Everyone has a favorite Disney animated classic. Across generations, geography, and cultural divides, Disney’s animated films have lit up the imagination of children and adults alike, ever since 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs kicked off the animation studio on a high note. But Disney’s also no stranger to live-action filmmaking, kicking off their live-action wing with 1950’s Treasure Island and establishing a tradition of adventure films and heartfelt family dramas that carries on to this day through films like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and of course, their bustling business of live-action remakes.
The studio tested the waters of live-action remakes in the 90s with Stephen Sommers’ The Jungle Book (1994) and Stephen Herek‘s 101 Dalmatians (1996), and while those early entries found some success (including a Golden Globe nomination for Glenn Close‘s extravagant performance as Cruella De Vil,) the trend didn’t fully kick off until Tim Burton‘s 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland stunned with billion-dollar box office. Since then, Disney has launched a full-on franchise approach to the subset of their live-action wing, releasing at least one live-action remake title a year since 2014.
There was some debate about what to include. What counts as live-action when there are all-CGI films like The Lion King in the works? What counts as a remake, when reimaginings like Maleficent and Christopher Robin abound? Do we count the sequels to remakes and re-imaginings, even if they aren’t technically remakes themselves? For the purposes of this article, we’re looking at every remake, reimagining, and subsequent sequel that Disney developed after the breakout success of Alice in Wonderland. Rather than get too specific with the definition, we just want to take a comprehensive look at the nostalgia-fuelled wave of (mostly) blockbuster hits Disney produced in the 21st Century.
So, without further ado, check out the best Disney live-action remakes ranked in the list below, and stay tuned as we update our picks with each new theatrical release.
21. ‘Pinocchio’ (2022)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
1940’s Pinocchio is widely considered to be one of Disney animation’s greatest accomplishments, nearly 75 years later. 2022’s Pinocchio, however, is the worst live-action update of Disney’s animated work so far, a nightmare to the senses, and disturbingly awkward in every way. It also doesn’t help that it came out in the same year as the Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, showing exactly how to update a timeless story.
But in this remake, Pinocchio is at an all-time high on the annoying charts, Tom Hanks is over-the-top as Geppetto, and the ending makes for one of the most confounding diversions these films have ever made. You’ve got plenty of options when it comes to Pinocchio stories—this shouldn’t be one of them. —Ross Bonaime
20. ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (2016)
Directed by James Bobin
For a film centered around a villain obsessed with the wheels and cogs of time, Alice Through the Looking Glass never figures out what makes it tick. There’s lots of visual splendor, the returning cast who are willing as ever to go to operatic levels of high camp, and the strength of Lewis Carroll‘s fantastical inventions, but Through the Looking Glass fumbles from one scene to the next without building inertia or giving audiences much of a reason to care.
There are still delights to be found in the vibrant chaos, wondrous creatures and wonderful absurdity (in rather too small doses) nestled into decadent production design, but no amount of rich colors or fuzzy creatures can quite absolve the film’s flaccid pacing and overcrowded action. Without Tim Burton‘s auteur eye, the indulgent visuals topple over themselves, crowding the screen and overtaking the story; you’ll still have a pretty good time zipping through the scenery of Wonderland, but you’ll be checking your watch along the way, something that should never happen in a land so rich with, well… wonders. —Haleigh Foutch
19. ‘Snow White’ (2025)
Directed by Marc Webb
Easily one of the most controversial and divisive that any of these live-action remakes have been, Snow White‘s unmitigated backlash and disaster has nearly single-handedly halted the production of many other live-action remakes. Between the discourse surrounding the lead actresses, the uncanny CGI dwarves, and a wide array of new plot points that distract from the main story, the film managed to annoy seemingly everyone in completely different ways. Even despite its recent release, it’s difficult to think of a live-action remake with a worse reputation than Snow White.
The film isn’t without its occasional positives, such as Rachel Zegler‘s top-notch singing or the actual character given to Prince Jonathan, yet the film’s downsides massively outweigh its few positives. Considering just how many other times Snow White has been adapted to live-action over the years with the likes of Snow White & The Huntsman and Mirror Mirror, it makes it especially disappointing to see this modern adaptation flounder where success is certainly possible. —Robert E. Lee III
18. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton
The 2010 breakout hit that kicked off Disney’s live-action remake trend, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland suffers from similar style-over-substance problems that plague its follow-up, but it’s a bit tighter, more succinctly envisioned, and bursting with enough of Burton’s giddy oddball humor to make it less of a slog. But for all its strengths – that incredible, scenery-chewing cast first among them – Alice in Wonderland doesn’t really rank in the highlights of Burton’s or Disney’s oeuvre.
