Disney Live Action Remakes, Ranked From Best to Worst
Disney has been raiding its own animated vault for over a decade now, turning cartoons into CGI-heavy live action cash machines. Some of these remakes found their own identity. Others just reheated the original shot for shot and hoped nobody noticed.
We ranked all 21 below, from the ones that actually justify their existence to the ones that make you want to just rewatch the cartoon instead. Disagree with where we put Mulan or Cruella? That's half the fun. Rank them yourself and see how close you get.
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SS Tier
The Jungle Book (1994)
Technically the first of these Disney live action redos, and it still holds up better than most that came after. Jason Scott Lee's Mowgli feels like a real adventure movie, not a theme park ride with a script, and it leans into a pulpy, Kipling-adjacent tone the CGI remakes never bothered chasing.
The Jungle Book (2016)
This is the one that proved the whole remake machine could actually work. Bill Murray as Baloo is perfect casting, the photorealistic animals somehow have real personality, and Neel Sethi holds his own against a cast of CGI creatures as the only human on screen. King Louie's scene is a bit much but it's a minor complaint in a movie this confident.
Cruella
The rare one that swaps out the kids'-movie DNA entirely and gets away with it. Emma Stone and Emma Thompson chew through a punk London backdrop and a soundtrack stacked with needle drops, and the whole thing feels more like a fashion-world crime caper than a Disney remake. It earns its own identity instead of just filling in the outlines of the cartoon.
AA Tier
Aladdin (2019)
Will Smith's Genie had no business working as well as it did, given the shadow of Robin Williams hanging over the role, but he made it his own instead of doing an impression. 'Speechless' gives Jasmine an actual arc the animated version never bothered with, and the whole thing is just fun, which a lot of these remakes forget to be.
Pinocchio (2022)
Underrated next to its louder siblings. Tom Hanks is a warm, lived-in Geppetto, and director Robert Zemeckis brings real craft to the puppet effects instead of just checking boxes. It doesn't reinvent anything, but it treats the material with more care than it gets credit for.
Maleficent
Angelina Jolie was born to play this role, cheekbones and all, and flipping Sleeping Beauty into a villain's redemption story was a genuinely smart move rather than a lazy retread. The 'true love's kiss' twist near the end still gets people talking years later.
101 Dalmatians
Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil before Cruella De Vil was cool. A genuinely fun family movie that doesn't lean on nostalgia to do its job.
Cinderella (2015)
A genuinely lovely remake that leans into old fashioned storybook sincerity instead of winking at the audience. Lily James and Cate Blanchett elevate the material, and the costuming and sets are gorgeous enough to justify the whole live action experiment. It lands in B tier because it is faithful almost to a fault, but it is the kind of faithful that actually works.
Pete's Dragon (2016)
A quiet, soulful reimagining that mostly ditches the original's songs and goofiness for something tender and genuinely moving. It gets overlooked because it is not a big flashy musical remake, but David Lowery brings real heart and gorgeous visuals to it. One of the most underrated entries in the whole remake wave.
Christopher Robin
A quiet, melancholy entry that barely counts as a remake since it's more of a spinoff with Winnie the Pooh and friends grown up alongside Christopher Robin. Ewan McGregor grounds it with genuine heart, and the practical stuffed animals feel warm rather than uncanny. It lacks the spectacle of the bigger titles but earns its place near the top for sincerity and restraint.
BB Tier
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Emma Watson is a fine Belle and the ballroom scene is gorgeous, but this is the blueprint for the 'почти shot-for-shot' problem that plagues half this list. It's enjoyable while it's on, you just forget most of it the second the credits roll because the animated version already did it better.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
A sequel nobody was clamoring for that still manages to be watchable, mostly on the strength of Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer facing off as two queens who despise each other. The plot gets busy and the fairy-war subplot drags, but the central feud keeps it afloat.
Mulan (2020)
This is one fans are genuinely split on. Cutting Mushu and the songs angered a lot of people who grew up on the original, but taken as its own wuxia-inflected war movie, there's real ambition here.
Mufasa: The Lion King
A prequel that tries to give Mufasa and Scar an actual backstory instead of just redrawing a classic, and that ambition counts for something. It's better received than the 2019 film it follows, even if the photorealistic animal faces still struggle to carry an emotional scene.
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Halle Bailey's voice is the best reason to watch this, 'Part of Your World' genuinely soars. But the underwater CGI looks murky and dim next to the bright, colorful original, and Sebastian never quite escapes the uncanny valley.
Dumbo (2019)
Tim Burton's take looks gorgeous but feels oddly hollow, trading the original's heart for CGI spectacle and a bloated circus subplot. The baby elephant himself barely gets room to be a character amid all the human drama. Watchable once, forgettable after.
