Jared 1

Jared Jacoby

Advanced Newsgathering

Dr. Kotchemidova

November 16, 2019

“Lady and the Tramp” 2019 Live-Action Remake Review

The “Lady and the Tramp” live-action remake on Disney Plus lacks the magic of the

original 1955 animated classic.

“Lady and the Tramp” is a comedy-adventure film. The movie has a PG rating. The stars

are two dogs voiced by Justin Theorux and Tessa Thompson. Other members of the cast include

Yvette Nicole Brown from “Drake and Josh,” Ken Jeong as the doctor and Sam Elliot who

voices Trusty. The remake was released on the Disney Plus streaming service in Nov 12. 2019.

The runtime is an hour and 44 minutes, nearly 30 minutes longer than the animated film.

Just like in the 1955 animated “Lady and the Tramp,” the remake follows a dog named

Lady living with her wealthy owners. Her owners have a baby and they shift their attention
 Jared 2

towards the baby. Lady lives a sheltered life until she meets a stray dog known as the Tramp. At

first, she pushes him away for trying to turn her against her owners. However, when he helps her

escape from Darling’s angry aunt, they form a special bond as they explore the city. The story in

the remake is overall the same as the original with some changes for the characters and tone.

As a live-action remake of an animated film, “Lady and the Tramp” fails to improve upon

the 1955 original. The expressions on the animals’ faces were very stiff and awkward. The

realistic faces fail to show the emotions of the characters when something funny or romantic

happens. For example, when Lady is chasing the rat in the beginning, she does not look angry or

mad. She just looks indifferent. This issue is because of the dogs being real dogs using CG

mouths that lip-sync their dialogue.

As adorable as the dogs are in this movie, photo-realistic animals cannot replace the

detail of the animation. In the original, the characters had so many details such as Jock’s

mustache and Lady’s feminine features such as her eyelashes. These simple features revealed a

lot about their personality and character. Tramp looked like the rebellious, charming stray dog

the moment he is introduced just by looking at his cutesy face and thin body. In the remake, he

does not really stand out from the other dogs because he looks like a normal dog.

The remake also provides a lot more comedy. In the original, Lady barked often at her

surroundings and only talked when she was around other dogs. In the remake, Lady would often

talk to herself in the same situations, usually giving out snappy dialogue and cracking jokes or

stating the obvious. This makes the movie lose the subtly that made the animated film feel

magical and slow-paced. Most of the dialogue feels forced in since the characters’ expressions

do not emote well compared to the original.

 Jared 3

The forced comedy feels like an attempt to make the film accessible to a wider audience.

However, this film is rated PG which indicates that there is some material not suitable for

children. The animated version is rated G despite having a darker tone. For example, there is a

scene in the animated film where dogs fight each other. While the scene is violent, it is effective

and it makes the story engaging. In the live-action version, the scene is played out like a joke

about rabies. The way that the scene is handled in the remake comes off forced and corny.

Despite having PG rating, the remake comes off as childish when the G rated animated film

comes off as mature and dark.

There have been some other odd changes in the remake. Jock, Lady’s Scottish Terrier

friend, is a girl instead of a guy. This change did little for the film because Jock is still a minor

character and plays the same role she did in the original. She is still one of Lady’s comic relief

friends and still antagonistic towards Tramp. Another change made is with the cats. They are no

longer Siamese cats with Asian accents. The cats were controversial and accused of being racist

depictions of Asians. The change that was made is inoffensive while remaining entertaining.

There is also more diversity in the casting. There are more people of color in the remake

than there were in the original. Lady’s owner, Darling, is a black woman as well as her aunt.

There are noticeably more people of color in the supporting roles. Even Lady herself is voiced by

an African-American. The casting in this film, along with the changes to Jock’s gender and the

cats feel like an attempt from Disney to recreate the story to make it more politically correct.

The original film is accused of having racist depictions as most characters aside from

Lady and Tramp have a foreign accent which is used for comedy. The casting feels like an

attempt from Disney to fix the racial criticisms that the original was given as well to modernize
 Jared 4

the classic tale. The original film that came out in 1955 was a product of its time. While this

change was necessary for some parts such as the cats, a lot of it feels forced.

As a film by itself, “Lady and the Tramp” is a serviceable animal flick, but as a remake of

a 1955 classic, the heart is not there. There is nothing special that makes it stand out over other

animal flicks and it does not improve upon the original. While the remake does have its cute and

touching moments, the entire film just feels a forced attempt to make a more politically correct

and more kid-friendly version of “Lady and the Tramp.”