Lady and the Tramp is a well known Disney Classic that has been referenced and parodied for several years in different movies and shows. When Disney announced that there was going to be a remake for this classic there were some mixed reactions but of course a lot of fans weren’t too excited. When the trailer came out some opinions were changed, including mine. After I found out that real dogs were used for this movie instead of just cgi like The Lion King I will admit that it did grab my attention, especially after I found out all the dogs were rescue dogs. After Disney+ launched my husband and I sat down and watched it together. And I’ll be honest I actually had a lot of fun watching this movie. In fact, this is one of the few remakes my husband and I both loved, the only other remakes being The Jungle Book and Cinderella (not counting Freaky Friday or Homeward Bound since the both of us hadn't watched the originals).
Pros:
One of the biggest reasons I love this movie is because it's not exactly the same line-for-line, scene-for-scene as the original. There are scenes that are moved around and there is a new script. The only scene that's exactly the same is the spaghetti scene. If it's not broke, don't fix it, I guess?
One of the big changes to this movie is the baby. Not the fact that the writers decided to change the gender (which is strange but whatever, it's not like the baby boy in the original did much in the original), but Lady's life changing because of the new addition to the household. In the original, Lady is realizing she's not the center of attention anymore, that Jim Dear and Darling are ignoring her and we see how upset and confused she is. After the baby is born Lady sees the baby and almost immediately loves him and is protective of him and is happy again. In the remake, it's stretched out. Instead of Lady meeting the baby immediately and feeling loved again almost halfway through the movie, Lady doesn't meet the baby until after she comes home from the pound. Why do I like this change? Because, honestly, I always thought it was weird that Lady worrying about getting kicked out suddenly ending not even halfway through the movie and everything is fine. In the 2019 version when Darling is singing the lullaby to the baby Lady barks and gets kicked out of the room and then out of the house when she doesn't stop barking. Then when Jim Dear and Darling leave Lady alone they actually take the baby with them so Lady is feeling abandoned and upset and actually thinks her family is actually leaving her because of the new baby. That makes a little more sense than what the original did. Then when Lady gets her muzzle without her collar and the Tramp mentions it we see her be upset.
The CGI in this movie was pretty good, sometimes it was hard to tell when CGI was used or if any was used at all for some parts of the movie. And even when some of the CGI was obvious it wasn't that bad. However, there were some scenes where the CGI was...well, I'll get back to that later in the cons list.
We actually get a backstory for Tramp, his story was similar to Lady's but when his owners' baby was born his male owner drove him away from their home and then ditched him in an alley. In the original Tramp tells Lady "When the baby moves in, the dog moves out" and the only other things we know about him is he has more than one family, more than one name, and has had more than one girlfriend. While his backstory is almost similar to Angel's from Scamp's Adventure, it was nice to actually have a story for him instead of just him being a womanizing drifter.
The casting for this movie was interesting; it was like Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy where there was a colorblind casting. Darling and Aunt Sarah are black and the doctor is Korean. In fact, you might recognize Aunt Sarah and the doctor from Community if you've seen the show. There's no prejudice in this movie at all.
We actually see Tramp get adopted by Jim Dear and Darling and we see them saving him from the pound.
Cons:
For obvious reasons the Siamese cats' song was taken out and replaced with something new. The problem is is that it's not as memorable or fun to listen to as the Siamese cats song. If they wanted to do a more appropriate song, why not write a song that was as fun to listen to? I watched the movie twice and I still can't remember how that song went, it's that forgettable.
The spaghetti scene was cute to see in live action but with it being exactly the same as the original, the problem is they have to compete with the original scene. The humans saying the lines from the original wasn't as over the top or funny as the original and while Bella Notte was still a sweet song it didn't hold a candle to the original.
The villain in this movie isn't just the rat, it's a dogcatcher who I think the writers just got from Scamp's Adventure only he's not as funny. I didn't have a big issue with him since the pound was seen as a big deal in the original but only saw the dogcatcher three times in the entire movie. But the problem is he's a dogcatcher who takes his job way too seriously. He's like Paul Blart, mall cop with how serious we was. And throughout the movie he's playing "catch me if you can" with Tramp, practically stalking the streetdog, and questioning people about him like he's on an investigation and even saying that Tramp was a dangerous menace but...we don't see any example of that at all until the climax when it looks like he attacked the baby. In the original he actually attacks the dogcatcher to help the other dogs escape so it makes sense but in the remake Tramp doesn't act that way at all. Even in the climax after the carriage falls over and the dogcatcher and Tramp get hurt, he tries to limp back to the pound with Tramp. And when Jim Dear and Darling try to help Tramp and say that he saved their baby the dogcatcher is still insisting on dragging him to the pound and it's just like, talk about obsessed.
