Nostalgia Sells | Disney's Live Action Remake Strategy

Nostalgia Sells... Commodity Feminism

In the past decade, Disney has released an impressive slate of live action remakes based on its classic films. The chief of Disney marketing, Ricky Strauss stated, "We are taking advantage of animated classics and using modern technologies and fantastic filmmakers to bring these live-action stories to global audiences. It's a new approach." (McClintock, 2015). Tracking the release of live action remakes, the trend began with Alice in Wonderland in 2010. In 2012, they released a comedic take on Snow White called Mirror Mirror as well as a darker take on Snow White called Snow White and the Huntsman. Production picked up with Maleficient (2014), Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), as well a more adult geared version of Tarzan in 2016 (Chval, 2016). Beauty and the Best, Dumbo, Aladdin, the Lion King, and Lady and the Tramp were all transformed into remakes in the past few years. Remakes of Peter Pan, 101 Dalmations, Mary Poppins, and Hercules are also in the works (Taylor). Disney is investing significantly in its like action remake plan, and it has clearly proved a very effective strategy for the company to develop new audiences and maintain the attention of existing audiences.

The first live action remake Disney created was Alice and Wonderland directed by Tim Burton in 2010. In its original release, the film secured 48.7 million in revenue adjusted for inflation. In its live action rerelease, the film earned 334 million in revenue (Balboa, 2017). This trend has been the case for most live action remakes creating a pattern that the remake consistently makes more profit than the original release (Balboa, 2017).

As the first of its live action remakes, Alice and Wonderland was developed with specific strategies in mind to ensure its success. Tim Burton was selected as the director given his impressive track record producing films for the company such as Fox and the Hound (1981). However, it was really the success of Nightmare Before Christmas that got him the role. Although the film was considered a commercial disappointment in its 1993 release, the merchandising opportunities since the film’s release generate millions each year. Employing a notable and successful director increased the appeal of the film to vast audiences. The decision was ultimately successful since Alice in Wonderland generated over $1 billion in box office sales worldwide during its release (Taylor). The success of these tactics in Alice in Wonderland caused the company to see live action remakes as a promising investment.

Audience Development Strategies

Sears Bailey, the president of the Motion Picture Production at Walt Disney Studios appointed by Bog Iger in 2020, has led Disney’s charge to create a slate of live action remakes. He provided an interview that gives insight into this process. He explained that with the live action remakes, how closely to follow the individual material is determined on a case by case basis. For example, a Cinderella remake must include a dramatic big moment at the ball. For a Beauty and the Beast remake, it is essential to include the hit songs (Taylor). Bailey provided that their remake strategy will be limited to older animated films created before the year 2000. This means there will be no live action versions of Frozen in the near future. In addition, the team has an exhaustive archive of every screenplay that didn’t make it to turn to for ideas (Taylor).

An important transition for the company under Bob Iger’s direction was its acquisition model. During his time as CEO, the company acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. None of these companies were actually for sale, but Disney targeted each company and ultimately acquired them because they were the best company to maximize and monetize the profits for each of these brands, according to Iger (Chval, 2016). With these acquisitions, Disney now has an even more extensive, and seemingly endless crop of characters and storylines to transform into live action remakes. According to Sean Bailey, consistency is the key to Disney’s brand. (Taylor). Adding to their large stock of characters to pull from allows them to achieve this consistency better. In accord with this transition, now each Disney production must fit into one of these predetermined columns. The major columns are Marvel, Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar. In addition, the company has a few smaller columns such as “brand deposit” films. These films are not expected to be box office hits, have a low budget, but work to protect the integrity of the brand. An example would be Saving Mr. Banks (2013) (Taylor).

The key strategy Disney uses for audience development in its live action remake is nostalgia marketing. Nostalgia Marketing appeals to our wish to return to an easier, simpler time with less responsibilities couples with more acceptance. This approach is effective because the most effective marketing strategies involve provoking feelings, and nostalgia is one of the most powerful emotions (Dan Lok, 2019). This type of emotional provocation easily turns to persuasion. Research from Hartman and Brunk shows that nostalgia marketing creates “a sense of enchantment” and the magical feelings it creates is almost irresistible to consumers (Dan Lok, 2019). It pulls at your heartstrings in countless different ways. For example, it is very nostalgic for an adult to take their child to a live action remake of a film they once grew up with to create a shared experience. Childhood memories distract us from real life stressors. Nostalgia marketing is not only employed by Disney, but it is also used by many other commercial companies. Netflix experienced success with its hit show Stranger Things largely due to its nostalgia appeal reminiscing on 80s culture. Similarly, many companies such as Coca-Cola and Pokémon Go thrive on nostalgia marketing for the same reasons (Dan Lok, 2019).

