Movie Thoughts: Lady and the Tramp (2019)

• Released: November 12, 2019
  
• Directed by: Charlie Bean
  
• Running time: 1 h 51 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A posh spaniel feels like she's being replaced by her owner's baby, runs away, and falls in love with a stray known as the Tramp. He teaches her about life on the street, and Lady will have to make a choice about where she belongs.

My Thoughts

I may or may not have reviewed the original Lady and the Tramp movie this is based on this blog yet, can't be bothered to check at the moment. But in case I haven't: I like it. It's mostly pretty laid-back and just these two dogs bonding. It has some less-great elements as well (I find Trusty to be annoying and the Siamese cats are...a decision they made) but generally I like it. And this remake is...surprisingly really not bad.

I know the Disney live-action/realistic animation remakes have a bad reputation, and usually it's at least somewhat warranted. But here? I don't see much wrong with this movie. It takes the original but changes enough elements for it to be unique. Yet it's not deviating too far from the original, either. It's just a good, more elaborate and realistic-looking take on the original.

One of the only elements I didn't like are the cats (not because they're racist this time, just because I didn't like their song. This isn't even a musical? Why is there a song all of a sudden?) and I'm not too fond of their designs. I guess they wanted to change the breed from a Siamese to something different, but like...two identical cat 3D models with different eye colors? 

I don't care that they're a different breed or not, but I just think their character designs are very lazy. And just to clarify, no, I also didn't like the identical-looking Siamese designs in the original for this reason. Recycled character designs just look lazy but especially on realistic-looking animal characters which tend to all look unique. Also, it doesn't even make sense for them to have different colored eyes if they are supposed to be twins (which I think is the implication with the otherwise identical designs here). By that logic, they should look just identical without the eye color change.

Also: the movie starts to drag a bit eventually if you ask me. It's never unbearable or boring, but it does get a bit long after a while. Especially since the original is like rather short when compared to this one. I think this one being one hour and roughly 40 minutes would've been fine. 

But overall this is a solid remake. I like the animation (this is also the first time in a movie in the "talking live-action animals" type where I had a hard time distinguishing where they used real animals and animated over them, or used CGI altogether.) Technology is improving and it's looking promising over here. A lot of the popular talking live-action animal films from the early 2000s (Racing Stripes, Cats & Dogs, Pride, etc.) all look a bit aged due to the CGI mouths and expressions. But this here looks really good.

Other elements I liked are the new takes on the older story, the pretty relaxed pace, Trusty and Jock I actually found somewhat enjoyable here and I generally had a good time watching it. It's not amazing, but solid.

That's really my final verdict of the film. Better than okay, but not fantastic either. But I don't think that this remake earns anyone's ire, unlike some of the others Disney has done in recent years.