Much like their bank account, Disney’s wealth of storytelling and franchises are ever-flowing and rich. The market of good, popular media has been nearly monopolized by Disney for some time, but today their presence seems hyperbolized with their involvement (read: ownership) of Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, both of which are moneymaking machines in their own right. The Marvel Cinematic Universe disrupted the entire art of franchise filmmaking with its model of tangential, intricate interconnectivity. And while the model has found its footing in Star Wars, traces can be found of its vague implementation in another Disney franchise: nearly every animated classic the studio has ever released.

For those keeping track at home, Friday’s hotly anticipated release of Beauty and the Beast marks the sixth live-action remake of their own classic animated films. Seventh, if you count Disney’s undercooked previous attempt at cracking The Jungle Book before Jon Favreau’s marvelous film. Eighth, if you count 2010’s Alice In Wonderland, but I barely count that as a movie. Though with each live-action attempt, even with its successes, Disney was very clearly experimenting and code-cracking an age old question with its remakes: How close can we get? How close can we get to capturing the magic of animation, with all its wonder, in a more approachable, “real” setting? Star power in animated films goes far, but it can go further if movie stars are on the posters of our films. Y’know, like Angelina Jolie?