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Ranking Disney’s Live-Action Remakes

When a studio is as old and has as big a catalog of hits as Disney, it's inevitable to look back through past decades of success stories for a property that can be refreshed and re-appropriated for a modern audience. Lately, Walt Disney Pictures has been making headlines for its rampant revisits to some of its most beloved animated classics, with this year's The Jungle Book serving as the most recent example of the studio taking a story from animation to live action. However, in addition to translating these iconic stories into a new visual style, Disney has also sprinkled in several notable remakes of its own live-action films.

Pete's Dragon

1) Pete’s Dragon (2016)

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If this remake of the 1977 live-action tale of a boy’s friendship with an animated dragon crept up on you, we can’t say we’re surprised. The film has arrived in theaters with seemingly less-than-usual fanfare from Disney, and considering the quaint but dated sentiment many hold for the original version, no one likely expected co-writer/director David Lowery’s update to be so damn powerful.

Oakes Fegley stars as Pete, a boy who survives in the woods for six years with the help of a CG-animated dragon named Elliot, while Bryce Dallas Howard, Karl Urban, Wes Bentley, Oona Laurence and Robert Redford round out the supporting cast. By imbuing its characters with a sense of realism and warmth, Lowery — previously best known for indie drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints — lends the story greater weight than it originally carried, and what easily could have come off as a cheap retread instead uses its fantastical elements to convey a worthwhile message about real-life magic.

It’s not often that a remake improves upon its predecessor, but Pete’s Dragon is certainly the exception, a tender and thoughtful family film that we’re really hoping audiences discover during its theatrical run.