Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Audiences just can’t get enough of classic fairytales
Disney knows how to repurpose, reimagine and retool stories as old as the hills to grab the attention of audiences young and old
LONDON: In these days of Hunger Games, Avengers and 50 Shades of Grey, it may seem improbable that a traditional family fairy tale should top the US box office charts.
But that’s what happened when Kenneth Branagh’s $95m (R1.15 billion) live-action remake of Cinderella arrived in American cinemas, almost 65 years to the day since the release of the Disney animated classic.
The new film, starring Lily James as Cinders and Cate Blanchett as her evil stepmother, has also spent two weeks at No 1 in China, the world’s second biggest film market. It’s out now in SA.
It will doubtless continue to thrive, validating Disney’s latest lucrative, long-term creative plan: to dust off its back catalogue of beloved animated films – the foundation on which the studio was built – and turn them into modern CGI spectaculars.
It’s an idea Disney first floated to good effect in 1996, with its liveaction remake of 101 Dalmatians, starring Glenn Close as the dastardly Cruella de Vil. But it was the unexpected and staggering success of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 2010 that persuaded the House of Mouse to pursue its slate of remakes with the same enthusiasm as a major superhero franchise.
Burton’s film broke the $1bn barrier at the worldwide box office, a rare feat achieved by fewer than 20 films in cinema history.
In 2013, though, it was surpassed by Disney’s mega-hit, Frozen, the most successful animated film. Though Frozen was an original story, and indeed a cartoon, it proved the fairy-tale genre could still find a vast audience.
Last year, Maleficent, with Angelina Jolie as the iconic villain- ess of Sleeping Beauty, grossed $758m despite middling reviews.
Next year, Disney will release its remake of The Jungle Book, with an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Idris Elba, as well as the Alice sequel, Through the Looking Glass. They’ll be followed in 2017 by Beauty and the Beast, with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in the title roles; and then, probably in 2018, by Burton’s latest project: a live-action remake of Dumbo.
Like Star Wars and the Marvel superhero universe, both of which the studio acquired in recent years for a bargain $4bn apiece, Disney’s animated family classics provide a galaxy of familiar characters to revisit and introduce to a younger generation
“It makes perfect sense for Disney to sift through their vault and repurpose, reimagine and retool the classic tales that audiences know and love,” says film industry expert Paul Dergarabedian, of Rentrak, which measures trends in the entertainment business.
“Maleficent and Cinderella prove that there is a huge appetite for these stories as realised in a liveaction context. Disney could enjoy fairy- tale results that are as dynamic and profitable for the long term as any of the Marvel superheroes, Pixar characters and Star Wars brands within their stable of properties.”
Disney’s slate is the envy of Hollywood, with several other studios attempting to emulate its winning strategy.
Universal, for instance, plans to reboot its classic monster titles in an interconnected universe inhabited by the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein. Warner Brothers intends to squeeze several more films out of the Harry Potter franchise.
But with fairy tales, as with superheroes, Disney dominates. Universal tried a new take on Snow White, with 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, which earned a respectable $400m, but the following year, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and Jack the Giant Slayer (director Bryan Singer’s take on Jack and the Beanstalk) both turned out to be turkeys.
Disney, mindful of producing a movie that would have wide appeal without alienating young girls and their mothers, reportedly let go Cinderella’s original director, Mark Romanek, who wanted to take the story in a darker direction rather than stick to a family- friendly formula. And in the US, Disney also showed a new Frozen short before screenings of Cinderella.
After executives announced plans for a sequel to Frozen at the company’s shareholder meeting, Disney shares skyrocketed. Of course, the classic fairy tales may not lend themselves to sequels and spin-offs quite so easily as do superheroes or Star Wars.
But then, why would Disney need sequels, when it already has theme parks? – The Independent