Nostalgia marketing works so effectively for Disney because for any generation ranging from Baby Boomer to Gen Z, it is highly likely that your first big screen experience in a movie theatre was watching a Disney film. This is due to the fact that Disney films are considered safe, wholesome choices that don’t require pre-screening by parents. When you’re a little person in a giant movie theater it can seem larger than life and going to a move can be like “a new portal opening into the universe” (Zacharek, 2019). Disney is well aware of this power and uses it to their advantage (Zacharek, 2019).

In addition to nostalgia marketing, Disney couples this pull with star power to drive audience development (Dan Lok, 2019). For example, large names like Donald Glover voicing Simba and Beyonce voicing Nala in the Lion King live action remake pull in new audiences (Zacharek). Maleficent featured the star power of Angelina Jolie. Cinderella starred the widely successful show Downton Abbeys’ Lily James and Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother (McClintock, 2015). Using big name stars is an easy way to pull audiences loyal to certain stars into theaters.

Disney’s live action remake strategy has also been implemented because it allows Disney to compete with its rivals like DreamWorks and Comcast. (Balboa, 2017). Disney has exclusive access to an exhaustive cast of characters and brands they can employ to create films. Even for the characters they don’t have exclusive rights to, they have still developed competitive advantages for their brand to stand out. For example, Warner Brothers was creating a competitor film of the Jungle Book at the same time as Disney. Disney was up in the air about including some of the hit songs from the film not wanting to turn it into a musical, but they ultimately decided to include the hits “Bare Necessities” and “I wan’na Be Like You” simply because its competitors couldn’t, so it gave their film an edge (Taylor). Disney has had success beating competitors by leaning into its existing characters and brands, so they continue to do so.

Disney’s retelling of The Jungle Book (2016) was one of its earlier live action remakes and it was successful for a number of reasons. First, the graphics were very advanced for the time, winning the film an Oscar for Best Visual Effects (Taylor). Instead of simply retelling the story verbatim, they enhanced a previously simple and childish plot that had many gaping holes. It was unclear in the original film why a boy raised by wolves was enemies with a tiger. However, the live action remake further develops the original plot line adding an important story arc that Shere Khan lost his eye in a fight with Mowgli’s father (Cannata-Bowman, 2016). The plot instantly becomes more advanced and engaging. Although competition was one motive for including two of the Jungle Book’s iconic songs, including these songs was important to appeal to nostalgic emotions across the audience. However, they wanted to find a balance of including too many songs and turning it into a musical versus ignoring the music and losing nostalgia appeal (Cannata-Bowman, 2016).

These strategies have clearly been effective because Disney made over $2 billion dollars from its live action remakes Dumbo, Aladdin, and Lion King in the first seven months of 2019 alone. In less than a decade since they started trending toward live action remakes, their 11 remakes have made them over $7 billion total (Dan Lok, 2019). The success of this strategy makes sense in accord with Kirkpatrick’s findings on successful media distribution strategies. Disney content is evergreen because its plot lines do not lose value as time passes. Similarly, using big Hollywood names is a sure and easy way to promote a film and draw audiences to a theatre.

Streaming

When Disney first started as a company, the development of television threatened to disrupt outlets like film and radio. In the present day, streaming now threatens to disrupt traditional television and cable, so the company must adapt once again (Hough, 2019). Disney made the decision to adapt to this change by creating its own streaming service, Disney +, as opposed to licensing their content to existing streaming services. According to an interview with Bob Iger, the company needed to jump on the streaming trend because failing to do so would equate to a failure to innovate. Acting quickly and being on top of the trend was essential. Therefore, Iger declared direct to consumer as a number one priority for the company and cut all new licensing deals with Netflix. Iger says the studio normally makes 8-10 big budget films per year, and it will add another 5-6 productions per year reserved for online release via Disney +. Big screen movies typically cost the company 100 million or more, but they are not looking to have these extreme budgets for streaming only releases. Iger also noted that he wants the company to invest significantly in television series on a per episode basis with the onset of streaming (Hough, 2019).

The evolution of streaming services has brought about a number of important changes in Disney’s approach to content and audience development. One of the first films Disney released solely through its online streaming Platform, Disney +, was a live action remake of Lady and the Tramp. The decision not to release Lady and the Tramp theatrically appears to divide Disney’s massive animated library into two categories. There are films perceived to be box office hits, and ones that are not become reserved for release through online streaming only. This trend sends an outward message to the audience on what the company considers to be an a top-tier A list movie versus a B Level animated film (Acuna, 2019). According to Bog Iger, Lady and the Tramp was never even considered for a theatrical release, it was created with distribution by streaming in mind.

