Joe Russo Suggests Disney's Live-Action Hercules Will Take A Cue From TikTok For Its Musical Numbers
Disney's live-action remakes of their animated classics haven't always fared well. Rotten Tomatoes compiled a ranked list of all the live-action remakes that Disney has done (including sequels to live-action remakes such as "102 Dalmatians" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass") and, out of 19 movies, 10 of them have a "Rotten" critics' score.
Fans haven't always been enthused by the remakes, either. In the r/CharacterRant subreddit, u/CrazyCoKids laid out their reasons why the remakes don't work and said it's not because they're live-action and it's not because the cast members all seem bored, but rather because they add nothing new to the story. "The main reason is because they're just retreading old ground and trying to 'fix' it by doing it live-action," the user wrote. "Imagine if we got an animated James Bond movie... and instead of adapting an unadapted short-story, or making a new story that tries to take advantage of the medium, just is a remake of 'The World is not Enough' shot-for-shot and beat-for-beat and the differences only being the occasional nod to bad faith critics or "See? I fixed this flaw in the original that was pretty incremental."
Many agreed with this assessment, such as u/BardicLasher who said that "too many of the Disney remakes don't know why they need to be remade and suffer for it." In fact, some of the highest-ranked movies on the Rotten Tomatoes list, such as "Mulan," were notable for how much they changed from the original, while some of the ones on the bottom, such as "The Lion King," changed very little.
One of the next movies to get the live-action treatment will be "Hercules," and the latest comments from the producers have more than a few fans dreading the upcoming film.
A TikTok-inspired musical?
In an interview with Variety, Joe Russo, who, alongside his brother Anthony, is producing the live-action "Hercules," said that they do plan to stray from the original film a little more this time around, calling it "a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution." Russo went on to explain that the new film would be inspired by TikTok. "Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right?" he said. "What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like? That can be a lot of fun and help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you execute a modern musical."
Immediate fan reaction to this announcement on social media was almost entirely negative. "I'm convinced that [the Russo brothers] not only don't understand art, but actively hate it and have made it their lifelong mission to kill it," wrote u/Pal_Pachino in a thread in the r/boxoffice subreddit. "That's kinda the worst thing I've ever heard," wrote u/Beansupreme117 in the same thread. Similar sentiments were expressed on Twitter, such as Christina Radish of Collider who wrote, "I have questions. And honestly, I don't really want them answered." Twitter user @DanielBlackaby wrote that the idea "sounds like the premise for a horror film." Another user, @LizGillies4Lyfe wrote, "This some how got a bigger what out of me than hearing the joker sequel will be a musical."
Considering how heavily negative the reaction was, perhaps the Russo brothers will reconsider their approach to the film. Alternatively, maybe the initial reaction is wrong and the film will be better than people expect. Fans will just have to wait and see.