Regarded as a veiled critique of class divides across the United State's rapidly expanding metropolitan areas in the 1950s, Lady and the Tramp (1955) has been lauded as one of Disney's more poignant (and blatantly racist) films.
Like many of Disney's recent releases, the animated classic got a live-action, modern makeover. With a more diverse cast (and without the wildly problematic Siamese cats), Lady and the Tramp (2019) is being released as part of the digital marquee for Disney+.
Mashable's Angie Han deemed the movie "good enough" in her review, and pointed out that the remake is really just that: "Lady and the Tramp does not significantly reshape our understanding of this story or these characters or their world, and it's not really trying to."
For the most part, Han's fellow critics agreed with her assessment of Lady and the Tramp as an unimaginative, predictable update -- save for some mixed reviews of the film's color-blind casting.
The film's use of CG-augmented real animals is off-putting
Caroline Siede, The A.V. Club
Unfortunately, the cute real-life dogs in Lady And The Tramp have to speak, and that means their faces are frequently augmented with unsettling CGI. There are certain shots where entire animals seem to be digitally inserted, too. Trying to wrap your mind around what you’re looking at sometimes sends the film out of its quaint turn-of-the-century America setting and firmly into the uncanny valley.
John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter
At their best, these dogs will skate by on kids' weakness for cute animals; at their worst, they look like they should be hawking auto insurance in a TV commercial. Human actors' voices often don't even seem to be coming from the dogs' mouths; and when they do, the actor's personality and the canine's face rarely fuse to create an engaging character... Lady appears to have gotten more attention from CG animators, who sometimes squish her brow or widen her eyes, but again, this is a poor substitute for a wholly animated creation.
Michelle Jaworski, The Daily Dot
If you pay too much attention to it, the CGI that animates the dogs when they speak to one another quickly becomes distracting.
Guy Lodge, Variety
Suffice it to say that even on a smaller screen, attributing anthropomorphic qualities to photoreal fauna remains a Disney stumbling block… It’s an ungainly halfway measure, occasionally masked by shadow and shrewd camera movement, that all too often lands the film firmly in the uncanine valley, so to speak.
Lady and the Tramp is essentially an advertisement for Disney+
Jim Vejvoda, IGN
While this live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp never quite convinces you that it was made for any better reason than for the new Disney+ streaming service to cash in on a legacy title, the film itself still manages to be a charming and cute family-friendly time-passer.
John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter
Serving as the marquee offering of the corporation's new Disney+ streaming service, it doesn't bode well for that realm: Though hardly as disposable as the cheapo sequels Disney churned out during the heyday of VHS and DVD, it is nearly personality-free, suggesting that the studio will save any features with real charm or grandeur for the big screen before offering them to viewers at home.
Thompson and Theroux have chemistry as Lady and Tramp
Guy Lodge, Variety
Accidentally unleashed into a world beyond picket fences, Lady counts on the Tramp to show her the ways of the street and — despite much audible chemistry between the leads — the ways of the heart.
Jim Vejvoda, IGN
If it was possible for voice performances and on-screen dogs to have “chemistry” then these two — played by pooch actors Rose (Lady) and Monte (Tramp) — most certainly do.
The color-blind casting: honorable or uncomfortable?
Caroline Siede, The A.V. Club
This Lady And The Tramp deserves credit, certainly, for its more diverse casting and the outright removal of the racist elements that marred the original.
Michelle Jaworski, The Daily Dot
The setting and timeframe of the film (around the start of the 20th century) are both wildly familiar. But similar to The Personal History of David Copperfield, Lady and the Tramp includes a diverse cast that feels effortless...
Jim Vejvoda, IGN
By keeping the original’s period setting but employing a more contemporary, color-blind storytelling approach, the film -- intentionally or not -- is ignoring that it’s setting this Lady and the Tramp story in a time where segregation was real and mixed marriages were illegal in many states… Yes, this is a movie about talking dogs so our disbelief is already intended to be suspended, but Lady and the Tramp’s well-intentioned desire to present a more diverse film palpable to modern sensibilities is inadvertently asking viewers to step into a fantasy world designed for children that is erasing a painful part of America’s past by pretending it just never existed.
Lady and the Tramp is available to stream on November 12 exclusively on Disney+.
Topics Disney+
