For many of us, our childhoods were rooted in Disney.
They were the movies that made us laugh, cry, and even believe in true love.
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But as we got older, some of our favorite Disney flicks got a facelift in the way of live-action remakes.
Some of these movies stayed true to the originals and some, well, changed things up.
Here are the biggest changes made from Disney animated movies to the live-action versions.
1. In ‘Mulan,’ they removed Mulan’s beloved sidekick Mushu.
Producer Jason Reed explained why fans won’t see Mushu in the live-action version.
“The dragon is a sign of respect and it’s a sign of strength and power, and that sort of using it as a silly sidekick didn’t play very well with the traditional Chinese audience.”
2. In “The Lion King,” the hyenas have new names and they are much meaner.
They went from Banzai and Ed to Kamari and Azizi, who are much more intimidating.
“The hyenas had to change a lot. Because of the photo-real nature of the film, having too broad of a comedic take on the hyenas felt inconsistent with what we were doing,” explained director, Jon Favreau.
Only the character, Shenzi, is in both films.
3. In ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ they made LeFou, Gaston’s sidekick, gay.
This made the character, played by Josh Gad, the first-ever LGBTQ character.
“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” director Bill Condon explained .
“He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.”
“And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”
The move ended up being controversial, but it also broke amazing barriers for Disney!
4. In ‘Mulan,’ the story was made to appeal to a wider audience.
“The traditional Disney audience and the diaspora Asian audience viewed the movie in one way, and the traditional Chinese in China audience viewed a slightly different way,” said producer Reed.
“So we really dug in to try and make sure that we were addressing both of those audiences in a thoughtful way.”
“And I think that we—I hope, knock on wood—I think we found a way to tie the way they look at the movie together.”
5. In ‘Aladdin,’ a new character was added.
Prince Anders, played by Billy Magnussen, replaced Prince Achmed, one of Jasmine’s suitors.
This move ended up being super controversial.
Fans were upset that a white man was added to a movie that’s centered around the middle east.
6. In ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ there’s a new character.
The live-action version introduces Maestro Cadenza. He’s a harpsichord who was once a musician.
He’s also married to Wardrobe!
The couple was voiced by Stanley Tucci and Audra McDonald, respectively.
“We wanted to add a character in an effort to make it our own. We went through a lot of ideas, and that particular one was Bill’s — and he really wanted to cast Audra McDonald in this movie!” said producer David Hoberman.
7. In ‘Dumbo,’ a frightening scene was removed.
Kids were able to sleep easier after the scary scene of Dumbo hallucinating from drinking Absinthe was taken out of the live-action version.
8. In ‘Lady and the Tramp,’ Jock’s character changed genders.
Say goodbye to the Scottish terrier named Jock!
In the live-action film, he swapped genders and was renamed to Jackie.
She was voiced by Ashley Jensen.
9. ‘Lady in the Tramp’ got rid of the Siamese cats.
The Siamese cats in the animated version were criticized for making fun of Asian people.
This even led Disney to include a disclaimer that said “outdated cultural depictions” at the beginning of it.
In the live-action version, the cats are entirely different.
They’re a different breed, have new names, and they even sing a new song.