Defore provides a critique on Lady and the Tramp that identifies why it can be considered a B-list Disney film compared to their box office hits. Defore first commented that the synchronization of voice and mouth movement of the animals did not fuse well. Disney clearly has the capability to use advanced technology to perfect this tactic as shown in similar live action remakes like The Lion King and The Jungle Book. The decision not to give Lady and the Tramp the same precision suggests the film was not valued as much by the company (Defore, 2019). He also commented that with the live action aspect, iconic scenes such as the spaghetti feast leading to a kiss do not carry the name charm of the animated film. Defore states, “at their best, these dogs will skate by on kids’ weakness for cute animals; at their worst, they look like they could be hawking auto insurance in a TV commercial.”

A standard for deciding whether to push out content via streaming or theaters is decided by the film’s estimated box office earnings. If a live action remake film is not expected to bring in $1 billion dollars, it might not be worth the gamble. This is a reasonable standard for the company since about half of their movies including Beauty and the Beast, Avengers Endgame, Toy Story 4, Frozen Two, and Star Wars have grossed that amount (Acuna, 2019). One film that was up for debate over a theatrical versus a streaming release was the live action remake of Dumbo. They ultimately decided on a theatrical release since the film was directed by Tim Burton, and his notoriety as a director has tended to drive massive profits for Disney. However, the film only ended up bringing in 353.3 million dollars in the box office as compared to the company’s billion dollar hits (Acuna, 2019).

Recent Trends and Developments

Until this year, all of Disney’s live action remakes received a G or PG rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. This year’s feature Mulan was the first live action remake to receive a PG-13 rating due to sequences of violence. The film takes a more realistic approach while adapting the original film, and it does not feature as much of the music and comedic elements of the animated original. Rather, the Hollywood Reporter commented that the princess film plays as a “fantasy war epic” emphasizing epic battles and martial arts (Mercuri, 2020). Disney’s goal is to make the princess stories as exciting as superhero tales since those characters never die and experience tremendous box office success (McClintock, 2015). The new Mulan is also very important for expanding to new audiences in China. The country is a major global market that Disney has actively been trying to expand its reach in recently. They opened the Shanghai Disney resort which was emblematic of this transition (Taylor). Mulan features a strong cast of characters with Chinese characters, so it is expected to perform well in the Chinese market.

Disney’s first ever PG-13 film was Pirates of the Caribbean. Since then, they have released two more PG-13 films that became their highest grossing films: Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Mercuri). This suggests that Disney is adapting its storytelling to appeal to more mature audiences in addition to childhood audiences. It is important for them to continue to stay in touch with the millennial generation, so creating content with more complex themes leading to a PG-13 rating is one way to make this appeal.

The premise of a live action remake becomes contradictory for films such as the Lion King that do not feature human characters. The film is called “live action” but it is constructed entirely from CGI. Despite surpassing Frozen to become the best-selling Disney box office film of all time, the film received a low score from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes (Greer, 2019). People felt that the CGI style fit the film poorly because the style makes the animals appear to have less emotion because of the limited facial expressions characters could display in this medium. CGI is essentially a more advanced form of animation that developed after the stylized 2D animation typically used by Disney classics. The potential of mixing CGI with people was shown expertly in Avatar (Greer, 2019). This new CGI style of visual presentation attempts to appeal to adults because of the “real-world” feel, while still preserving its appeal to children. Brooks Eggleston attributes the absurdly high ticket sales for movies like The Lion King (2019) to the fact that “adults see live action as a legitimizer or excuse to see something “from their childhood,” made ok for adults, since animation is sometimes only seen as ‘for kids’” (Eggleston).

Disney is also in the process of creating a remake of 101 Dalmatians called “Cruella.” The film will feature Emma Watson as Cruella De Vil, a huge Hollywood name. The film has a tremendous marketing budget to ensure success not only in theaters, but also for accompanying merchandise. Disney plans to create theme park tie ins, interactive games, and plenty of merchandise to accompany the film’s release (King). The film is trying to target adults with a more sophisticated plot and appearance, while still appealing to kids because of the overload of puppies. Additionally, the soundtrack might include songs from Elton John and TLC to enhance its appeal to older audiences. This film is the perfect example of Disney combining its primary audience development tactics for creating one big-budget live action film to maximize profits.