The Lion King (2019)
Technically dazzling but emotionally flat. The photorealistic animals look incredible yet barely move their faces, which drains the life out of scenes that worked because of exaggerated expression in the original. A visual showcase that mostly just reminds you to rewatch the 1994 version instead.
Peter Pan & Wendy
A gloomy, joyless take that strips out the wonder and the songs, leaving a muddy slog through Neverland. David Lowery's indie sensibilities clash hard with the material, and the result feels more like a punishment than an adventure. Not offensively bad, just forgettable and sapped of fun.
Snow White (2025)
A messy production that shows on screen, caught between CGI dwarfs nobody asked for and a lead performance that deserved a better script. Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler's offscreen feud generated more headlines than the movie itself did goodwill. It is not the disaster some wanted, but it never finds a reason to exist beyond nostalgia and controversy.
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
A soulless but watchable cash grab that leans hard on nostalgia and a few genuine laughs from Stitch's chaos. It trades the original's emotional depth and quirky animation charm for a glossier, safer retread, with some baffling changes to the ending that fans still argue about. Not offensive, just unnecessary, which lands it squarely in the middle of the pack.
102 Dalmatians
A sequel nobody asked for that leans hard into cartoonish slapstick and loses the charm of the original. Glenn Close is still having fun as Cruella, but the story feels thin and padded out for kids. Watchable once, forgettable after.
CC Tier
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Tim Burton's take made a ton of money and basically kicked off this whole remake trend, but watching it back it holds up shockingly poorly. The CGI Wonderland is a muddy, overstuffed mess and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter mugging dominates every scene he's in. Credit for starting the genre, but the movie itself is a hollow spectacle.
Lady and the Tramp (2019)
A straight to streaming retread that never justifies its own existence. The CGI dogs sit in an uncanny valley that makes the whole thing feel more unsettling than charming, and the spark of the 1955 original is nowhere to be found. Forgettable in the way so many of these lower tier remakes are, it exists mostly to fill a Disney+ launch slot.
Moana (2026)
A live action redo of a movie that came out less than a decade earlier and relied heavily on CG animation to begin with, making the whole exercise feel pointless. The ocean looks fine, the songs are still good because they are just the same songs, but the magic of Moana's animated expressiveness gets flattened into something stiffer and less charming. Another case of Disney mining a modern classic before it even had time to age.
How we ranked them
We weighed how these remakes play as actual movies, not just how faithfully they trace the animated original. Performances, direction with an actual point of view, whether the film earns its runtime, and whether it adds anything the cartoon didn't already do better all factored in. The order reflects where fan forums and critic reviews broadly land, with our own call where the consensus is genuinely split, like Mulan or The Lion King.
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Rank these yourselfFAQ
What is the best Disney live action remake?
The Jungle Book (2016) is the most widely praised, thanks to Jon Favreau's direction and Bill Murray's Baloo. Cruella is a close contender for fans who like a remake that goes its own way entirely.
What is considered the worst Disney live action remake?
Opinions vary, but Lady and the Tramp (2019) and Alice in Wonderland (2010) tend to get the least love from fans and critics alike, for very different reasons: one is forgettable, the other is all style over substance.
Is The Jungle Book (1994) part of the same remake trend?
It predates the modern CGI remake boom by two decades but it's still a live action retelling of the animated classic, so we included it. Many fans consider it one of the strongest of the whole bunch.
Why is Mulan (2020) so divisive among fans?
It cut the songs and dropped Mushu entirely, which upset fans attached to the original. Others praised it for taking the story in a more serious, war-movie direction instead of repeating the cartoon beat for beat.
Are Moana (2026) and Lilo & Stitch (2025) ranked fairly if they're so new?
We ranked them with the information available at time of writing, leaning on early reception and the track record of similar remakes. Expect these placements to get revisited as more people see them.
More rankings
Image credits
- The Jungle Book (1994)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Jungle Book (2016)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- CruellaCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Aladdin (2019)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Pinocchio (2022)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- MaleficentCover: Wikipedia · Source
- 101 DalmatiansCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Cinderella (2015)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Pete's Dragon (2016)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Christopher RobinCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Beauty and the Beast (2017)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Maleficent: Mistress of EvilCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Mulan (2020)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Mufasa: The Lion KingCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Little Mermaid (2023)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Dumbo (2019)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Lion King (2019)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Peter Pan & WendyCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Snow White (2025)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Lilo & Stitch (2025)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- 102 DalmatiansCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Alice in Wonderland (2010)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Lady and the Tramp (2019)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Moana (2026)Cover: Wikipedia · Source