Yo Peeps!
I’m a little bit excited!
We’re going to see the live-action Lion King in a few days!
Secondly, there are a couple more live-actions in the pipeline that we’ve known about for a while, but we’re getting more details and trailers now.
The Little Mermaid: We knew a while back that Ariana Grande was going to be Ariel. Being totally honest, I was never a huge fan of Ariel but Ariana doesn’t do my kind of music, so it kinda fits (and if it flops I’d be more upset if they’d cast Zendaya).
The Rock as King Triton makes sense and Disney have had success with him before, but I wanted Liam Neeson to get the role. I was honestly watching the trailer and thinking the sharks were the best thing in it, then Disney hit me with this:
QUEEN LATIFAH IS URSULA!! Just digest that for a second, the actress I love most, who has a stunning voice and has never done a bad film is going to be the character who sings Poor Unfortunate Souls!! YAY! That song is fabulous anyway, but Queen Latifah?!
It seems heresy to say a Disney film might flop, but if it does no one could blame the best cast member! I don’t want it to fail, but she’s too good for it to hurt her career.
The other fab song from the original is Under the Sea (hearing what they did to Be Prepared in the Lion King, I hope they don’t ruin it!) and the live Sebastian is adorable, I think it will work.
Side note: Is the butler suddenly going to get a bigger role? Who the heck casts Sir Ian McKellen as a bit-part?? Will be interesting to see what they do with that!
OK, enough of mediocre mermaids, let’s talk Mulan!
Mulan’s live-action is set for release next spring. There are big stakes for this one as it’s my daughter’s favourite!
The cast is strong and look culturally accurate, which is such a contrast to the complaints about the original.
It seems more realistic, there is less focus on dragons and ghosts… in fact, I think I saw Moshu but can’t decide if they’re waiting for a big reveal or if he is a smaller part.
If it is more realistic it’s going to be an epic, like a Last Samurai thing, but that does concern me with the music and the comedy.
A lot of the appeal of Disney is in the music and in more than one live-action they’ve not translated it very well, but there’s Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast where they nailed it! So I guess we’ll have to wait and see….
The good news is that Disney aren’t stopping the live-action thing anytime soon… so yay for more cinema trips!
What do you think? Let me know.
Anna x
A Peace of Life 