The Era of Disney Live Actions
How Many More Does Disney Have Left?!
In an age where superheroes are dominating the big screens, I have always wondered whether or not the age of Fairy Tales can manage to keep up with the times? I mean, who needs Prince Charming when you can have Iron Man or Thor come and save the day? Who would want to face a ten feet tall dragon and an army of goblins when you can battle it out with the Joker or Thanos? To be honest, I guess it truly all depends on who you ask because speaking solely for myself, the Age of Fairy Tales are still alive and well.
Not only have Fairy Tales existed for centuries on end, but these are stories that practically everyone grew up with at some point in time of their lives. We all have heard of the maiden with the glass slipper or the impish little troll that could spin straw into gold, but just because something is old…it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is over and done with.
After all, it was the incredible mind of Walt Disney that breathed fresh life into these classical tales. In the thirties, Snow White & the Seven Dwarves was a box-office success and made history as the first full-length animated feature that scored eight Academy Awards. Shortly after the success of Snow White, Walt Disney and his company rolled out a plethora of fairy tale reimaginings that range from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, the Princess & the Frog, Rapunzel (Tangled), and even the Snow Queen (Frozen)…all memorable classical fairy tales that were revised and retold for the audience of their respective eras.
However, as time would have it, life changes and so does the audiences, who are now older with kids of their own. Kids, who are not as impressed with carriages racing throughout the night or magical trips into Neverland and Wonderland…instead, they have become entertained by the realities of life that they witness in live action productions of famous superheroes such as the Avengers and the Justice League. So what better way for fairy tale lovers to handle this situation, why of course, to once again revision and retell the fairy tales, only this time…with their own live action twist.
Disney’s first shot at revisioning their work came in the form of Alice in Wonderland, the 2010 Adaption being greatly familiar to it’s 1951 Animated Counterpart. Suffice it to say, it was a box-office hit with rave reviews from audiences that led to another box-office hit sequel in 2016, as well as the sudden change in gears for Disney to adapt their old fairy tales in a newer light for a newer audiences. From Cinderella to Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Beauty & the Beast, The Jungle Book, Mulan, Dumbo, Aladdin, to now the highly anticipated Little Mermaid (2023) and Snow White (Upcoming)….the live action adaptions of Disney’s former animated movies have spawned well over five billion dollars in total, making their new era an incredibly successful one
Therefore, in the end, it can certainly be said that although the animated adaptions will always hold a special place in the hearts of all who saw them, Disney has learned to adapt with the times and honor their present by retelling it in the future with the fresh twist of it being live action. All in all, the superheroes might be dominating the screens for now, but the Age of Fairy Tales has been reborn and is showing no signs of leaving again any time soon.