LIVE ACTIONTON — Disney has officially boarded the live-action remake train with recent releases like “Maleficent,” “Cinderella." Several more movies are in the pipeline — including, this just in "Winnie the Pooh" — and fellow KSLer Megan Marsden Christensen gave us a great little write-up of what live-action adaptations we can look forward to.

Personally I’m looking forward to “The Jungle Book” and “Mulan.” Afraid I can’t say the same about “Dumbo.”

Turning classic animated films into live-action theater fare isn’t new for Disney, but they’ve really put the development of them into high gear lately.

Earlier adaptations include “101 Dalmatians” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

With all these films being remade, we can’t help but think what classics we’d like to see brought to life on the big screen once again.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the animated classics we’d like to see get the live-action treatment. As we looked at the list we decided to go with movies that wouldn’t have to rely solely on CGI and had mainly humans in them. That’s why there’s no “The Great Mouse Detective” on the list. I know, broke my heart too.

“Peter Pan”

There have been several incarnations of Peter Pan over the years, but Disney still hasn’t jumped on board.

This summer’s Peter Pan origin story “Pan” starring Hugh Jackman looks like it could be a lot of fun, but we’d love to see what the magicians at Disney could do with a live-action version of the iconic character.

Disney would add some fun twists to the well-known story and we already know they can do the swashbuckling action thanks to “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

Notice I did not mention any of the sequels.

Related:

5 upcoming live-action Disney films

There's something magical about seeing our favorite fairy tales come to life on the big screen, and Disney continues to make all our cinematic dreams comes true with a slew of live-action films.

“Robin Hood”

The 1991 “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” starring Kevin Costner was fun, but not really the epic we were looking for, and the 2010 “Robin Hood” starring Russell Crowe was mainly a snooze fest. That means the best one to date may be Disney’s 1973 animated feature.

This classic tale would be a fun adventure with the Disney touch. For this Robin wouldn’t be a fox and Little John likely wouldn't be a bear, but you can still have a great time at the theater with people playing those parts.

It’s time we had a big-screen Robin Hood that we can all get behind once again.

“The Black Cauldron”

Now, hear me out on this one. The 1985 animated feature “The Black Cauldron” may not be anyone’s favorite Disney movie and at the time it was lambasted as being too dark for an animated film.

If you haven’t seen it for a while, take another gander. It’s not the best of the lot, but it’s a medieval adventure with magic, swordplay and a diabolical villain. Not only that, but it’s tame compared to today’s movies.

There would need to be tweaks, but the action and adventure would be a huge hit with young boys, and little girls will like the magic and mystery as well.

“The Sword in the Stone”

This one seems so obvious that it’s surprising Disney hasn’t announced it as an upcoming project.

“The Sword in the Stone” is one of the most fun animated classics, and we’d love to see a live-action version. The origin story of King Arthur would not only be a blast at the theater, but it also opens it up to so many sequels that Disney executives could buy another private island with all the cash they’d make.

The biggest thing missing from “The Sword and the Stone” right now is lack of a strong female character, but that could be easily remedied. Those Disney writers tend to be pretty clever.

“Aladdin”

This one is actually tough. It’s a beloved classic, but I was really hesitant to put it on the list.

Granted, “Aladdin” has something for everyone, adventure, comedy, romance and action, but the problem is the fact that one of the main characters would be totally computer generated.

The Genie makes “Aladdin” such a classic, and seeing him as a CGI character for nearly two hours with real people all around him may get a bit too distracting. With that said, however, the computer graphics teams are pretty phenomenal these days and they may be able to pull it off seamlessly.

Another difficulty here is finding someone who can bring the same energy and fun that Robin Williams did to the original, but to see Aladdin’s story on the big screen may be worth the risk.

What Disney classics would you like to see get the live-action treatment? Or maybe you just wish they’d stop already. Let us know on the comment boards and on social media.

John has been writing about movies, news, sports and pretty much anything awesome for more than five years. John is the co-host of the Flix Junkies podcast and will always entertain you with his stories. John is an alumnus of both Utah Valley University and BYU. He, his wife and their two children call Salt Lake City home.

Related topics