Every Disney Live Action Remake, Ranked
Updated May 2023 to add The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan & Wendy
For over 25 years, Disney has been looking inward for inspiration for its live-action films, using its vast and beloved catalog of animated features as source material for remakes. Buoyed by mostly strong box office numbers, those remakes have been increasing in frequency in recent years, with six arriving just since the start of 2019 and many more expected to arrive in the next few years.
In the gallery above, we rank each of Disney's live-action remakes (from 1994's The Jungle Book to the just-released The Little Mermaid) from best to worst by Metascore, which reflects the critical consensus for each film.
Remake of The Little Mermaid (1989)
While 1989's adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story was instrumental in revitalizing Disney as an animation powerhouse, the 2023 remake appears unlikely to make much of a cultural impact. Directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns) and featuring new music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken (the latter returning from the 1989 film), the live-action version stars Halle Bailey as Ariel alongside Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, and Jacob Tremblay. Bailey's casting was (unjustifiably) controversial, but she actually shines in the remake. It's the less-than-lively film around her that critics have complained about.
“What’s on-screen too often feels like wan, second-rate imitation, and the few differences seem motivated less by a spirit of imagination than one of joyless anxiety.” —Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
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