The Walt Disney Company’s strategy of rebooting its classic cartoons as live-action movies was once a cornerstone of its feature film division. They had one problem, though: they moved a little too fast and, as a result, almost ran out of material. Having brought most of the classic Disney animated movies to the big screen, they’ve run out of films from decades ago that could do with a rework and have now found themselves needing to reboot movies that aren’t even that old, animated movies that are actually still getting their own sequels. Despite this, the Disney strategy is primed to continue working.
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Disney has released the full trailer for the live-action remake of Moana, the next film in their slate of redos of animated movies, and the one with the shortest time span from the animated film’s debut to the live-action remake. What’s clear from the new trailer for Moana, though, is that the film has put all the love and care of adapting the Oscar-winning animated tale into live-action that fans should expect. Not only does the trailer tease the reprisal of fan-favorite songs from the film, but it also reveals how some of the best characters will be rendered in live-action when it arrives this July. Check it out for yourself below!
New Disney’s Moana Trailer Brings Animated Classic to Life
Disney’s upcoming remake of Moana marks a surprising shift in their decision-making for live-action updates of their animated movies. Prior to this, most of the films Disney remade were sedentary, with no sequels or movement in the franchise happening at all (save for new merch in the Disney theme parks). In fact, some of the most successful were ones that hadn’t had a new movie in decades, with remakes like Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King each making over a billion dollars at the global box office. After the success of these films, though, Disney was forced to start looking at slightly newer films that could make their way into live-action, which some might think wouldn’t be as successful since nostalgia hasn’t had time to percolate. Moana, however, will almost certainly prove that more recent animated Disney movies could replicate the live-action remake success.
The original Moana was released ten years ago, grossing over $600 million at the global box office, but giving Disney another new IP to make young fans into forever fans. 2024 saw the long-awaited sequel debut, which went on to outgross the original by a huge margin and bring in over $1 billion globally. The success of that sequel alone should have fans bracing for the new Moana to be a major hit, but there’s another anecdote that makes it clear Moana will almost certainly be a box office smash. It happened just last year, when the live-action Lilo & Stitch cruised its way to becoming one of the biggest hits of the year and grossed over $1 billion. That film was Disney’s biggest success and the surprise of the summer, with a sequel already confirmed for 2028.
One of the reasons that Lilo & Stitch managed to become a breakout hit was that the film had very little competition at the box office when it premiered. Moana will face a slight challenge when it arrives, premiering nine days after the next Minions movie, but the family-friendly movie faces no challenges for the rest of July, even with a new Spider-Man movie swinging at the end of the month (especially if it’s as dark as the trailer makes it look).
Disney’s new film seems poised to continue the trend of success with their live-action remakes, but also could make it clear that nostalgia for 2010s animated movies can be their next mine to dig through and bring to life. Tangled is already confirmed to be in the works, but fans should expect that maybe Disney targets other live-action remakes from the era as well, like, say, Frozen. Moana‘s success will show them that live-action and animated versions of franchises can co-exist, so their biggest hit of the past 15 years could go the same route.
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