Can you rate the disney musicals against each other? — Page 2

My biggest issue with these adaptations is they don't use the extra 45 minutes they tack on to be Broadway length to really strengthen anything in the story or find a new layer in the material. It's almost always padding.

And for that matter, fairy tales by nature are short, Disney animation figured out a way to lengthen them with sidekicks and other obstacles, but still at the end of the day they felt like slightly longer fairy tales.

So when you take an already simple fairy tale idea and stretch it to 2 hours and 30 minutes, it feels outrageously bloated.

Lion King works the best cause it's a theatrical experience. It's not trying to just lengthen the movie or photocopy it.

Disney Theatrical would NEVER do this, but I would welcome 2 One Act Stage adaptations of Disney films in one night. Like Hercules and Emperor's New Groove or something. The brilliance of Disney movies often lies in the pacing, and these productions often lose all sense of that.

Not to mention, the new songs from all these shows put together, it's like a handful that are memorable and live up to the original material.

Updated On: 2/27/18 at 03:28 AM

I loved Newsies first but that's really in a different category being it was not originally an animated film in any part so adapting was clearly not as challenging.

I wasn't 100% in love with the others I saw. I guess I would put Mary Poppins first though it should have been more magical and those dancing statues were downright creepy. But again, this wasn't a straight animation to Broadway so also in its own category.

After that Lion King has a great opening and ending and is a little dull in the middle. But I appreciate the overall style. Beauty and the Beast was overblown and lost the simple charm of the film. Aladdin had some great numbers and a charismatic genie. The rest was pretty ordinary.

I'm not sure I've seen any of the other earlier versions ( I saw Aida tour and it was just not my cup of tea even though I can't think of what to specifically criticize).

I have seen Frozen but I don't feel right comparing an early preview to a finished product. No matter how little or how much they change, I'll wait

Updated On: 2/27/18 at 11:58 AM

I've yet to see FROZEN, but otherwise:

1) THE LION KING

2) MARY POPPINS

3) AIDA

4) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

5) THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

6) NEWSIES

7) TARZAN

8) THE LITTLE MERMAID