Lady and the Tramp (Live-Action)

[Daniel]

Peggy sings about how she loves and needs him regardless?

Peg. Although Peggy Lee does sing and provide her voice.

[ShyViolet]

Oh of course, that’s right. I couldn’t remember her name in the movie, and I knew Peggy Lee did the voice/singing, so I figured her character was also named Peggy.

Really, it’s a great song. I just can’t understand the rationale in cutting it. The result of all this deleting/censoring of these masterpieces will be a toothless, milquetoast version of Disney that I don’t think ANYONE wants. Hey, maybe Iger could always just sell off these “classic” Disney properties the way Saul Steinberg was going to in 1984 (before Eisner and co. took over) and reap the financial benefits. And then the “Disney” company can just become an MCU factory spitting out Avengers and Star Wars films every year from now on.

[Daniel]

It's interesting how the two things we know so far that might be cut or altered are connected to Peggy Lee. I'm sure not intended, just a funny coinky dink.

I just hope they don't do away with one of her main contributions; Trusty's fate. (If it ends being a shot-for-shot.) Peggy convinced Walt not to kill Trusty and send him to doggy heaven.

[Otis8]

This looks sooooo bad. yikes! at least it wont be in theatres.

[Daniel]

Yvette Nicole Brown will be playing Aunt Sarah...

[Ben]

So it’s becoming clear that Disney+'s originals won’t exactly have the same budgets and status as theatricals. If this was destined for theatres, this casting would have been an Anjelica Huston or Olivia Davis.

As it is, I can’t decide if Disney+ originals will just be Disney Channel-level TV movies (terrible), or somewhere inbetween those and lower budget theatricals. Whichever way, this isn’t looking like it’s going to be a Dumbo-level exclusive worth shelling out for, but rather a Parent Trap or, shudder, a That Darn Cat "so what?" update.

As something that could have felt a little bit magic and another reason to consider D+, nothing about this feels in the least bit special...

[Daniel]

If this was destined for theatres, this casting would have been an Anjelica Huston or Olivia Davis.

Do you by chance mean Angela Bassett and Octavia Spencer?

[Ben]

Yeah...silly me. Octavia Spencer. I was talking about Olivia Davis to someone else the other day and it must have stuck in my mind!

[Daniel]

Have you seen the trailer for her new flick?! (Warning: a little intense)



She could pull off the aunty type, but with her new movie in mind it's now a little harder! Aunt Sarah was snooty, decisive and a poor judge of character... not twisted evil.

[EricJ]

So it’s becoming clear that Disney+'s originals won’t exactly have the same budgets and status as theatricals. If this was destined for theatres, this casting would have been an Anjelica Huston or Olivia Davis.

As it is, I can’t decide if Disney+ originals will just be Disney Channel-level TV movies (terrible), or somewhere inbetween those and lower budget theatricals. Whichever way, this isn’t looking like it’s going to be a Dumbo-level exclusive worth shelling out for, but rather a Parent Trap or, shudder, a That Darn Cat "so what?" update.

Or the Disney Channel "remake" of Adventures in Babysitting.
At this point, it's possible they may be done with theatrical releases--Except for Mermaid, in keeping with the "90's Big-Four" theory.
They're going "back to formula" cleaning up the old early-10's memos on "Cruella" and "Maleficent 2", and trying to tie up all the loose ends where they started, but it was only the budgets for Will Smith, Tim Burton and Jon Favreau that still GOT them into theaters.
At least, live-action remakes are going to stay in some sort of "zombie-franchise" status at the studios for a while until they can hit upon some new boardroom strategy for marketing old legacy house-titles without the legal pitfalls of sequelizing them.

Of course, there's still Disney treating the theatrical Aladdin and LK releases in marketing as if they're THE pre-destined runaway phenomenon smashes that Beauty&Beast was for coming out during fangirl-week, but it's hard to tell whether that's still their own delusion, or the last brave stage of whistling in the franchise graveyard.
It was certainly more one than the other BEFORE Dumbo's box office.

[Daniel]

New photos of the Doggy cast. Don't think I'll ever get use to the idea of a gender swapped Jock. Bleh.

They all look pretty on point. I can definitely picture Sam Elliot's voice coming out of Trusty.

[ShyViolet]

The weird thing is that those dogs are so cute , but I don’t at all feel the connection to them that I feel towards the drawn/painted Lady, Tramp, Trusty, etc...I’m sure it would be different if I “met” dogs in real life who looked like them and got to pet them and everything, but that is not the same emotional payoff you’re supposed to get while watching a gosh-darn Disney Feature Film!


It’s the same issue with The Lion King: If I visited a zoo and they had a lion cub that looked like that film’s Simba, it would be awesome if I got to see it up close and maybe pet it, but I don’t think that feeling is what most of the audience members who saw the original LK in 94 were expecting.


Even more relevantly: Back when Jiminy Cricket was being designed eighty years ago, the original sketches had him looking MUCH more like a real cricket, which, as you can imagine, was not very cuddly or the greatest look for a character who was in many ways the heart of the film. According to the artists, they basically had to keep altering him until his final design barely had any characteristics of an actual cricket. In my opinion, that was definitely the right way to go.


(Also did Disney ever make an announcement about whether or not they’ll keep Peg’s song?)

[Daniel]

Don't believe so, just a lot of hearsay. I'm thinking it won't make the cut, unfortunately.

The Siamese song, if kept, will likely undergo a "reinvention".

[ShyViolet]

Oy. How can you possibly rewrite that song? I mean it’s really not about them being the Siamese ethnicity (now known as Thai), but Siamese cats who are beautiful yet happen to look a little “sneaky looking.” Many own Siamese cats and don’t like them any less because of this. . It’s just sort of how they look.
How would the “improved” song go? “We’re Aunt Sarah’s pet cats and we’re really mean to Lady!”


I do understand where people who are offended by those characters are coming from, but Si and Am are the villains of this story, so of course they’ll be designed as caricatures (because they’re the bad guys not because they’re Siamese!). Just as Joe and Tony are caricatures as well, because they’re the “sidekick” comic-relief, who in addition are actually very kind to Tramp (whom they already know) and Lady. They are also very generous; providing them with romantic music AND dinner!

Seriously...stripping these animated masterpieces of their heart and soul because their often multi-layered (if a bit dated) main characters don’t fit into contemporary societal mores (as understandable as those are) of today is robbing future generations of the magic WE all experienced as children. I LOVED Tony and Joe and I LOVED the crows in Dumbo. Honestly, if they had all been removed, I seriously doubt I would see these features as much more than fun but ultimately bland cartoons; probably on the level of Saturday morning animation, if that.

[Daniel]

Stripping away Jock's manhood is just as criminal!