The Mouse is in the house, well, in the On-Demand house. Almost a week ago, Disney announced that later this year, the will launch their own On-Demand streaming service named “Disney+”. This service will be offered at around a cost of $7 a month or $70 a year in the US, almost half the price of Netflix most popular payment plans. Disney has seriously dented Netflix’s stance at the top and is bringing all the guns out, which mainly includes their vast array of content to choose from.

Initially, the service will include over 500 movies and around 7500 TV episodes, all through one service. To add to the heavyweight sucker-punch, the service will include special exclusive series, including “Star Wars: The Mandalorian”, several Pixar shorts, and will also become the exclusive streaming site for the MCU and Fox’s “The Simpsons”.

The most anticipated series of these, “The Mandalorian”, will feature the first proper step of Star Wars into live-action TV (if one forgets the travesty that is the Holiday Special or the Ewok Adventures). Pedro Pascal has been cast as the lead character to which the series is named after and the whole operation is being steered by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, two directors who have already worked well with Disney. Another exclusive is a series based around the story arc of High School Musical. Till now, description is vague, but it will be about 10 episodes centring on a group of students in the high school completing a project of their own.

So how does this bode for other services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime?

Well, with the acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox’s assets, and including its own plethora of content, Disney has the advantage here, but Disney isn’t the only massive media corporation in this list. Both Netflix and Amazon have the needed experience and resources to produce new content strong enough to challenge their competitors. Even others like CBS All-Access will probably continue to gain power, but the mountain they have to climb is hard and difficult, meanwhile the Mouse is most probably already up there on his golden animated throne…

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There are seventeen Disney live-action remakes in development with big hitters lined up such as Mulan (March 27, 2020). That’s hardly surprising given how much success the recent reimagining of their classic animated movies has been.

In 2017, Beauty and the Beast grossed over $1.2 billion at the global box office, while The Jungle Book was met with very favourable reviews upon its release in 2016 and pulled in an impressive $966 million worldwide. Cinderella, Maleficent, and Pete’s Dragon have also seen success.

From Disney’s perspective all these remakes make sense as it is able to reintroduce timeless stories to a younger generation which is more familiar with newer animation style. Disney is also well aware of the power of nostalgia and that it has an award-winning story-telling formula. Hence, remaking a classic with new star power (except for James Earl Jones – None can replace him as Mufasa) is a guaranteed money maker.

These films also give Disney the opportunity to correct some mistakes of the past and adjust to changing times. For example, when Dumbo was released in 1941 the crow’s song “When I See an Elephant Fly” was criticised, even at the time for having racist undertones. We can expect this to be corrected in the new film.

Regardless though, when all is said and done these remakes are doomed to be a footnote in a larger legacy of the original films that took the world by storm and made the Walt Disney Corporation the powerhouse it is today when it led the 90s animation renaissance.

As Disney became a household name to more than one generation we have come to expect better from the company which is still around since 1923. Yes, Disney’s formula of make a film, push forward sequels, digitally remaster, remake and restart the entire cycle makes money but creating revenue through quantity can sometimes bring down quality.

When watching a classic Disney film the two elements that people of all ages look forward to are the colourful animations which bring a world of fantasy into your living room, and the original music which will be stuck in your head till you’re over 80. Yet in these recent additions fantasy is sometimes sacrificed for realism and the music which was previously sung by highly acclaimed Broadway star is now sung by Hollywood A-listers who can act and kind-of sing.

When watching the remake of Mary Poppins I found that the part which I enjoyed the most was when the cast found themselves inside a porcelain bowl. The scene was highly reminiscent of the animations which landed the original a multitude of awards in its day. That scene led to an extra year in production and several animation experts had to be brought out of retirement to oversee the process.

Amongst these remakes stand the more recent animations like Coco, Moana and the iconic Frozen. These newer films stand on their own merit, and have created a legacy of their own by defining younger generations. Promises of nostalgia and rekindling love for the classics is well and good, but nothing beats falling in love for the first time.

The irony is, with all of the flaws in these recent films if the rumours about a new Fantasia (1941) sequel based on the sequence “Night on Bald Mountain” turns out to be true, I would be first in line to buy a ticket. Also, for the floated Cruella movie.

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