For all his filmmaking might and rightfully celebrated knack for visual showmanship, Burton can’t quite capture the wonder of Wonderland, and while Mia Wasikowska has proven herself a compelling actress time and again, here, she plays Alice with such placid reserve, you can barely feel the character’s bursting wit and curiosity. Alice in Wonderland deserves its place in film history as the runaway hit that spawned a decade of live-action remakes, but since then, Disney has refined its formula (sometimes too much) and upped its game, and the film’s weaker elements just don’t measure up to what came after. —Haleigh Foutch
17. ‘The Lion King’ (2019)
Directed by Jon Favreau
Ok, first things first — I hesitate to even put this title on the list because it definitely is not a “live-action” film, but for the purposes of putting together a complete list of this modern wave of Disney remakes, I relent. That said, Jon Favreau‘s The Lion King remake is a strange and fascinating experiment — an animated movie that embraces groundbreaking technology to look almost 100% photo-realistic and ends up feeling like the most expensive sing-a-long in cinema history.
Furthering the technology he used on The Jungle Book, Favreau looks to recapture the magic of the beloved 1994 animated classic in the life-like terrain of the Pride Lands, but there’s power to the whimsy of the animated format, and anthropomorphizing photo-real animals just doesn’t have the same charm. —Haleigh Foutch
16. ‘Mulan’ (2020)
Directed by Niki Caro
Mulan is a disappointing mixed bag, a film that doesn’t feel beholden to the animated original—which is usually a good thing!—yet in doing that, it loses so much of the joy and charm that made the animated film so great. Granted, musical numbers and an Eddie Murphy-voiced dragon don’t really have a place in Niki Caro‘s adaptation, but this Wuxia take on Mulan just isn’t that engaging on its own. There are nice touches, like the use of fantastic costumes, and the discussions of men not being prepared for strong women, but Mulan shows that trying something different from the original doesn’t always make for a great update. —Ross Bonaime
15. ‘Lady and the Tramp’ (2019)
Directed by Charlie Bean
Everyone likes cute dogs, and Lady and the Tramp certainly plays to that, as we watch the same basic story of the 1955 film, but with real dogs, voiced by Justin Theroux and Tessa Thompson. It’s adorable and even the CGI’ed mouths of the dogs grow on you after a while. But like The Lion King, it’s hard to imagine who is going to prefer this over the animated version. Lady and the Tramp has its charms for sure, and at least it’s not trying to play off CGI dogs as real, so it’s got at least that paw up on The Lion King. —Ross Bonaime
14. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017)
Directed by Bill Condon
There’s no denying that, for many folks, Disney’s 2017 remake of their 1991 Best Picture nominee, Beauty and the Beast, was a hit. It grossed a shocking amount at the box office, even by Disney’s lofty standards, to the tune of $1.2 billion – a benchmark usually reserved for animated hits and blockbuster franchises that firmly put it at the head of the pack as the highest-grossing live-action remake. But from this writer’s perspective, Bill Condon‘s Beauty and the Beast never justifies the jump in the medium, with underwhelming set-pieces and visual flourishes that underwhelm compared to the magic of animation, fairly tepid renditions of Alan Menken‘s gorgeous songs, and a bloated runtime that brings the fairy tale to a sluggish, overdrawn close. —Haleigh Foutch
- Release Date
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March 17, 2017
- Runtime
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129 minutes
- Director
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Bill Condon
- Writers
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Stephen Chbosky, Evan Spiliotopoulos
13. ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ (2019)
Directed by Joachim Rønning
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is only the second sequel to be made for a live-action Disney remake, and it’s easy to see why. Mistress of Evil largely plays the hits of the original, but without the power that the original had. Joachim Rønning‘s film wants us to believe that maybe Maleficent (played by the great Angelina Jolie) could still be evil deep down, despite the first film already showing us that she isn’t. Beyond that, Mistress of Evil reiterates the first film’s message, but without the power of Maleficent’s origins that made the first film a lovely surprise. Disney had a good thing with the first Maleficent. Maybe they didn’t need to keep going. —Ross Bonaime
12. ‘Dumbo’ (2019)
Directed by Tim Burton
Tim Burton’s take on Dumbo didn’t work for a lot of people and ultimately ended up being one of the worst-performing of Disney’s live-action remakes, but boy did it work for me. It’s fair to say that the film’s first act is a slog, and Dumbo is still some of the gnarliest emotional warfare Disney ever waged on its audience, but Burton piles his love for outcasts and oddballs into his riff on the animated classic, delivering a heartfelt family drama about embracing the quirks that make you special and the wonder of being weird.
Dumbo is so earnest it teeters into deeply uncool territory more than once, but that’s part of its charm, as is the too-charming dynamic between Colin Farrell‘s one-armed retired rodeo star and Eva Green‘s fearless trapeze artist. Throw in whatever the heck Michael Keaton is doing as a very President Business owner of a corporate theme park, the strange self-own Disney does by skewering said corporate theme park, and all the touching/striking reimaginings of Dumbo‘s classic fantasy moments, and there’s a lot to love about this little weirdo movie. —Haleigh Foutch