Aunt Sarah actually gets called out in this movie. That was one of the few problems I had with the original, Aunt Sarah was awful to Lady and even in the sequel she didn't care about Scamp being missing and no one says anything. In this movie she's mean to Lady and even insults Jim Dear for supposedly not making a lot of money because he's a songwriter (gee, where did we hear that before?) and when she's staying at the house while the owners are gone, it's because she's dogsitting but she finds that out at the last second because she was told she was babysitting too. When Aunt Sarah loses Lady and she's brought home later by Jim Dear and Darling (oh by the way, Jim Dear and Darling pick her up from the pound after she spends the night there instead of Aunt Sarah after only a few minutes there) Aunt Sarah tries to put the blame on Lady for running off but Jim Dear and Darling call her out on it and kick her out. As happy as I was about this, it just had me wondering "Why include Aunt Sarah in this movie at all?" I mean, she's kicked out before the rat scene even happens.
While the CGI was good for some parts, there were some scenes where the CGI was just...wrong. There's sometimes where the dogs looked a little creepy, there's even a little black puppy we see a few times in the remake and the CGI is so obvious and so creepy to look at. And the cats are obviously CGI and while I thought that some parts of them were fine, there were other parts that weren't that great.
Did I like this remake more than the original? No, I love the original, it's a classic. But I have to say this might be my favorite remake this year. Though I have to say the things I heard people say about this movie were pretty silly; there's people who got angry about the Siamese cats song getting taken out, who were mad about the blind casting but at the same time claimed to be "not racist", who were mad about the gender switches (oh I'm sorry I forgot to mention this one too, Jock was changed to a girl for some reason), and were mad about how different this remake was compared to the original because they think that remakes should be exactly the same as the original like The Lion King was. I think the only person I've seen so far complain about this movie being the same was Doug Walker, also known as the Nostalgia Critic on youtube, in his Disneycember review for this movie. While I do agree that there were some things that were just swept under the rug like Trusty losing his sense of smell, I still think this is one of the better remakes.
If you have Disney+ or know where you can watch this movie online, I really do recommend this movie and see for yourself what you think.
Pros:
One of the biggest reasons I love this movie is because it's not exactly the same line-for-line, scene-for-scene as the original. There are scenes that are moved around and there is a new script. The only scene that's exactly the same is the spaghetti scene. If it's not broke, don't fix it, I guess?
One of the big changes to this movie is the baby. Not the fact that the writers decided to change the gender (which is strange but whatever, it's not like the baby boy in the original did much in the original), but Lady's life changing because of the new addition to the household. In the original, Lady is realizing she's not the center of attention anymore, that Jim Dear and Darling are ignoring her and we see how upset and confused she is. After the baby is born Lady sees the baby and almost immediately loves him and is protective of him and is happy again. In the remake, it's stretched out. Instead of Lady meeting the baby immediately and feeling loved again almost halfway through the movie, Lady doesn't meet the baby until after she comes home from the pound. Why do I like this change? Because, honestly, I always thought it was weird that Lady worrying about getting kicked out suddenly ending not even halfway through the movie and everything is fine. In the 2019 version when Darling is singing the lullaby to the baby Lady barks and gets kicked out of the room and then out of the house when she doesn't stop barking. Then when Jim Dear and Darling leave Lady alone they actually take the baby with them so Lady is feeling abandoned and upset and actually thinks her family is actually leaving her because of the new baby. That makes a little more sense than what the original did. Then when Lady gets her muzzle without her collar and the Tramp mentions it we see her be upset.
The CGI in this movie was pretty good, sometimes it was hard to tell when CGI was used or if any was used at all for some parts of the movie. And even when some of the CGI was obvious it wasn't that bad. However, there were some scenes where the CGI was...well, I'll get back to that later in the cons list.
