Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.
Images via Sony Pictures Animation/Walt Disney Animation Studios

Disney, I beg you, please learn from Sony’s ‘Spider-Verse’ and stop disrespecting your own classic movies

Guillermo Del Toro said it best.

“Animation is not a genre for kids. It’s a medium for art, it’s a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation.”

Guillermo Del Toro
Recommended Videos

In the space of a week, I got to sit in a theater room to watch The Little Mermaid and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on the day they premiered, and this sequence of events could not have been more opportune.

While I did find The Little Mermaid to be a worthwhile adaptation of the 1989 original, and we wouldn’t have gotten the gift of Halle Bailey as Ariel without this take, the film is still representative of Disney’s recent strange obsession with turning all its animated classics into live-action. If I had a penny for every time that strategy worked in their favor, I wouldn’t be very rich at all.

Most of the time these remakes are forgettable, sometimes they’re downright awful, and every single time they can’t hold a candle to the success and cultural impact of the originals, or even recent animated efforts by Disney like Frozen, Moana, Encanto, or Pixar’s Coco. The need to produce these films doesn’t even come from an interest in introducing them to a new audience through modern perspectives, because if that was the case, why make a live-action adaptation of 2016’s Moana, which hasn’t even had the time to become a classic?

At their most cynical, Disney’s live-action remakes are cash grabs, but they’re also symptomatic of a wider disrespect for animation as a medium. These classics, which defined a generation and built Disney’s brand as we know it today, are being treated like stepping stones on a path to make “real” cinema. And this is true of the film industry at large. Animation is contained in its own category, rarely allowed a place in the big leagues, no matter how incredible the films are.

Well, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has something to say about that. Sony Pictures Animation was gentle enough to give Disney a week to state its case for why live-action reimaginings are worth our time, only to completely obliterate the debate with an insanely well-crafted, awe-strikingly designed, and incredibly sensitive animated movie. What better way to prove that animation is just as worthwhile and prestigious as any other form of filmmaking than to deliver a movie of this caliber just days after Disney churned out another remake of one of the most popular animated movies of all time?

Image via Marvel/Sony Pictures

Sony is doing incredible things with a medium that’s freer and more fruitful than any other and yet is often seen as lesser than or, God forbid, a children’s genre. The Spider-Verse films are pushing cinematic boundaries while creating new standards. They’re crafty and ingenious passion-filled projects begging to be seen, heard, and lauded the same way any other film as well-made as they are would be.

The Little Mermaid is great, especially compared to past Disney live-action attempts, but the sheer reason for it to exist is a disservice to a form that has brought the company so much glory and magic in the past. Thankfully, movies like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are here to remind us that animation is, was, and will always be the most spectacular kind of filmmaking there is.


We Got This Covered is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Francisca Tinoco
Francisca Tinoco
Francisca is a pop culture enthusiast and film expert. Her Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences from Nova University in Portugal and Master's Degree in Film Studies from Oxford Brookes University in the UK have allowed her to combine her love for writing with her love for the movies. She has been a freelance writer and content creator for five years, working in both the English and Portuguese languages for various platforms, including WGTC.