Disney+ recently debuted and the response has been overwhelming–especially amongst families.  While platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu continue to have newer and edgier original content that pushes boundaries, its both an exciting time and a scary time for parents as there is less and less content available for younger children.  Disney Plus has offered a solution to all of this.  Although there is some great content on Netflix in the Kid section, and even Amazon Prime has some decent kid shows (hardly anything on Hulu for kids), Disney Plus is literally all family and children centered including not only tons of new content, but also favorite shows from past years, family movies from by-gone eras and so much more.

The last couple of years have seen a huge trend in Live-Action re-tellings of some of our favorite cartoon classics on the big screen.  “Dumbo”, “Aladdin” and “Lion King” were the most recent in this trend.  All three took different paths in how similar they were to their original cartoon counterparts.  The live-action “Lion King” was almost exactly like the original, varying only slightly in some verbiage and scenes.  “Aladdin” took a few more liberties with added scenes, different characters, a more empowering female character, and even a new musical number.  Whereas, the new “Dumbo” was almost a completely different movie. Despite having a flying elephant named Dumbo, this live-action re-telling didn’t resemble the previous feature-length cartoon hardly at all.

So how would “Lady and the Tramp” fare?  Well, for one thing this is the first live-action re-telling to not be released on the big screen.  Although, I feel that if it had been it would have had the same successful turn-out as all of its predecessors.  I will say that all in all our family of 9 really enjoyed this film.  It’s appropriate for younger children and even older kids and adults can watch it and enjoy it, although teenagers may be a little underwhelmed.  Disney did a really good job of sticking closely to the original, but also making some changes and omissions where needed.  For example, they definitely changed up the cast and used a wider variety of ethnicities and not just the bland all-Caucasian cast from the original film.  Also, instead of Jim Dear and Darling leaving the baby with their aunt, they actually have their aunt come to dog sit for Lady while they go on a trip–because leaving a 1-2 month old baby is not as common these days with the push for more hands- on mothering.  lastly, the famous zoo scene from the original cartoon is completely cut-out (probably because it would have been more difficult to do with all live animals), but they give a nod to the character of the beaver by having Lady break her muzzle on a beaver statue.

Darling is also more of a modern woman, in the sense that it is her character in the end who stands up to the dog catcher and rescues the Tramp.  It definitely did not have the wow factor of the new Aladdin or the new Dumbo. Nor did it have any big name actors or big musical numbers. However, it was tastefully done and just perfect for a family movie night on the couch.