So there’s still hope in the Disney live-action canon, but it’s a hope that needs to be reinforced.
With projects like the Cruella De Vil prequel to 101 Dalmatians still on the books at Disney, it doesn’t look like it’ll all be carbon copies in the future.
Not so coincidentally, if there’s a new and unique reason for your live-action adaptation to exist, then there’s just as much incentive for your audience to show up.
In the case of The Jungle Book, the audience surely showed up, as it became one of 2016’s highest grossing films, which lead to Disney’s unprecedented success in that same year.