Growing Up Disney
Like many kids, I grew up on Disney movies. I remember waiting for the Sunday night Wonderful World of Disney to come on TV. The theme song “When you wish Upon a Star” is permanently tattooed on my brain. Swiss Family Robinson was one of my favorites live action movies. I liked both The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast but it was Aladdin that really had me hooked. Then came the Lion King. It is still my favorite Disney movie and one of my all time favorite movies period. Right up there with Top Gun.
Then I grew up. I was still a Disney fan. I managed to catch Toy Story and a Bug’s Life at some point and even The Emperor’s New Groove. Then I mostly stopped watching any movies from the mouse. My nephews were into Finding Nemo, Cars, and the Incredibles. I only seemed to watch a Disney when they were watching one. When I went to the theater in those days it was usually to see the next film in the Marvel franchise or another Star Wars installment.
Catching Up
Now my daughter is almost five. We started planning a Disney vacation a few months ago and wanted to ensure she was familiar with more of the characters. She was already big into Cinderella; that was even her Halloween costume last year (her mom got be a fairy god mother and I got to be a pumpkin). Then went to a production of Cinderella at a local high school followed by a viewing at home of the original 1950 animated version.
There were a lot of movies we wanted to watch again or watch for the first time ourselves. So we started on some of the movies that we hadn’t seen. Lilo and Stitch was first in the queue and I loved it. Why hadn’t I seen this before? Sad and funny at the same time it pulled at the heartstrings like all the great Disney movies do. Stitch is now one of my favorite characters. Then we watched Moana. What a fantastic movie. Great characters, soaring music, and amazing animation. It is now among my favorite Disney movies. Checking out the Red Box outside the local Walmart we stumbled onto the new live-action Dumbo. It made me believe that elephants could fly again.
The King is Back
Then it just so happened that the Lion King was coming to theaters. I had missed all the live-action remakes that Disney has made over the last decade. As I said, I had been too busy catching superhero blockbusters and wasn’t much into Disney films at the time. Truth be told, I was also concerned that the remake of my favorite Disney movie wouldn’t do the original justice. I thought they were going to ruin it. But Dumbo had been really pretty good and my daughter was ready to go to her first movie. So off we went.
It was awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the original and it will probably always be my favorite. The new movie, however, is simply amazing. Disney really can make magic. They can make you believe that signing lions and dancing hippos are real. My only complaints would be mere quibbles. I miss the voices of the original Timon and Pumba. The new voice of Scar is perhaps not quite a Jeremy Irons. Otherwise, though, the movie is thoroughly fantastic.
Ready for More
Recently I read an article by Carly Mallenbaum about how, starting with the new Lion King, she was “over” the Disney re-makes. She said it felt cheap. She said the incredible new graphics didn’t fit the decades old story. Her chief complaint was the remakes were robbing this generation of something new. Those complaints are ill founded and just plain wrong.
On the first count, Disney has not stopped making completely original films. Since 2012 they have introduced these outstanding new animated movies: Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, Zootopia, Moana, and CoCo. Basically a new animated feature, with all new characters, new music, and new stories every single year. Some of those films I haven’t seen yet. The ones I have seen have all been excellent. This generation is not being robbed of new content and their own unique experiences.
Her second point – that new graphics don’t fit an old story – is just plain bogus. Can’t she see that the new movie is it’s own kind of magic? And great stories don’t just get old, put on the shelf, or tossed away. We still love Shakespeare and Dickens don’t we? And every few years isn’t a new version of these old stories remade for stage or screen? How many versions of Romeo and Juliet are there? Those new version aren’t just derivatives of the old; they are classics re-imagined.
A Whole New World
The best part of the new Lion King was watching it with my own little cub. Not too long ago I lost my own Dad to cancer and the movie has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Watching Simba’s journey means more to me now than it did the first time watching it 30 years ago. I love that I can share my favorite Disney movie with my daughter and that it’s the first movie she ever got to see in a theater. The original version belongs to my generation and it’s still a classic. But this version belongs to both of us. We can share it. That’s the magic of Disney.
Mid-Life Thesis 