Representation Concerns

Discussions around equality and representation have become a hot topic in Hollywood over the past few years. Disney’s live action remakes have been subject to criticism similar to most production companies. Sean Bailey who is in charge of Disney’s strategy development for live action remakes commented “Inclusivity is not only a priority but an imperative for us, and it's top of mind on every single project” (Elmogahzy, 2018). Nonetheless, recent films including Aladdin, the Lion King, and Mulan have been criticized for their approach to racial representation and accused of whitewashing. For a film like the Lion King, it is important to note that the CGI representation of the characters does not hide a cast members race; it can still be portrayed through voice. The original Lion King was highly criticized for casting people of different races as the voices of the hyenas. People argued that this created furthered a negative stereotype of people of Hispanic and African American races because the hyenas are uncivilized scoundrels. The company made sure not to make this mistake for the live action casting. With their casting decisions, they heavily used African American voice actors which is suitable for the film given its setting in Africa (Elmogahzy, 2018). This demonstrates that they were attempting to emphasize inclusivity as Bailey claimed.

However, many of the princess remakes have experienced harsh criticism for their handling of racial diversity in casting. Mulan was criticized for adding a white male lead to the cast. Fans worried this would take away from Mulan’s spotlight and started trending the hashtag #MakeMulanRight well before the film’s release. In casting Aladdin, Disney reportedly struggled to find a male lead in their 20s who was either Middle Eastern or Indian who could both act and sing for the film. This was met with criticism since there is an abundant amount of talent in Bollywood. Similarly, critics pointed that it is easy to find Middle Easterners to cast as terrorists, so why is it so hard to find a lead cast role. They were also criticized for casting a racially ambiguous Jasmine (Elmogahzy, 2018). Disney also revealed that they selected an African American girl to play to play the lead of Ariel in its new Little Mermaid remake. This was met with outrage by some for replacing a traditionally white character with a lead of another race, but it shows that the company is attempting to evolve to be more racially inclusive even if they are met with some negative feedback.

In addition to debates over racial diversity in Hollywood, representation of women has also been an area of concern in the industry. In 2017, a plethora of sexual harassment cases and scandals came to light highlighting the less than ideal working conditions many females experience in Hollywood. Another interesting and contrary trend that year was the fact that the top 3 box office hits all featured female leads: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, and Wonder Woman (Koushik, 2108). Although it appears positive that Disney is beginning to feature more lady leads, Koushik argues there is reason to assume they are only making this adjustment because it is marketable. Switching stereotypically male leads for female characters as they did in Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a small change that allows them to capitalize on social trends and perform better for the global audience. Creating a female lead in a Star Wars film was also a smart marketing decision because it expands Star Wars which traditionally appeals to a male audience to make a better appeal to more women. This opens up new merchandising opportunities in appealing to young girls as well, which is important considering the Disney Princess merchandising averaged $4 billion from 2016-2017 (Koushik, 2018).

Koushik provides that the creation of female leads in the modern era happened because it is marketable, yet as Disney integrates female characters into traditionally male roles, they have not also integrated feminist themes into the plot lines. Rather, the adaptation was as simple as putting a female body into a male role. Koushik argues this was the case for the development of Rey in Star Wars. Similarly, in Beauty and the Beast, although Belle has some feminist characteristics, it is never enough to overpower the traditional patriarchal structures depicted in the film. The result of these trends leads to a term Koushik calls “commodity feminism.” With commodity feminist, feminism becomes focused on “girl power” and a woman’s ability to “vote with her wallet” (Koushik). It trains girls to find empowerment consumerism, which is favorable to a company such as Disney. Their audience development strategy for films is so brilliant because it is not only limited to film profits, but it is paired with boundless merchandising opportunities.

Conclusion

According to Joe Roth, chairman of Walt Disney motion pictures group, "If I'm right, we're going to come up with movies that will be two to three times more profitable than any live-action movie has ever been." Roth feels that this strategy is the only way the company with meet its revenue growth goal of 20 percent annually (Taylor). Over the past decade, creating live action remakes has helped the company grow tremendously. The strategy has been effective because it has allowed them to appeal to audiences of all demographics in ages in different ways. For millennials and older, they have been able to maintain the attention they’ve had from this audience since their childhood through nostalgia marketing. Similarly, it has allowed them to capture the newest generation of youth with engaging graphics and endearing storylines. However, it is vital we reflect on whether the nostalgia we consume is actually having a positive impact on us, or is it creating further aesthetic division by creating problems like commodity feminism?

Works Cited

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