We have all seen the critics’ arguments against Disney live-action adaptations for years now. They are considered a cash grab, creatively lazy, and an insult to the originals. It’s compelling to take these accounts as the majority, and many critiques do have validity for them. However, it’s also important to take into consideration the loud minority in comparison to the silent majority. For example, The Lion King (2019) has a Rotten Tomato Score of 52% but in comparison to its worldwide box office success of 1.6 billion, we can see that audiences are showing up for these adaptations despite critics.
Remakes have been the most highly criticized form of adaptations, with critics suggesting that creative originality is one of the most essential factors in these cinematic remakes. Although originality is highly valuable and essential, two things can be true at the same time. Focusing solely on originality can limit what constitutes a valuable experience in cinema.
Adaptions, including remakes, can be a powerful tool in storytelling for new representations, bringing in new audiences, and filling in the story gaps that might have left audiences wondering. There can be power in adaptations when done right that connect stories across generations and cater to a wide variety of audiences.
Adaptions as a Cultural Update
Although I can understand the shortcomings of live-action remakes specifically, I think it’s important to expand this conversation to all forms of adaptations to showcase the benefits of these stories being told. Adaptions can offer fresh new updates to decades-old stories that better reflect representation through inclusivity and diversity that have been suppressed in the past.
For example, there was much controversy over the casting of Halle Bailey, a Black actress, for The Little Mermaid (2023) live-action remake. However, according to Today YouGov, a marketing research and opinion polling site, 6% of U.S. adult citizens approve of casting a black actress as Ariel. Following with 81% of black Americans approving of the casting, demonstrating the validity of adaptations even through the critics’ opinions of a 67% Rotten Tomatoes score.
To further this point, providing opportunities for audience representation, more specifically for children, can be very validating. The impact and importance of seeing a widely recognized and beloved character portraying a representation of themselves is more valuable than a critic’s assessment ofthe CGI realism or frame-by-frame replication.
Creative Power in Expansion
Beyond representation, many adaptations reach success due to straying away from the original source material, offering outlets for various creative interpretations or expansions of the source material.
Take Shakespeare, for example, with hundreds of various retellings and interpretations turned into live screen adaptations. One of the most notable modern-day retellings of Romeo and Juliet is Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version starring Leonardo DiCaprio. With a 74% Rotten Tomatoes score, we can see that adaptations can thrive without original material. Luhrmann’s approach preserves centuries-old dialogue with contemporary settings and highly stylized concepts from the original.
Adaptions like these are creatively unique while also keeping true to the source material, which can help in keeping younger audiences engaged in the material, possibly leading to showing interest in the originals. To bring this back to Disney, another example is the 2014 Maleficent film. It takes on the task of exploring the original story gaps by focusing the perspective on the villain rather than the princess. This film had a box office success of $758 million worldwide, which is more than four times its initial budget of $180 million.
However, this is not to say that an adaptation is considered better than the original (I think most of us can agree that the original is always better) or to not acknowledge the failures of many recent remakes/originals. Frustration over films like Lilo and Stitch (2025) and Elio (2025) shows that studio preferences can cultivate creative cowardice and result in the continuous failures of these retellings and future originals. It is important not to condemn the idea of an adaptation due to the studio’s failures. When the story is treated with respect to the source material and authenticity, it can offer much value to audiences.