We actually get a backstory for Tramp, his story was similar to Lady's but when his owners' baby was born his male owner drove him away from their home and then ditched him in an alley. In the original Tramp tells Lady "When the baby moves in, the dog moves out" and the only other things we know about him is he has more than one family, more than one name, and has had more than one girlfriend. While his backstory is almost similar to Angel's from Scamp's Adventure, it was nice to actually have a story for him instead of just him being a womanizing drifter.
The casting for this movie was interesting; it was like Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy where there was a colorblind casting. Darling and Aunt Sarah are black and the doctor is Korean. In fact, you might recognize Aunt Sarah and the doctor from Community if you've seen the show. There's no prejudice in this movie at all.
We actually see Tramp get adopted by Jim Dear and Darling and we see them saving him from the pound.
Cons:
For obvious reasons the Siamese cats' song was taken out and replaced with something new. The problem is is that it's not as memorable or fun to listen to as the Siamese cats song. If they wanted to do a more appropriate song, why not write a song that was as fun to listen to? I watched the movie twice and I still can't remember how that song went, it's that forgettable.
The spaghetti scene was cute to see in live action but with it being exactly the same as the original, the problem is they have to compete with the original scene. The humans saying the lines from the original wasn't as over the top or funny as the original and while Bella Notte was still a sweet song it didn't hold a candle to the original.
The villain in this movie isn't just the rat, it's a dogcatcher who I think the writers just got from Scamp's Adventure only he's not as funny. I didn't have a big issue with him since the pound was seen as a big deal in the original but only saw the dogcatcher three times in the entire movie. But the problem is he's a dogcatcher who takes his job way too seriously. He's like Paul Blart, mall cop with how serious we was. And throughout the movie he's playing "catch me if you can" with Tramp, practically stalking the streetdog, and questioning people about him like he's on an investigation and even saying that Tramp was a dangerous menace but...we don't see any example of that at all until the climax when it looks like he attacked the baby. In the original he actually attacks the dogcatcher to help the other dogs escape so it makes sense but in the remake Tramp doesn't act that way at all. Even in the climax after the carriage falls over and the dogcatcher and Tramp get hurt, he tries to limp back to the pound with Tramp. And when Jim Dear and Darling try to help Tramp and say that he saved their baby the dogcatcher is still insisting on dragging him to the pound and it's just like, talk about obsessed.
Aunt Sarah actually gets called out in this movie. That was one of the few problems I had with the original, Aunt Sarah was awful to Lady and even in the sequel she didn't care about Scamp being missing and no one says anything. In this movie she's mean to Lady and even insults Jim Dear for supposedly not making a lot of money because he's a songwriter (gee, where did we hear that before?) and when she's staying at the house while the owners are gone, it's because she's dogsitting but she finds that out at the last second because she was told she was babysitting too. When Aunt Sarah loses Lady and she's brought home later by Jim Dear and Darling (oh by the way, Jim Dear and Darling pick her up from the pound after she spends the night there instead of Aunt Sarah after only a few minutes there) Aunt Sarah tries to put the blame on Lady for running off but Jim Dear and Darling call her out on it and kick her out. As happy as I was about this, it just had me wondering "Why include Aunt Sarah in this movie at all?" I mean, she's kicked out before the rat scene even happens.
While the CGI was good for some parts, there were some scenes where the CGI was just...wrong. There's sometimes where the dogs looked a little creepy, there's even a little black puppy we see a few times in the remake and the CGI is so obvious and so creepy to look at. And the cats are obviously CGI and while I thought that some parts of them were fine, there were other parts that weren't that great.
Did I like this remake more than the original? No, I love the original, it's a classic. But I have to say this might be my favorite remake this year. Though I have to say the things I heard people say about this movie were pretty silly; there's people who got angry about the Siamese cats song getting taken out, who were mad about the blind casting but at the same time claimed to be "not racist", who were mad about the gender switches (oh I'm sorry I forgot to mention this one too, Jock was changed to a girl for some reason), and were mad about how different this remake was compared to the original because they think that remakes should be exactly the same as the original like The Lion King was. I think the only person I've seen so far complain about this movie being the same was Doug Walker, also known as the Nostalgia Critic on youtube, in his Disneycember review for this movie. While I do agree that there were some things that were just swept under the rug like Trusty losing his sense of smell, I still think this is one of the better remakes.
If you have Disney+ or know where you can watch this movie online, I really do recommend this movie and see for yourself what you think.
