Director Reveals Disney Have Quietly Scrapped One Live-Action Remake That Seemed Purr-fect for Disney+

While Disney scored a big live-action remake win this summer with Lilo & Stitch, it seems that the House of Mouse is continuing to trim down its future line-up of reworkings of its animated Classics library. Along with the upcoming release of Moana, and a sequel to Lilo & Stitch, several other movies have been in various stages of development in the last few years, but only a handful are still in contention to make it into production. One that has now finally been put in its box for good is The Aristocats, as Oscar-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has confirmed that the movie is no longer happening.

Along with numerous other projects like Hercules and Bambi, Disney announced that they would be developing a new live-action/CGI hybrid reimagining of their 1970 animated feature, The Aristocats, a story about the adventures of a Parisian family of cats abducted by a conniving butler intent on claiming a vast inheritance meant to be left to the animals. In March 2023, it was announced that Questlove would be directing the project, as well as acting as executive producer and overseeing the music of the movie, with Peter Rabbit scribe Will Gluck and Onward scriptwriter Keith Bunin writing.

However, the reveal of the movie’s initial team is the only real update the movie has received in the two years since. While this could make some already believe the project was in trouble, not every movie gets frequent updates, so no one assumed that the film had been ditched. However, during an appearance on Score: The Podcast, Questlove confirmed that, as far as he is concerned, The Aristocats project is not happening.

“A new administration came in, and then I was like, ‘Okay, well, this is what I plan to do, and dadada, do the song and dance, and here’s some of the music examples and there’s some team I’m working with dadada’. And then they had another administration shuffle, and it was like, “Okay well. All right.” And by the third time I was just like, “Maybe this isn’t meant for me, because there’s also, at least, like right now, there’s so much options I have in pickings.”

Could ‘The Aristocats’ Still Happen in the Future?

Disney

Disney is always going to need new content, and as long as they have movies in their Classics vault that have yet to be “reimagined” there is always a chance that those movies will have some kind of new version made at some point. For Questlove, it seems like he has plenty of other projects to consider while Disney flips and flops around The Aristocats, but he has not completely shut the door on a future collaboration.

“I mean, I would have loved to have done that project, but there’s like 20 others that I can get to […] there’s literally four other films. I’ll be working till, you know, 2029, 2030. So, just wasn’t meant to happen. Maybe it’ll happen in the future.”

Disney is set to release their live-action take on Moana in 2026, and Lilo & Stitch 2 is expected in 2027 or 2028. Which other live-action remakes join them is something we can only wait and see, but after disappointments like Snow White and The Little Mermaid, it is clear that many questions are being asked about which movies are worth pursuing and which are not.