Disney has made many live-action movies for the Disney Princess franchise like “Mulan” (2020), “Cinderella” (2015), “The Little Mermaid” (2023)  and is talking about a new live-action movie for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which is set to air early in 2024.  Unfortunately, so far, the production doesn’t look very promising. 

The general public has not been a fan of Disney’s live-action movies or productions. In fact, one of the only  live-action remakes that the public  gave some positive feedback for was “Cinderella.” The reason for this was probably because the live-action version gave a backstory of who Cinderella’s mother was and actually did a whole scene of how Prince Charming and Cinderella met. This made the attraction between the pair more believable than just saying ‘Yay! I’m going to the ball and I’m in love with someone I’ve never met before!’ 

On the other hand, “The Little Mermaid” changed the story. Not only did it not mention Ariel’s mother, but the film complicated things by assigning each of the seven daughters a sea to look after. One major change from the animated movie is the fact that Ursula makes Ariel forget about her mission to get a kiss of true love from Prince Eric.

Despite the various changes, some enjoyed the live-action version. 

“I would say the movie is good and I give it a 5 out of 5,” sophomore Sreehasini Teegala said.

Fellow sophomore Averi Moncrief agreed.  “I really liked the movie,” Moncrief said. “It was really nice and I’d give it a 5 out of 5.” 

Sophomore Mahalakshmi Sridharan didn’t score the film as high. “It was okay,” Sridharan said.”I wouldn’t give it a high rating but it wasn’t super bad either. I’d give it like a 3.5 out of 5.”

People compare live-action films with their animated versions, so any changes to the storyline can have a huge impact on moviegoers. 

“We grew up with these movies so we were used to seeing the princesses and stories portrayed in that certain way,” Sridharan said. “Now when they make a live-action movie and don’t stick to the actual story, people are getting upset because they remember iconic parts in their childhood which bring good memories, but when they watch the live-action ones they don’t get the same feeling. They don’t get the magic!”

A lot of the scenes have indeed changed, which in turn changed the main focus of the story. Some of the major changes were Ariel losing her memories, Ursula’s defeat, changing the gender of the seagull Scuttle and so much more.

Sridharan said Ariel losing her memory did not make sense. “That was the whole point….Ariel needs to know her stuff, and what the mission is, or else that defeats the whole purpose. They completely brainwashed Ariel about her mission,” Sridharan said. “Then being like ‘Okay I wind up in a random orphanage. I have no clue what I’m supposed to do but now I have legs?’”

Moncrief said changes to the storyline didn’t bother her. 

“I know a lot people don’t like this, but I Iiked how she lost her memories of what she was supposed to do,” Moncrief said. “I really think it gives a lot more freedom to what she’s supposed to do and how much she can explore.”  

The style and designs caught many people off guard because they were so different from the animated version of the “Little Mermaid.” 

“As an artist myself, I couldn’t help but look at the visuals,” Moncrief said. “The costume of Ariel looked half done. They should’ve taken notes from the live-action movie Cinderella’s Dress.”

Sridharan noted the changes to Ariel’s appearance and the deletion of a key moment in the story. 

“They took out her amazing iconic red hair and just deleted Ursula’s defeat,” she said. 

Deleting Ursula’s defeat seemed to have upset a lot of people because they wanted to see the boss finished in that epic way.

“There wasn’t the epic scene where Ursula gets punctured in the stomach. So that was kind of sad,” Sridharan said. 

 After “The Little Mermaid” live-action was finished, Disney began talking about making a new live-action for Snow White. The early feedback has been favorable.

“My thoughts are that it might be an amazing movie!” Teegala said. 

Moncrief is also excited for the debut of the film.

“I think it looks pretty good,” she said. “The costume looks like the original one from the movie. The CGS and other graphic effects look fine. Overall, it looks nice.” 

Now the big question is, will these stances remain the same after the movie releases in 2024? Or will some statements change?