When you think of Disney film franchises, Star Wars and Marvel spring to mind but over the past 15 years the studio has developed another line of movies which has become equally important. Unlike Star Wars or Marvel it didn’t need to buy the rights to them though no expense was spared as recent data reveals.
The origins of the franchise date all the way back to 1894 when celebrated English novelist Rudyard Kipling wrote the Jungle Book, a tale of a human boy named Mowgli who was brought up by animals. It spawned the 1967 animated hit produced by Walt Disney himself but that was just the start. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the book, Disney made a live action version of the story starring some big names including Sam Neill, Cary Elwes, John Cleese and Jason Scott Lee in the role of Mowgl
According to industry analyst Box Office Mojo, it grossed a respectable $52.4 million but the biggest impact it had was proving the popularity of live action remakes. This opened the door to a whole new world for Disney and led to a sequel to the Jungle Book as well as two films based on 1961 cartoon 101 Dalmatians. The duo grossed a total of $504.3 million and set the scene for Disney to build an entire division dedicated to developing live action remakes of its classic cartoons.
It took around a decade for Disney to get going and there was good reason why it eventually pushed the button. It was reported that Disney’s desire to remake its classic cartoons was driven by the expiry of the copyright to the characters in them. Bambi, Peter Pan and Winnie-the-Pooh have already fallen into the public domain leading to a spate of copycat productions.The latest to follow suit was the original version of Mickey Mouse which appeared in a 1928 short film called Steamboat Willie. The character will next be seen in Screamboat, a decidedly un-Disney horror flick which will be distributed in April by Iconic Events Releasing.
Disney’s own live action remakes reset the copyright dial by giving the next generation of viewers new versions of the characters to relate to. This isn’t the only driving force behind the trend.
Indeed, it was so profitable that a sequel was commissioned along with a string of other remakes and even movies based on the characters from its cartoons rather than live action versions of the fairytales themselves.
That led to 2014’s Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie as the eponymous villain from Sleeping Beauty. It made $759.9 million in theaters and spawned a sequel five years later. Still Disney didn’t stop there. In December last year it gave the live action treatment to Mufasa, a prequel to The Lion King and in March Snow White will get it too.
