Same thing. In the 2010s. studio "Disney" became accustomed to massively shoot live-action remakes of their classic, cult cartoons half a century and more ago. Under this conveyor, at the moment, are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan. However, few people know that another classic animated film was remake – “Lady and the Tramp” 1955. Their remake was made in 2019, but went somehow unnoticed. There was no big rental in cinemas, there was no wide advertising. I myself learned about this remake by accident from one video of the Nostalgic Critic. Well, I thought I'd take a look. As a result, the film itself is very good, but during the viewing did not leave one question: “And why is it needed?”
From a plot point of view, the movie “Lady and the Tramp” is nothing new. It completely repeats the plot of the original cartoon, with all the twists and lines. Jim gives his wife a Cocker puppy for Christmas. The lady grows up and becomes jealous of Jim's soon-to-be-born baby and Dear; then Aunt Sarah arrives with Siamese cats (yes, they are cats, not cats, and are depicted without Asian stereotypes). The lady runs away; meets the Tramp; the two of them know love and each other. All one-on-one. The same morality is about “nothing replaces a family” and “everyone needs a family.”
At the same time, the film is longer than the cartoon by half an hour. The cartoon was 01:15; the film was 01:42. And you might ask why it's longer than a cartoon if it just repeats it. I'll answer that because he stretches some scenes from the cartoon. For example, the night walks of the Lady and the Tramp. In the cartoon, they took a couple of minutes; in the film, they ride a wagon, admire the hydrant, walk on the bridge, etc. Or the night love scene: in the cartoon, the Lady and the Tramp just fall asleep next to each other; in the film, they chat, howl and run from the sabakolov. The battle scene with the rat is made longer. The acquaintance of Lady and Tramp is not like in the cartoon, it is longer. And there are many more. Is that bad? Not really.
To give credit to the cartoon, it looks interesting in itself. There is no plagiarism like in The Lion King. Yes, the creators just expanded the scenes, but did it smartly and watching the relationship of Lady and Tramp or listening to their dialogue is really interesting. Especially amused scene Tramps and Dalmatians:
Aren't you two twins by any chance?
- I'm actually her husband.
In addition, the animals turned out to be good. Honestly, looking at the movie poster, I thought all the dogs here would be creepy, but the creators made them all pretty. In general, from a technical and directorial point of view, the film looks like a good Christmas melodrama.
But, to all that is happening, there is one question: "Why, this film?" Seriously, this movie just repeats the plot of the cartoon. Yes, I said they expanded some of the scenes and made some changes, like the Lady being taken away from the orphanage by the hosts, not Aunt Sarah, but globally it doesn't affect the film. I wonder if children and their parents also offer a choice: a beautiful, bright, musical cartoon or a live movie with live dogs. What will they choose? For some reason I think it's the first. I don’t really understand what this remake is about.
Yes, we are used to the fact that remakes are always parasitic on the original masterpiece. But that's not always the case. The remake is not a replay, but the placement of the characters of the old film in new temporal conditions or another country or simply in new plot lines. Some remakes, if done well and correctly, even become cult. Scarface, Anger of Man, King Kong, For a Fistful of Dollars, "12" by Mikhalkov, etc. Yes, even among Disney remakes, not all are bad, there are good ones. Cinderella 2015. For example, well expanded the classic story, adding details about the prince and stepmother. Maleficent 2014. was a good deconstruction of the classic villain. Dumbo 2019. generally had an independent plot. But “Lady and the Tramp” is nothing new and just repeat the plot. Who might be interested?
Although lying, something new creators brought to the film, which was not in the original. Toleration! For example, the main characters are Jim and Darling, white and black. When I saw it, I thought, “What?” That looks disgusting. No, I'm not racist, but it really looks stupid. What is this frantic desire to forever push Negroes even to those places in the cinema where they look unnatural?
The family's obstetrician is Asian. And in general, the film somehow a lot of blacks and black women wander the streets. And it looks extremely strange and illogical. Judging by the entourage, the action of the film and the original takes place somewhere in the 50s of the XX century. when racial segregation and discrimination against blacks prevailed in the United States. It was a time when people of color were not allowed to go to the same school as whites, take the same public transport, or even go to the same church. And the film tries to show that it didn't happen, that blacks and whites lived in the same neighborhoods of the city. That never happened. Where do you think the ghettos came from in the United States? Because blacks had to live in separate neighborhoods and there was no interracial marriage. And I would not believe that an ordinary American conservative family could invite an Asian doctor to visit them, this is a couple of years after the end of World War II.
Although, after the Negroes in the medieval Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, this tolerance is no longer surprising. But it is still ridiculous to watch Americans paint their history in a rainbow pink flag, trying to pretend that they never had any racial problems.
Conclusion: In itself, the film "Lady and the Tramp" is good, even better than this expensive copier "The Lion King". At least the animals here are more emotional and the film doesn't look poorer than the original. But, as I said, from an artistic point of view, this remake is meaningless, because it just repeats the plot of the cartoon, only expanding some scenes and introducing actual tolerance.
7 out of 10
P.S. By the way, how strange looks dinner Lady and Tramp in the restaurant. The owners, for their sake, seriously forget about all the customers and sing only to the dogs! And how Aunt Sarah was able to put things in order after her cats smashed the heroes' apartment. In the cartoon it looked condescending, but in the movie!