On April 15, 2016, Disney released its first live-action remake. With a budget of $175 million, Disney recast all the classic roles, re-recorded all the classic songs, and re-animated (just with computer effects) all the classic animal characters from this beloved 1967 original. The film made just short of a billion dollars.

With The Jungle Book, Disney kicked off the most unimaginative and cynically greedy filmmaking trend in the company’s long history — a trend that still persists today, with the upcoming (and truly terrible-looking) Moana remake.

In an era where remakes are incredibly common, it may seem strange to single out one particular category of them, but Disney’s live-action remakes of its animated classics are in a class of their own in terms of creative bankruptcy. From a business standpoint, I get that the reason for any remake is to capitalize on a known intellectual property. Artistically, however, remakes usually seek to deliver something different, either by updating the original movie for modern audiences, or by re-adapting the original source material, often to make a more faithful version. Some remakes are good, some are terrible, but the objective is generally to offer something new.

In contrast, the objective of the Disney live-action remakes is not to reimagine, but to repeat — to cynically trace over the original work and deliver a copy with all the same songs and major moments.

Yes, there are some updates, often to give female characters more agency (like Jasmine in Aladdin), or sidestep some racist animal characters (like the Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp). But these updates are not the reason the movie is being remade. They are merely a........

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