian and Flounder were based on animals virtually incapable of facial expressions. Though Moana has far fewer talking animals, creatures like Heihei would be disappointing to see as overly photorealistic and void of any character or expression.
8 Moana Must Avoid A Shot-For-Shot Remake Like The Lion King
An issue that Disney has faced with each of its live-action remakes is determining how much the new film should align with the classic version. Though too many changes are often criticized, a frame-for-frame remake adds no value to the original story—and therefore makes the effort that was necessary for such an adaptation seem pointless. This was the case for The Lion King, which, though beautifully made, had nothing unique for audiences to enjoy. This would be even more detrimental to Moana since the original film was so recent that there is little benefit to simply turning out a photorealistic live-action without some additional scenes.
7 Moana Can’t Over-Use Vocal Editing Like Beauty & The Beast
Disney’s musical numbers tend to become iconic, and they’re made that way not only by the composers but the performers who lend their voices to the part. The animated Beauty and the Beast was no exception, and Paige O’Hara’s performance as Belle will long be remembered. This made recasting for the live-action version no easy task. Overall, Emma Watson did a phenomenal job, but since she wasn’t known for her singing voice, Disney did a lot of work editing her vocals. Unfortunately, the result was a heavily autotuned version of Belle’s songs. Since Moana is full of even more vocally demanding numbers, repeating this mistake would be a nail in the remake’s coffin.
6 Moana Can’t Remove The Musical Numbers Like Mulan
The original Mulan was full of memorable and fun musical numbers, but the live-action remake did away with all of them. This was a significant disappointment since songs like “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” and “Honor to Us All” were among the reasons audiences were interested in a remake to begin with. Of course, other things contributed to the Mulan remake’s failure, but the fact that it was no longer a musical was among the most prominent complaints. This would be even more of a disaster in Moana since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs (Especially Dwayne Johnson’s “You’re Welcome”) were a significant part of the original film’s success.
5 Moana Can’t Make Flawed Characters Too Perfect Like Pinocchio
Sometimes, a character’s flaws are what makes them so endearing to audiences. In the case of the original Pinocchio, the little puppet’s imperfect nature was precisely the point of the plot. Unfortunately, in the 2022 live-action remake, Pinocchio’s mistakes and consequences (meant to be a lesson for children) were replaced with simple bad luck. This seemed to be in an attempt to make the character more likable. Still, it ultimately made the film forgettable—especially compared to the Netflix Pinocchio also released in 2022. In Moana, Maui is purposefully written to be flawed, and if Disney repeats this mistake, it will risk ruining his character.
4 Moana Can’t Minimize The Magic Like Cinderella
Moana is full of the magic of legends and mythology, and this flavor is what made the original film so special. The same was true for Cinderella, which centralized the magic that comes from a person’s hopes and dreams. Thankfully, the 2015 remake didn’t do away with this classic Disney magic entirely, but it did minimize it. In the original, the talking mice and their big personalities kept the magic alive even before Cinderella’s fairy godmother appeared, but this wasn’t the case in the remake. In Moana, the magic of her story appeared in small, private moments before the titular character was entirely swept away in it—and this must carry through to the remake.
3 Moana’s Remake Needs To Be More Streamlined Than The Little Mermaid
Disney’s remakes must find a careful balance between adding to their stories and adhering too firmly to the original. Though a shot-for-shot adaptation isn’t needed, there are times that adding too much unnecessary nonsense distracts from the story that had been perfected in the traditionally animated version. Though the Little Mermaid remake excluded some unnecessary songs from the original, it added even more that continued to distract from the central plot—and the result was a far less streamlined story. For Moana, the House of Mouse must make sure that any additions actually hold value.
2 Moana Shouldn’t Be As Realistic As The Lion King & Little Mermaid
Disney’s live-action remakes have worked hard to be as realistic as possible, but there are times that the studio has taken this too far. After all, these are still fantasy films full of magic and unexplainable things—so there’s no reason to make everything make perfect sense. This issue was especially prevalent in The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, where some of the magic was lost for the sake of realism. Moana is another story full of unexplainable things, and if Disney puts all its attention into trying to make them make sense, then the fantastic elements will wind up falling flat.
1 Disney Shouldn’t Remake Moana As A Live-Action Movie At All
Disney has had several animated classics that have benefitted from live-action remakes. In the case of Aladdin, the story itself made more sense with the changes to Jasmine’s character, and the musical numbers were updated without undoing the charm originally written into them. Even The Little Mermaid, which made several mistakes, brought Ariel to a new generation that might have missed out on her otherwise. However, other remakes have felt more like a studio trying to show what it can do without considering whether there is any real benefit to it.
In the case of Moana, the original film was so recent and so beautifully animated with the latest and greatest technology that it seems the only benefit to a remake would be to make it look even more realistic. This means that Disney will get to flex its muscles to produce some gorgeous ocean scenes and potentially create some Academy Award buzz. However, when it comes to Moana‘s actual story, this holds little weight. Ultimately, it seems that Disney’s past mistakes would have warned that a remake of this kind for Moana may not be necessary.
[ad_2]
Source link
(This article is generated through syndicated feeds, Financetin doesn’t own any part of this content)
