With Disney’s live-action Lilo and Stitch and DreamWorks’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon making piles of money, one has to wonder when Pixar will join the live-action remake bandwagon. Well, when Up director Pete Docter was asked about remaking the movie, he said that he didn’t think a live-action remake would work.
A Live-Action Up Might Cause People to Say “Ugh, I Hate Him”
During an appearance on comedian Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, Pixar CCO and Up director Pete Docter stated that a live-action remake of the film about an old man who bonds with a young boy after flying his house to South America wouldn’t work.
He specifically discussed how protagonist Carl Fredricksen could come across in live-action, saying, “I wonder if some of the stuff that was likable for a grouchy old man to do in an animated film would actually be like ‘ugh I hate him’ in live-action.”
Indeed, Carl does some reprehensible things like attack a construction worker with his walking stick, and in live-action, the audience might feel the worker’s pain more than Carl’s. In addition, the movie’s famous opening sequence that details Carl’s life with his wife Ellie deals with topics like an implied miscarriage, plus it ends with her death. Perhaps the montage would hit audiences harder in live-action.
Is Pixar Safe From Remakes?
Many of Pixar’s films have unusual stars like sentient toys, cars, or even emotions, which would be difficult to translate into live-action. However, with the live-action Lilo and Stitch creeping closer to $1 billion at the box office, Pixar shouldn’t rest easy thinking that Disney will never remake one of their movies. The recent box office disappointment of Pixar’s latest original film Elio might indeed get Disney thinking that live-action remakes of Pixar movies will give Pixar a financial push.
Conclusion
I don’t think anyone is begging for a live-action remake of Up, even though it would be one of the easier Pixar films to remake with its human stars and grounded story. Still, the success of Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon will undoubtedly get Disney thinking that the public wants more remakes. It’s probably only a matter of time before a Pixar film gets the treatment.
