Disney Cancels “The Aristocats” Live-Action Remake

Disney has had plenty of success with live-action reimaginations of its classic animated movies, with “Beauty And The Beast”, “Aladdin”, “Alice In Wonderland”, “The Jungle Book”, “The Lion King”, “Cinderella” and most recently, “Lilo & Stitch”.

However, not every remake has been a box office success, with “Snow White” and “Dumbo” failing to ignite the box office, along with some movies such as “Pinocchio” and “Peter Pan & Wendy” being released directly onto Disney+.

Much like with Disney’s other franchises, Marvel and Star Wars, Disney is scaling back its plans for live-action remakes of its other animated films, as audiences become less interested due to oversaturation in recent years.

During a recent appearance on the Score: The Podcast , Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson revealed that Disney has cancelled its plans to remake “The Aristocats”, which told the story of a wealthy cat and her three kittens, whose owner has passed down her fortune to them. When their butler throws them out, they set out on an adventure to return home to Paris with the help of Thomas O’Malley, the musically inclined alley cat. 

Questlove revealed that the project was cancelled after some internal leadership changes, stating:

“Once Disney had their third president, usually when a new administration comes in, no matter what — they’re going to reshuffle, by the third time, I was just like, ‘Maybe this isn’t meant for me.”

Development on “The Aristocats” has been underway since 2023, which was going to be directed by Questlove, based on a script by Will Gluck and Keith Bunin. Gluck and his production company, Olive Bridge, were slated to produce alongside Thompson’s Two One Five Entertainment. Thompson, Tarik Trotter, Shawn Gee, and Zarah Zohlman were going to be executive producers on the film.

While we won’t be getting the live-action remake, the original animated version is available to stream on Disney+.

Roger’s Take:  Personally, I think this is the right move going forward, as Disney has completely overdone the live-action remakes of its classics, but also, I can’t help but think that this remake would be too expensive to make with CGI versions of cats running around Paris and the nostalgia for this movie isn’t as big as it needs to be to warrant those costs.

What do you think of Disney cancelling “The Aristocats” remake?  Let me know on social media!