It’s no secret that Disney has been going hard on the whole “remaking the classics” thing in the last decade or so. What happens is that a successful movie that’s usually more than a few decades old gets updated, with animation becoming live-action, or, as was the case with 2019’s The Lion King, a less realistic kind of animation is updated so that things look more or less photo-realistic. Sometimes, these projects lead to backlash, and other times, there’s a general sense of indifference.
But those ones that don’t inspire much beyond indifference somehow seem to perform exceedingly well. Like, it’s hard to find anyone who feels truly excited about 2025’s Lilo & Stitch, but it’s made so much money, and the original still exists, you know; it’s still very good. So, Disney isn’t likely to change what it’s doing. If a controversial release like 2025’s Snow White happens, then it’s kind of like, “Oh, well, now Lilo & Stitch is doing just fine,” and so on. Disney will pursue what makes money, but if Disney wanted to pursue what was artistically more useful, those who work there would dive into the studio’s back catalog and think about remaking, updating, or reimagining older Disney movies that showed potential, but had some flaws holding them back. Take the following movies, for example. You may like some of these, and they’re not bad movies by any means, but they’re the kinds that could technically be improved by getting swept up in this current wave of Disney remakes. Also, they’re outlined below in chronological order of release, just because ranking them (like, deeming which would benefit most from a remake or something) is difficult.
1
‘The Fox and the Hound’ (1981)
Directed by Art Stevens, Ted Berman, Richard Rich
Given The Fox and the Hound is a movie that has a dog main character, it’s apparently obliged to be kind of sad, but maybe not as sad as some other dog movies out there. The lead characters here are indeed a fox and a hound, and though external forces in their lives suggest they should be enemies, they find themselves becoming friends, either overlooking or working through any differences they might have.
It’s a film with a certain amount of charm, even if it’s not particularly complex or substantial in the end. It’s a nice enough watch if you’re younger, and it’s probably more than watchable if you’re a little older. Though pleasant, it’s unlikely many would call The Fox and the Hound top-tier Disney, in any event. So, if it were to be updated, you wouldn’t really be running the risk of offending many people, and you might well come away with something a little weightier and more memorable.
2
‘The Black Cauldron’ (1985)
Directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich
Compared to some earlier decades, and certainly compared to the 1990s Disney Renaissance era (which technically began in 1989, but still), most of the 1980s was a shaky decade for Disney. The films weren’t really hitting the way they needed to, especially financially, but at least some releases here were still interesting. Take The Black Cauldron, for example.
Earlier Disney animated movies had featured some darker moments for sure, but The Black Cauldron felt like a step-up in terms of intensity, being visually darker and more menacing. The story, though, was fairly standard stuff for a fantasy movie, revolving around an evil figure wanting to obtain a magical object to dominate the world, and the heroes setting about to destroy said object. It’s been a little forgotten to time, but if a live-action version were announced, and it had a director who was willing to lean into horror a bit (and have at least a PG-13 rating in the process), maybe something cool could come of that.
3
‘Oliver & Company’ (1988)
Directed by George Scribner
In the late 1980s, Disney returned to something that only sort of worked in the early 1980s: a story involving dogs and unlikely friendships between animals. But, in the interest of not mixing Oliver & Company up too much with The Fox and the Hound, this one is about a cat joining up with a gang of dogs, and also, it takes inspiration from a Charles Dickens story: Oliver Twist.
There would be challenges in making this one work with more realistic animation and, presumably, having real-life people play the human characters in live-action. It’s not totally uncharted territory for Disney, though, considering a (mostly forgotten) remake of Lady and the Tramp came out a while back. Difference here, though, would be the fact that Oliver & Company is not as highly revered as the original Lady and the Tramp, so there’d probably be a little more that could conceivably be improved upon.
4
‘Pocahontas’ (1995)
Directed by Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
During that aforementioned Disney Renaissance, there was one major release that stood as something of an outlier: Pocahontas. Its intentions, as a film, might’ve been good, and the fact that it was going for something a little more mature can be admired, being a very loose retelling of the life of the titular character, who was a Powhatan woman who lived during the early 1600s.
