I know some of you may think that it’s a bit weird to write a Christian post that reviews Lady and the Tramp, but hear me out here. As a Christian, a lot of times there are applications and lessons that I take away from whatever I watch. With Lady and the Tramp, I learned a lot.
What I’m referring to here is Disney’s new live action of the movie released on their streaming service called Disney+. The new movie is still good and I would rate it 4 stars but there were a lot of differences between it and the original animated.
Quickly, I’ll go over a few to help you decide whether you want to watch it or not:
- Jock is a female. Not sure why they did this
- Jock and Trustie’s entire dynamic isn’t as good
- Tramp is hit by the carriage, not trustie
- There are a few extra scenes that don’t heavily impact the movie in a negative way and for the most part, these changes, I don’t mind. One of them being that two of the pound dogs were adopted
- Tramp and Lady don’t have any puppies in the end. Instead, Jock’s owner adopted two puppies we met earlier in the movie, so Trustie tells them stories instead. I was not a fan of this and I missed the full circle of Lady and Tramp having puppies
- The Siamese cats are boys. Their song is now a completely new song. I don’t have a preference to this one way or another but they’re more wild and less creepy—part of me misses the originals
- Darling is African American and so is Aunt Sarah. I don’t mind, but it is a difference I wanted to note. In fact, there are a lot more African Americans in the live action—again, not that I have a preference.
- The beaver doesn’t exist. In the movie, Tramp takes her to a statue of a Beaver and they pull and it pulls the harness off. I didn’t like this change, mostly because I loved the beaver stuff in the originals
- Lady and the Tramp have a lot more scenes together and I feel like their dialogue and dynamic is strong in the live action—they did a great job with this.
- The details about the rat scene and the dog catcher and things are a bit different—again, minor changes that didn’t negatively impact the story for me.
Now that we have the major differences out of the way, what did I think of the movie and what did I take away from it?
Well, as a movie, I genuinely liked it. They did a great job and the CGI looked so real it felt like they used real live dogs. The child in me dislikes some of the major differences but other than that, it’s a good movie. As I mentioned before, I would rate it four stars.
What did I take away from this (and what does this have to do with Christianity)?
There are two very important things I wanted to discuss with this.
First, I noticed that Tramp has a very worldly outlook. Metaphorically, before we come to know Christ, we all see the world like Tramp. He looks at the idea of having a human family as something he doesn’t need. He was burned in the past and wants to go it alone. He doesn’t understand why some dogs like Lady cherish their humans. He can’t understand it and therefore, doesn’t want it. In that same way, before we know Christ, we see believing that way. We don’t understand it and think we don’t need it. When the truth is the opposite. Tramp needed a family; he just didn’t know he needed it at the time. All the pain of being abandoned had blinded him to the truth about real love and having a family. In that same way, a lot of times, the things in life that hurt us can blind us and keep us from seeing the truth—that we need Christ.
Second, the love aspect between Lady and Tramp. They were an adorable couple and dare I say it, even more adorable than the animated originals. It made me realize, especially since I’ve been studying Isaiah and Song of Solomon lately, that God desires us. He wants to be intimate with us and wants to have a personal relationship with us. He has so much to show us and teach us if we let Him—just like Lady had a whole life of love and joy to share with Tramp if only he would let her.
This may be one of my odder posts, but I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys. Overall, I would recommend watching it, but I understand not purchasing Disney+ for it either. There are a lot of the original Disney movies on there that aren’t available anymore and Star Wars has the new Mandalorian TV Show on there and it rocks. I’ll be doing a review of it when it’s finished—at least, I hope I’ll be doing a review of it then.
If you don’t know Christ and don’t believe in God, don’t let the way you’ve always lived your life keep you from experiencing something new and amazing. Like Tramp, there’s a whole new aspect to the world that you’re missing out on.
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