By Sofia McGinnis
The live-action Snow White was released in theaters on March 21, 2025. The movie was met with lackluster reviews, earning only $87.3 million worldwide and an IMDb score of 1.6/10. However, IMDb may not reflect the average viewer’s experience.
“Without the IMDb ratings, Snow White’s true reception seems much more average,” Screen Rant said. “Most audiences are not terribly impressed with the movie, but they don’t necessarily hate it either.”
With more live-action movies set to come out in the next few years, let’s look back at the previous live-action Disney movies and see how movie-loving students line them up.
“My general opinion of Disney live-action remakes is that I believe they are a cry for help from Disney,” said Emily Carrucini, a theatre major and film minor at The University of Tampa. “These movies [have] a plot that has already been done. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are good, but some just feel like they do it for the attention.”
From the movies Carrucini has seen, her top three are Lady and the Tramp (2019), The Lion King (2019), and The Jungle Book (2016). Carrucini said she ranked Cinderella (2015) at the bottom of her list but hasn’t seen every remake.
“I’m not sure if Disney will make a comeback, but they won’t need to because they’ll always be on top and always be popular,” said Carrucini.
“I absolutely love Disney and Disney movies,” said Giulietta Imperato, a primary education major at UTampa. “Disney holds a special place in my heart and it actually pains me to see all the hateful comments towards the live-action films.”
Imperato said she had a few favorite Disney live-action films.
“A ranking of all the live-action movies that I have seen [from best to worst is]: Alice in Wonderland (2010), The Lion King, The Little Mermaid (2023), Beauty and The Beast (2017), Snow White (2025), Cruella (2021), Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016), [and] 101 Dalmatians (1996),” said Imperato.
Imperato said she recently saw Snow White and thought it was pleasant.
“I think they kinda dropped the ball a little with Snow White,” said Imperato. “This is not to say that Snow White wasn’t a good movie because I very much enjoyed watching it.”
Imperato said she has hope for Disney.
“I sincerely hope Disney will make a comeback [and] I don’t understand why Disney gets so much hate,” said Imperato. “I hope when they come with the live-action of Tangled, it will have the same feeling as the earlier remakes.”
“The live-action Alice in Wonderland (2010) was perfect,” said Imperato. “I may be biased because the original is my favorite movie [but] out of every live-action Disney movie, Alice in Wonderland is top tier.”
However, not everyone feels the same.
“[My least favorite is] Alice in Wonderland,” said Evlin Walsh, a student at Chapman University majoring in film and television with a minor in film music. “It’s just not for me. [It’s] very whimsical, you know, but it’s a little dark and offbeat.”
Walsh said she has favorite Disney live-action remakes.
“I go number one, Christopher Robin (2018). I think it’s a really sweet movie [plus] the characters [are captured] very well, according to the original cartoon, “said Walsh. “I thought Mulan (2020) was pretty good [because] I thought the actress who played Mulan was very cool.”
However, Walsh said she’s worried about Disney’s direction.
“General opinion of Disney live-action remake [is I] don’t like them,” said Walsh. “I would much rather see an original story than a remake [and] my opinion of Disney as a whole [is] I think they have gone down in quality [over] the years.”
“I hope Disney makes a comeback. I think [the] current path they’re on now isn’t good,” Walsh said. “I think lately they’ve been more focused on acquiring other companies such as Hulu and ESPN.”
With more live-action films set to come out, with the live-action Lilo and Stitch set to release in May of 2025 and the live-action Moana set to release in 2026, we will have to wait and see if Disney will make a comeback.
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Photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.