Disney could afford to take the risk, if the company were more concerned with the artistic side of things and improving upon older films, rather than just regurgitating worse copies of ones that already exist.
Being a Disney movie, there are also animal sidekicks and some musical numbers here, but even leaving those aside, it’s not exactly something you could call historically accurate. And maybe it doesn’t have to be, since if you want a more grounded film about Pocahontas, Terrence Malick’s The New World already exists. There could be a middle ground, though; something perhaps a little more real, but not entirely so, and if it just told the core story with a little more feeling and nuance than was found in the 1995 movie, maybe it would work. Like, doing any kind of update to Pocahontas would be tricky at best, and maybe even controversial at worst. But Disney could afford to take the risk, if the company were more concerned with the artistic side of things and improving upon older films, rather than just regurgitating worse copies of ones that already exist and work.
- Release Date
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June 14, 1995
- Runtime
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81 minutes
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Irene Bedard
Pocahontas (voice)
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David Ogden Stiers
Governor Ratcliffe (voice)
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John Kassir
Meeko (voice)
5
‘Dinosaur’ (2000)
Directed by Ralph Zondag, Eric Leighton
Dinosaurs were big in the 1990s, and, well, they’re still pretty big nowadays. Some of that success can be attributed to Jurassic Park, of course, and the sequels to that 1993 film continue to get made and do (surprisingly) well financially, whenever they come out. Great dinosaur movies are rare, though, because at best, you get something like Dinosaur, which has great scenes and technical accomplishments, but falls flat in other areas.
It’s hard to call Dinosaur great, but there are hints of greatness within it. The opening is astounding, and suggests that had the film continued in the same style (you know, without talking characters), it might well have been something special. Or, if the dinosaurs and lemurs have to talk, then maybe flesh them out a little more. Dinosaur, in its current form, is only 82 minutes long, and about 10 of those minutes make up the end credits, so few characters really make a mark or say anything of substance. A reworking of Dinosaur, either keeping it simple/short and removing dialogue, or making it more of an epic, and, in either case, improving the quality of the animation (which is dated now, but looked impressive for 2000)… honestly, Disney could have something great on their hands if someone there wanted to have a crack at making Dinosaur 2.0.
6
‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’ (2001)
Directed by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Here’s where dicey territory gets entered, to some extent, because a good many people are fond of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, to the point where suggesting that it’s flawed might well cause a bit of anger. “Flawed” isn’t the same as “bad,” though. And, in the interest of trying to be objective, this is looking at Atlantis: The Lost Empire in terms of how it did critically and financially. At least upon release, it set neither of those worlds on fire.
So, some fans might reject the idea of it being remade, but then there’s a good chance others wouldn’t be super familiar with this particular movie, judging by the under-performance thing, so… maybe it could be done again, and even done a little better? Like, it probably won’t ever happen, seeing as he’s currently making 527 Avatar sequels, but James Cameron taking on an underwater adventure movie like this, in live action, and with the sort of technical proficiency his movies usually have? Like, purely hypothetically, that might be kind of neat. Just saying.
7
‘Treasure Planet’ (2002)
Directed by John Musker, Ron Clements
The ambition was definitely there, when it came to Treasure Planet, because as far as animated sci-fi movies go, this one works a good deal of the time and can be admired. It’s a sci-fi spin on Treasure Island, as the name suggests, with a story about a trip through space to find – you guessed it – a planet that’s purportedly the site of a great deal of treasure.
Doing this with animation was expensive, and doing it in live-action, with modern-day special effects? An updated Treasure Planet would likely be even more costly, and so from a financial (rather than artistic) perspective, there’s perhaps an understandable hesitance to touch this story again, via a remake, since the original didn’t make enough money. But it could still be done, like with all the previously mentioned examples, and a decent/good animated movie could well become, in the right hands, a good/great live-action one.
