I don't know ... the designs for, say, the Enchanted Objects in BatB are quite different from the animated film. Emma Watson's hair color is about as close to the shade of brown for animated Belle as Halle Bailey's is to the shade of red for animated Ariel. I'd even go as far as saying that the screenplay for LM's remake actually stuck to the animated film more than either Batb or Aladdin. Still not nearly as much as TLK, but you still had whole segments where they just lifted the dialogue onto the new film. Ursula's opening monologue was almost word for word here.Disney's Divinity wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:53 pm With TLM, it's pretty clear decisions to be unfaithful with that film are what hampered its ability to do as well as past remakes that were more faithful than it was what with both Mario and Barbie ending up in billion status on either side of it. Hopefully Hercules, L&S, Moana, etc. will be a return to more faithful remakes like Aladdin/B&TB/TLK/TJB in part because of Mulan's, TLM's as well as (more than likely) SW's failure. Elemental, on the other hand, I simply see that as a miscalculation on the company's part. They assumed going back to the formula would bring success and I'm personally glad it didn't--more incentive to embrace the new.
The reason for Mermaid's underperformance that makes most sense to me is still the introduction of Disney+, and its continued mismanagement.
The fact that the internet has REALLY turned on the remakes as a concept in the last few years I think also factors in. Like, the idea was never fully embraced, but I still feel like this movie walked into a firing squad in a way that Beauty and the Beast never had to, in a way that has overlap with but also feels partially separate from the uproar over race-swapping Ariel.
I remember after backlash over the infamous Genie trailer for Aladdin, that was the first time I thought that maybe the internet was finally done with the remakes. Disney ended up turning that one around just fine, in part because the Aladdin remake was one of the rare good remakes, but I do feel like that kind of opened the floodgates for the widespread derision of the remakes train.
Then came the Mulan fiasco, and I think that was the first time that almost everyone agreed that a specific remake was bad. It didn't help Disney fans had to wade through a whole swamp of atrocious Disney+ remakes, which just added to the stink. (I know Cruella came out somewhere in this window, and was very well received from what I observed, but that wasn't one of their tentpole remakes, and it behaves more like a spin-off anyways, so it's kinda graded on a different curve.) By the time we get to "Mermaid," audiences are not only expecting this film to be part of the Disney+ package in a few very short months, but they have also become very well-trained in the rhetoric of "Disney remakes will rob you on the street! Do not engage!"
If the movie also underperforms on Disney+, I'll reevaluate my thesis. Either way, it is a shame that Mermaid is the one taking the heat for the sins of remakes past since this was one of the rare remakes that truly complemented its source material.
, and of course dug days Carl’s date, the former I would rank higher, and probably put It right above wish, and Carl’s date right below elemental