The recent release of Disney’s Aladdin calls into question the increasing number of live-action remakes of animated Disney classics, as well as the purpose they serve. Aladdin’s release comes less than two months after the Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, and only two months ahead of The Lion King later this year. While Hollywood has a history of remaking popular films, something about this slate of live-action remakes feels like a blatant cash grab.

Obviously, Hollywood is a business and money is very important to businesses. If these remakes didn’t make money, they would stop making them, but they make a TON of money. The highest grossing Disney live-action remake thus far has been Beauty and the Beast, which brought in over $1.2 billion. After that is the film that started off Disney’s current era of remakes, Alice in Wonderland, with just over $1 billion. Alice is followed by The Jungle Book at just under $1 billion. Cinderella wasn’t as big a success as the others but made a comfortable $543 million, as well. Despite their financial success, each of these movies suffers from the same thing - being extremely similar to the original animated movies.

If Disney wants to spend millions of dollars retelling a story we are familiar with, fine, but at least try and do something different. Take a new approach, don’t just give us a near shot for shot remake of the animated movie. It worked for Maleficent which grossed over $700 million at the box office; however, that may have more to do with Maleficent being only the 2nd release of this live action remake era, as well as the star power of Angelina Jolie. Looking at the others that did things a little different: the critically acclaimed Pete’s Dragon only made $143 million, Christopher Robin, $197 million, and Mary Poppins Returns, with Emily Blunt & Lin Manuel Miranda involved only made $349 million. Finally, there was this year’s Dumbo, which ended up grossing $347 million, well below expectations for Disney, and for a movie with a budget over $170 million (not including marketing).

The sequel to Maleficent is due out in October. Given that it's been 5 years since the original Maleficent's poor critical reception, it might suffer a similar fate as the financially disappointing Alice Through the Looking Glass. The Alice follow-up came out 6 years after the first film and made a measly $300 million compared to the original’s $1 billion gross.

It’s the films that seem to be more faithful to the originals that fare better financially. Aladdin is next in line and while the critical reception hasn’t been the best (currently at 58% on RT) audience reception has been more than stellar. It’s already grossed over $85 million in its initial 3-day release. The same will likely be true for The Lion King. Even looking at the teaser trailer for the new film, it’s a shot for shot copy of the original trailer. Disney knows how to feed on our collective nostalgia. They will continue to make these remakes and make money.

I think Disney should use these remakes as an opportunity to highlight and give chances to smaller, up-and-coming actors, as well as filmmakers. They have done a decent job at discovering actors, scouting for unknowns to fill roles in Aladdin and the upcoming Mulan remake. It’s the directors they hire where they need to branch out more.  Disney’s choices have been very uninspired, safe directors to helm a lot of these movies. Alice in Wonderland director Tim Burton was tapped to direct this year’s Dumbo. British director Guy Ritchie was chosen to helm the Middle Eastern-set Aladdin. Jon Favreau, who already directed The Jungle Book remake, is also in charge of the upcoming The Lion King.

This is where they could take a page out of Marvel’s book. Marvel knows their movies are going to make money, so why not let newer and fresh voices tell the stories. Two perfect examples are Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, the duo behind Captain Marvel, and Chloe Zhao, who is set to direct The Eternals. Boden and Fleck had only done smaller indie movies (Half-Nelson, Mississippi Grind) until Marvel gave them a chance to make a billion-dollar grossing film. Chloe Zhao’s last movie, The Rider, was an indie darling about a cowboy in the rodeo, with non-actors.

The two most interesting directors Disney has attached to their projects are Niki Caro (MacFarland, USA) doing Mulan and Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) doing Cruella. Both are relatively unknown to the average moviegoer but have made really good indie movies that deserve as much attention as these remakes. Disney has a lot of other projects planned without directors attached: Pinocchio, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Lilo & Stitch being the furthest in development. They should use these as opportunities to let smaller directors tell a fresh story with the source material.

It’d also be great to see Disney not spend a crazy amount on these movies. I totally understand having to for some, like The Jungle Book and Lion King which use very advanced technology, or even Beauty and the Beast, which has a lot of set pieces. But a $200 million dollar budget for Alice In Wonderland? $180 million on Maleficent? $170 million on Dumbo? That is just absurd! Don’t just give a production a huge budget because you can. Christopher Robin and Pete’s Dragon only had a budget of around $70 million and are arguably two of the better remakes the company has produced. Sometimes limiting directors ability to indulge actually helps produce a better product.

The last thing would be to not oversaturate us with so many remakes in such a little amount of time. This year, there are more Disney live-action remakes than MCU movies being released. A lot of the bad stigma surrounding these remakes comes from the feeling of Disney shoving them down our throats. Releasing two a year would be a decent output, but let's be honest, Disney isn’t going to stop pushing these out. Especially when they have their streaming service rolling out in the near future which will also have live-action remakes as exclusives.

A big thing to keep in mind with regards to these remakes, and movies in general, is if you enjoy them, great. Don’t be afraid to enjoy things and tell people you enjoy them, and actually, most of the Disney remakes from an audience standpoint, are very much enjoyed. Every single remake has earned at least an A- Cinemascore. It’s also important to remember that for those people who don’t enjoy these remakes, that doesn’t mean the originals are going anywhere. They are still there to be watched and loved and will continue to be timeless.