Over the past two decades, Disney has produced several live-action remakes of classic animated films. These include straight remakes, such as The Lion King and The Jungle Book, as well as spinoffs and sequels, like Cruella and Maleficent. However, there was another remake in the works that ended up being shut down. The surprising part is that this might have been the easiest of all the Disney animated remakes because it is a legend that has been made into several live-action movies over the years. Particularly with the success of Zootopia and its sequel.
Sadly, it turns out that the upcoming remake of the 1973 animated movie Robin Hood is no more. During a recent Reddit AMA, director Carlos López Estrada said that Disney has chosen not to make his photorealistic musical remake of the animated movie Robin Hood. “It’s dead, sadly,” Estrada said. “I say ‘sadly’ because I actually thought there was something really special (and original!) there. Some truly extraordinary music we had figured out for it.”
Disney’s Robin Hood Remake Could Have Been Incredible
Image Courtesy of Disney
The bad news is that this had the chance to be an incredible movie. Carlos López Estrada previously directed Raya and the Last Dragon, and his plans for the Robin Hood remake sounded amazing. Kari Granlund (Lady and the Tramp) was writing the script, and Estrada had plans to make a hybrid of live action and CG, all set as a musical. The original animated movie itself has some of the most memorable songs of its era, and it also earned an Oscar and Grammy nomination for the music.
While fans like to make fun of Disney making so many live-action remakes of its animated movies, they have been routinely successful. Four of these releases made over $1 billion worldwide, including Beauty and the Beast ($1.2 billion), Aladdin ($1.05 billion), Alice in Wonderland ($1.02 billion), and Lilo & Stitch ($1.01 billion). Four more made over $500,000 worldwide, so the money could have been there for Robin Hood.
However, the biggest reason that Robin Hood should have gotten a chance was the fact that Carlos López Estrada wanted to do a hybrid film with strong musical numbers (Roger Miller composed songs for the original movie, including the catchy “Oo-De-Lally.”) While there have been several Robin Hood movies over the years, having a live-action, animation hybrid with Robin Hood as a wisecracking red fox and Little John as a talking brown bear could rival the fun from The Jungle Book remake, still considered the high point of the live-action remakes.
Disney has the live-action Moana hitting theaters this summer, and it is expected to be a monster hit, especially with Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as Maui in the movie. After Lilo & Stitch broke $1 billion last year in a film that rivaled the animated film in quality, it is surprising that Disney has passed on something as original as Robin Hood, as it might have been the most interesting Disney live-action remake of them all.
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