Disney’s brand-new streaming service Disney+ is finally here,
granting Disney fans premier access to a vast and varied collection of the
company’s legendary filmography along with some exciting new projects from practically
every major facet of the Disney universe. And here on Rhode Island Movie
Corner, that means that you folks can expect plenty of reviews of Disney+
originals for the foreseeable future, which all begins with a review of the latest
entry in Disney’s recent line of live-action remakes. Oh sure, I know some of
you probably just rolled your eyes right now given how many of these have been
made at this point, but as I’ve made it clear plenty of times by now, I’m all
for these new spins on classic Disney stories, which includes today’s
installment, a remake of Disney Animation’s 1955 release, Lady and the Tramp.
Overall, I’d sum up Lady and the Tramp under the category of ‘Disney
classics that, unfortunately, tend to get overlooked sometimes due to some of
the other films that came out during that period’. In this instance, Lady
and the Tramp, as far as its initial release was concerned, was
sandwiched right between two of what are arguably Disney Animation’s most
iconic films, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. And yet, I think
it’s safe to say that this charming little tale of a pampered Cocker Spaniel
who falls in love with a street-savvy stray mutt is just as well-regarded as
the other Disney classics of its time, especially thanks to its iconic sequence
where the titular duo share a romantic spaghetti dinner to the tune of ‘Bella
Notte’. This, of course, brings us to its new live-action remake, which is
directed by Charlie Bean, a veteran animator who’s worked on several classic
shows including Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls. He
also made his directorial debut back in 2017 with the considerably underrated LEGO
Ninjago Movie, and here, he delivers an earnest and all-around heartwarming
rendition of a classic Disney love story.
In a quaint little Midwestern town, Jim Dear (Thomas Mann) gives
his wife Darling (Kiersey Clemons) a Cocker Spaniel for Christmas, whom they
name Lady. As time goes on, Lady (voiced by Tessa Thompson) becomes incredibly accustomed
to her life of luxury, especially after Jim and Darling give her a new collar.
However, things start to change when she meets a stray mutt who’s often
referred to as ‘the Tramp’ (voiced by Justin Theroux), who informs her that she
isn’t going to be the center of her owners’ universe anymore because they’re
about to have a baby, and as he puts it, “When the baby moves in, the dog moves
out”. Sure enough, Jim and Darling end up having a baby girl named Lulu and
Lady soon finds herself getting much less attention than she used to. To make
matters worse, an incident in which Lady gets into trouble with Darling’s
dog-hating Aunt Sarah (Yvette Nicole Brown) while Jim and Darling are away
results in her ending up out in the streets without a collar and far from home.
Thus, when she eventually reunites with Tramp, he offers to help her get home
and begins to show her everything that he experiences as a street dog all while
avoiding Elliot the local dogcatcher (Adrian Martinez), who’s hellbent on capturing
Tramp and putting him in the pound. And in the process, an unexpected bit of
romance starts to blossom between this most unlikely pair.
Like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin before
it, Lady and the Tramp is another case of these recent live-action Disney
remakes where, admittedly, most of its big changes are cosmetic in nature. For
starters, instead of rarely showing their faces like in the original, Jim and
Darling are featured a lot more prominently in this version whereas Aunt Sarah
plays a lesser role than she did in the animated film in favor of a generally
expanded role for the dogcatcher as the new main antagonist. But easily the
biggest change comes via Aunt Sarah’s pair of Siamese Cats, who receive a
considerably major overhaul due to their animated counterparts often being considered
as racist stereotypes complete with a new song, ‘What a Shame’. The story,
meanwhile, is basically the same as the original with the exact same story
beats, from the troublesome rat that constantly pesters the family to Lady’s
brief tenure in the pound where she learns ‘the truth’ about the Tramp. And unlike
the other recent live-action Disney remakes, this one doesn’t really do much to
update the story from a modern perspective outside of the previously mentioned
revision of the Siamese Cats and the fact that Jim and Darling are a biracial
couple. However, this new film still does a very nice job when it comes to its
overall handling of this story and consistently maintains the same pleasant atmosphere
of its animated counterpart. Yes, even that iconic spaghetti scene is still
beautifully executed even with a live-action/CGI coat of paint.
A lot of this has to do with the film’s unique method of
bringing its animal characters to life. While it clearly could’ve been quite
easy to just have all the dogs portrayed solely through CGI since that is what many
films tend to do nowadays for animals, Lady and the Tramp instead
manages to go the extra mile by casting real dogs (many of them rescues), with the
utterly adorable duo of rescues Rose and Monte taking on the title roles. And
while the film does obviously use CG to have them talk and to give them digital
doubles for certain sequences, it’s so well implemented that it’s often legitimately
rather hard to distinguish between scenes where the dogs are either real or fully
CG. It also helps that Lady and the Tramp are given an excellent duo to voice
them in Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux, respectively, as both do a wonderful
job in making these two incredibly lovable and effortlessly charismatic while
also sporting some lovely chemistry. They’re then backed by an equally solid supporting
voice cast headlined by the likes of Sam Elliott as Trusty the old bloodhound
and Janelle Monáe
as Tramp’s flirtatious friend Peg the Pekingese (Monáe, of course, performs the classic ditty that is ‘He’s
a Tramp’ and also helped write the Siamese Cats’ new song). As for the film’s
human cast, Thomas Mann and Kiersey Clemons have solid chemistry that’s on par
with Thompson and Theroux as Jim and Darling even if they still end up playing
the same generally passive roles that their characters had in the original. After
that, you have some nice supporting turns from Yvette Nicole Brown as Aunt
Sarah despite her significantly reduced role in this version of the story and
Adrian Martinez as the dogcatcher, who manages to be an effectively menacing villain
without being too campy.
Many of these recent live-action Disney remakes have extensively
used CGI to help bring the fantastical worlds of their stories to life. Lady
and the Tramp is not one of those films since, just like the original, it
is still very much an old-fashioned love story set in a practically picturesque
Midwestern town like the ones that Walt Disney himself grew up in. As such, its
use of CGI is a lot more limited compared to the other films of its subgenre
which, even as someone who has loved all these recent Disney remakes, I have to
admit is a nice and refreshing change of pace when it comes to these films. In other
words, it could be argued that this new version of Lady and the Tramp eschews
what has become the traditional process of remaking a Disney classic in favor
of a pleasantly nostalgic ‘back to basics’ approach. However, if there is one
thing that this film has in common with the other recent live-action Disney
remakes, it’s that it’ll ultimately once again be the subject of controversy amongst
those who are fully against this current cinematic trend. It also doesn’t help
that this version of Lady and the Tramp doesn’t really do much to update
its story for a new generation outside of abolishing some racist stereotypes.
Ultimately, though, while it may not necessarily be the best of these
live-action Disney remakes, Lady and the Tramp still thoroughly succeeds
at being an immensely heartwarming crowd-pleaser thanks in large part to its
extensive use of actual dogs instead of CG creations. But if you are one of
those folks who still prefer the animated incarnations of these Disney
classics, you’ll be pleased to know that the original Lady and the Tramp is
also readily available for your streaming pleasures on Disney+. In fact, the
same can be said for all the Disney classics that have received remakes these
past few years. I’ve always argued that these remakes can peacefully co-exist
with their animated counterparts and I’m pleased to say that Disney+ is now
proving that this is, indeed, possible.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment