Back in olden times, Disney would re-release its animated classics — in theaters, in new video and digital formats — every few years so that new generations of children could discover as parents who grew up on the films introduced their kids to a great memory from their youth.
Granted, they went about as far as they could go with that make-more-money-off-already-produced “intellectual property.”
But this nonsense of remaking “The Lion King,” et al with CGI and “real” settings is head-slappingly cynical, even by “We really need content for the ‘family’ audience in the second quarter” bottom-liners’ standards.
Pixar, Dreamworks, Illumination and Disney Animation have been market-testing their way into a “no new ideas” corner for years — sequels and prequels, each more exhausted than what preceded them.
With audiences slow to respond to the unfamiliar — the charming book adaptation “The Wild Robot” has taking forever to catch on and make money— the inclination is to play it safe — “Minions: The Next Generation,” “The Lion King as …