Live Action Remakes

 Over the past few years Disney decided to remake some of their animated classics into Live Action films.  The movies have received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, but for the most part Meg and I have really enjoyed watching them.  We liked Aladdin (Cam's favorite), Cinderella and Dumbo (Cal's favorite), but our favorite without a doubt was the live action version of Beauty and the Beast.  In fact over the past few months I believe that it has grown to my number one Disney movie of all time.  I am positive that I could watch the movie every single day and I am pretty sure that Meg agrees with me on that.

I decided this week to take a break from Belle and the Beast's love story and try a few of the new Disney live action films.  I picked Mulan first.  It was supposed to be released last March, but due to the closure of movie theaters in our nation, Disney held off on the opening.  They eventually bypassed theaters all together and offered it for a hefty price of $30 on Disney +.  Since neither Meg nor Brett wanted to watch it, I waited until it was free with the Disney subscription.  It had gotten poor reviews, but I actually really enjoyed it.  I started it during the day and Doug finished watching it with me that evening.  Although it wasn't quite as good as the Jungle Book remake that we watched last week, it was still very entertaining.  I didn't miss the music as much as I thought I would since they played it in the background, but I could see why others complained about the absence of Eddie Murphy's dragon character.

Today's movie was Mary Poppins Returns.  It wasn't a remake, but a sequel instead.  Brett had seen it and wanted my opinion on it.  I think that we shared the same thoughts.  It was pretty disappointing.  The songs and scenes weren't near as fun as those in the original.  The exception was the last fifteen minutes as there was a surprise visit from Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury.  I really enjoyed that and in the end I was glad to have watched it.  The best part of watching all of these movies hasn't been the films themselves, but instead discussing them with the rest of the Heinisch family afterward.  As Cal handed me the Bob Iger memoir that he thoroughly enjoyed reading (as did Brett), I realized that my love of Disney had rubbed off on all of them.  That made my heart smile.