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Ranking Disney’s Live-Action Remakes

When a studio is as old and has as big a catalog of hits as Disney, it's inevitable to look back through past decades of success stories for a property that can be refreshed and re-appropriated for a modern audience. Lately, Walt Disney Pictures has been making headlines for its rampant revisits to some of its most beloved animated classics, with this year's The Jungle Book serving as the most recent example of the studio taking a story from animation to live action. However, in addition to translating these iconic stories into a new visual style, Disney has also sprinkled in several notable remakes of its own live-action films.

Pete's Dragon

6) Flubber (1997)

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After the release of Aladdin, Robin Williams got caught up in conflict with Disney over contract disputes relating to how his involvement and character were used in the film’s marketing campaign. As a result, he didn’t return for the first of two sequels to that 1992 hit. However, Disney and Williams patched things up in time for the actor to headline this remake of the 1961 comedy The Absent-Minded Professor, which stars Fred MacMurray as a chemistry professor who invents an energetic substance he calls “flubber.”

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With his built-in appeal and distinct comedic voice, Williams elevated the film to the top of the box office that Thanksgiving weekend, the beginning of a $178 million worldwide cume. Even so, Flubber relied too heavily on its lead actor and the novelty of watching the title “character” wiggle around in elaborate dance numbers to really develop into a long-lasting family classic.