It’s been five years since the launch of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+ and so we’d thought it would be a good time to look back at some of the titles released on that day. The live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp was one of those launch titles. Does it still hold up (if it ever did)? Keep reading to find out.
Lady and the Tramp follows the life of Lady (Tessa Thompson), a cocker spaniel who enjoys the finer things in life in 1920s New Orleans with her owners, Jim Dear (Thomas Mann) and Darling (Kiersey Clemons). She does all the things a good dog should do, climbing the social ladder by showing off her new license to her two dog pals, Trusty the Bloodhound (Sam Elliott) and Jock the Scottish Terrier (Ashley Jensen). Things go awry when her owners are expecting a baby and the naive Lady is unable to put together the pieces of what’s happening. She meets a stray mutt named Tramp (Justin Theroux) who clues her in.
After the baby is born, the Darlings embark on a getaway and their Aunt Sarah (Yvette Nicole Brown) stays over to tend the baby. However, being a cat lover, she despises Lady and brings her two cats to stay with her, who quickly cause a rackus, making Lady the scapegoat. Aunt Sarah whisks Lady to the pet store to fit her for a muzzle, which scares Lady and she escapes. She reunites with Tramp (Justin Theroux) who takes her in and shows her what life—and love—is like on the other side of the tracks.
The 1955 Walt Disney animated classic is one of the greatest animated films of all time, and for good reason. It uniquely and artfully explores the themes of from the perspective of dogs. The animation and background art are breathtaking, and the songs are catchy. The 2019 Lady and the Tramp, however, is none of these things. It’s incredibly rushed, streamlining key plot points into the first 30 minutes, allowing for no character growth or development. Whereas the original provides ample time to breathe and enjoy life just as a dog would enjoy sniffing around the backyard
In this version, we get to know the humans better, but it doesn’t pay off in the end because they are boring and flat, despite them all being overly chipper (with the one exception being Adrian Martinez as Elliot the over-the-top dog catcher, but even his portrayal feels out of place). In the animated film, we rarely saw the human faces since the film’s perspective was shot from Lady’s height. But here, the humans are more main characters, instead of ancillary characters; it’s their story as much as it is Lady’s. So instead of the cleverness of the forced low perspective, the camera zooms around everywhere. This artistic departure and broadened focus is unsatisfying.
One of the biggest issues with the film is the use of CGI for the talking dogs. Real dogs were used in filming and the scenes with just the dogs running around and being dog-like are nice. However, when the filmmakers superimpose moving mouths over the dogs, it becomes very creepy and enters the uncanny valley. For a flagship film, the CGI looks no better than the Air Buddies films of the 2000s. CGI could have been avoided entirely by doing voice-over, much like Homeward Bound. Or better yet, the filmmakers could have really pushed this remake artistically by having the dogs not talk at all, relying much more on physical acting and situations in the script. This departure would have allowed the essence of the original film to be maintained while adding freshness to the remake.
Instead, what we get is a lackluster recreation of Disney’s masterpiece. It reminds one of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake, where so much attention was spent on simply re-creating famous scenes, dialogue, and shots from the original. But in the end, you’re left asking yourself, “Why did I watch this when I could have just watched the original?”
The film is set in 1920s New Orleans, seemingly because they wanted to add more diversity to the cast, which frankly is about 85% black. This is fine, but again, it just makes you yearn for something else: With the New Orleans setting and the emphasis on jazz music, you wish you were watching a live-action The Princess and the Frog instead. The change in location in this case does nothing for the narrative. Perhaps if they would have updated the songs with a jazzy flair, that would’ve been interesting and different; however, they were neither clever nor creative enough for that.
The “problematic” are replaced with a different breed, Devon Rex (which ironically are anachronistic to the story as they weren’t discovered until the 1950s), and “The Siamese Cat Song” is replaced entirely with one that is completely unmemorable. It’s a shame that Peggy Lee’s work had to be cut, but based on the current state of modern Disney, this subpar change was expected.
Speaking of anachronism, going along with the setting, something that’s incredibly distracting is the characters modern dialects. The filmmakers went to great lengths to recreate 1920s New Orleans from the sets and architecture to the clothing, which are all lovely. However, it’s a different story once the characters open their mouths and you’re met with a modern 2000s-speaking person, taking you out of the film. The characters don’t even have Southern drawls or accents. It’s quite odd to hear Lady sounding like an empowered girl boss, which goes against her posh upbringing and prim and proper character.
One of the most famous aspects of the Lady and the Tramp film is the romance, particularly the iconic spaghetti scene between Lady and Tramp. Unfortunately, Tramp is very boring. All of his smooth charm and charisma from the animated film have disappeared; the chemistry between Lady and Tramp is non-existent, so the big moment of the falls flat. However, the atmosphere around the moment, with Tony and Joe serenading the couple is quite nice.
Lady and the Tramp is yet another Disney remake that is inoffensive, but boring, forgettable, and unneeded. When seen as the made-for-TV movie that it basically is, it’s passable, but still belongs in the doghouse.
★★★★★
Lady and the Tramp was released exclusively on Disney+ on November 12, 2019.
