The entertainment giant known as Disney has been focusing on a recent trend of live-action remakes of their animated classics for the last several years. They’ve remade fan-favorite movies like The Lion King, Mulan, and Beauty and the Beast, and have shown no signs of stopping anytime soon.

These live-action remakes haven’t really been working. They often take out elements that made the originals so well-received, like removing fan-favorite songs, washing out the previously vivid colors, replacing characters like Mushu for a Phoenix that doesn’t talk, and eliminating the expressive faces of The Lion King characters in favor of unmoving and unemotional faces. In addition to all that, Disney went from being one of the most creative forces in Hollywood to being one of the laziest by retelling the same stories and even recreating the exact same shots at times. 

There have been some great surprises from this live-action remake trend, though. Christopher Robin gave audiences a very different story that hasn’t been seen in the world of Winnie the Pooh and proved to be quite charming. Cruella and Maleficent both focused on the villains’ perspective and showed a different side to them which led to creative takes on classic tales. That being said, instead of putting all this time, money, and effort into making mediocre versions of great films, they should take advantage of the opportunity to make something audiences can truly get behind. They could and should be making Muppets remakes of their previously existing movies.

Disney has owned the rights to the Muppets since 2004, and they’ve shown that they don’t fully know what to do with them. They’ve canceled various Muppets TV series after a single season and made some underwhelming movies and specials (with some exceptions that are genuinely fantastic). Making Muppet versions of their classic movies instead of bland live-action ones will fix both of Disney’s current issues in one go.

Instead of colorless, emotionless, lazy takes on the likes of Aladdin and Mulan, they could be giving the world Muppets Aladdin, Muppets Little Mermaid, Muppets Snow White, and the like. Movies like The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island put the iconic Muppet characters in the roles of pre-existing literary characters to make something special. The same would absolutely work for Disney movies. Miss Piggy as Elsa or Gonzo as Hercules would be a riot.

Muppet versions of Disney movies would work much better than standard live-action versions. Muppet adaptations of pre-existing works don’t feel like an attempt to replace what it’s adapting, which is what’s felt with Disney’s live-action remakes. Instead, they feel much more like their own entities. They also use their fun, beloved characters to provide a certain level of heart and silliness that only the Muppets can provide.

Disney has the opportunity to do something spectacular. They just need to shift their focus from their messy live-action work to movies that could be much more entertaining.

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