“Lady and the Tramp” is the first big Disney+ Original movie and is a live action version of the 1955 animated classic, which sees a pampered house dog and a tough but lovable stray embark on an unexpected adventure and, despite their differences, grow closer and come to understand the value of home.

The film stars Tessa Thompson as the voice of Lady and Justin Theroux as the voice of Tramp, both of which seem to fit the roles perfectly, along with the rest of the voice cast, though I did love Sam Elliott as the voice of Trusty, as I just love his southern drawl.

The use of real dogs in this movie sets is apart from the most recent live action retelling, “The Lion King”, which was all computer generated.  This is a big difference between the two and I preferred “Lady and the Tramp” out of the two. The only big issue really is the use of CGI for when the dogs are talking, which looked a bit off. I can’t help but think had the dogs just not actually moved their mouths like in the old Disney animal movies, but I can see what Disney was aiming for.  But I do think dogs are much more emotional than lions, so they are much better at portraying feelings, which helps the viewer connect with the dogs, much more than anything in “The Lion King”

There are a few differences between this new version and the original, mainly the scene with the cats, since they’ve replaced the “We Are Siamese” song with something completely different, but the action paced scene where the cats cause chaos is very well done.   The movie is set at the turn of the 19th Century, but the film used “color-blind” casting, so it’s not a true representation of the era, but personally it didn’t bother me, since its a movie about talking dogs and this isn’t an historical piece. The target audience, families and kids, just won’t care.

In the original animated movie, the humans didn’t have a large part in the story and were shown mainly at the feet level, so the main difference in this new version is they’ve increased the importance of humans to the story, we see much more of the development of the relationship between Darling and Jim, plus I loved the dog catcher as the main villain of the film.

While it’s easy to question why Disney decided to remake another animated movie, since this is the fourth remake this year (5 if you include the Maleficent sequel), it does seem to make sense for Disney to use this movie as a way of bringing in classic Disney fans onto Disney+.  It’s got a name recognition and has adorable dogs at the forefront.

“Lady and the Tramp” is a lovely family friendly movie, it’s simple, but effective.  It’s not anything groundbreaking or original, it might not have worked at the cinema, but its the perfect Disney+ movie, as it’s a fun enjoyable film to sit down at home, grab some snacks, pull the blanket over, since its fun, full of cute dogs and has a simple love story.

What did you think of “Lady and the Tramp”?

Rating – 3.5 Stars

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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