Last year, Walt Disney Pictures released a live-action “Cinderella” movie. While the movie changed parts of the plot of the original cartoon movie, Disney enthusiast and sophomore Gabi Rivera said the overall movie was well done.

Rivera said, “I absolutely loved it. I just fell in love with it. It just makes you remember all those memories when you were a kid. When (my family) and I first watched it, we were all crying because it just brought us back to those memories.”

Following the success of “Cinderella,” Walt Disney Pictures is set to release several live-action movies including “The Jungle Book” on April 15 and “Beauty and the beast” on March 17, 2017. Live-action movies are  defined as movies that do not use animation. Rivera said she is excited about these new movies and thinks that Disney is making them to appeal to older age groups.

“I think because people grew up with the stories. Now since they are all older Disney wants to make films that the older age group can still relate too,” Rivera said. “Making them into live-action means you’ll be able to see your favorite actors and actresses in them, and you’ll be able to see your favorite characters in reality instead of as cartoon characters.”

Amanda Richmond, Disney fan and English teacher, said via email she believes that Disney is more focused on earning greater profits.

She said, “Disney is making these movies mainly for profit. Disney constantly looks for new or innovative ideas to make money.  They are the perfect capitalistic company.”

Senior Logan Lindsay has grown up watching Disney movies and loves the stories. However, she said she doesn’t like how the princesses are portrayed, especially in the live-action movies.

“Disney princesses are supposed to be role models for little kids, but in a way, it’s starting to change. (Disney) made the main actresses lose weight in order to play Cinderella, and it is teaching girls that they have to look a certain way, and that a prince will sweep them off of their feet when they grow up. This isn’t what we should be teaching girls today,” Lindsay said.

Rivera, on the other hand, said that fairy tales are intended to be happy, sweet and romantic because those characteristics make the story a fairy tale.

“I think that fairy tales have always been here to make people fall in love with the thought of happily ever after and princesses and being saved by a prince. As a kid that always made you hopeful as you got older. I loved that when I was a kid. It’s just something that sweeps little kids off of their feet. Grown-ups, even when they get older, they always remember it,” Rivera said.

However, Rivera and Richmond both said they found the trailer for “The Jungle Book” very creepy and they are unsure how Disney will make the movie live-action as the movie’s characters are predominantly animals. Richmond said she probably won’t take her daughter to see the movie.

Rivera said, “I think I’ll go see it, but I didn’t know what to think about it when I saw the preview.”

She also said the trailer “looked kind of creepy. Also, it’s really based off of cartoon animals, so I don’t know how they are going to portray that. I think with this they’re going to be able to use newer technology to be able to make the animals seem more realistic.”

One concern some, like Lindsay, have with making live-action movies based on the classic cartoon movies is that the magic of the original movies will not be captured in the live-action movie. Lindsay said no matter how much the live-action movies try, they won’t have the same magic as the cartoon movies.

“I don’t think that’s what Walt Disney was meaning to do. I feel like he wanted the cartoon movies and the magic in that to be preserved. I don’t feel like he wanted it to be made just for money. I feel like the magic will be lost,” Lindsay said.

While Richmond said Disney has to be careful with live-action movies for kids as some stories like Snow White are dark and scary, Rivera said she believes that the live-action movies that Disney is making can appeal to many generations.

“I think that live-action is for all generations because, with the older generation, they are able to connect with the same movies they grew up with. For the younger generations, they are going to be able to re-experience that. (The younger generation) probably won’t see the classics as much as the older generations would, so (Disney is) going to be able to bring those movies back alive.”

Rivera said, “Disney is amazing. I grew up knowing that magic is alive and fairy tales are real. Bringing the live-action movies is awesome because it not only shows the older generations what they grew up with, but it also brings it back for the younger generation.”