For most people the sneezing scene was the most scary thing they have ever seen. I know it because most of the comment under my monstro clips in my channel said it.
But the direction of the scene was like an opera! The music, the animation, the sounds, the diretion were terrific. I watched a short documentary about the making off and the producer said it was like they wanted to make his sneeze to be like a sea storm where Pinocchio and co tried to survive.
Instead here it's only a thing like.."oh no, we accidentally get swallowed by him..maybe some smoke can help to make him to open his mouth to escape!". So, the dialogue in the original one was brillant..istead here..Let's me to explain..your idea was to make him sneeze with smoke, ok? Why next you said "I think the smoke started to irritate him!" and the asnwer "maybe is tickling his nose". It was your plan! Who the hell wrote this dialogues?! 
And most important you have use some camera view from the outside too on the whale to make people understand what was really happening..watching it only from an iside view makes all cofused..
His sneeze like a force of nature. Brewing and agonizing for the monstrous whale. Amazing <3 <3 <3 <3
But yeah, in the new one it's almost like... less "show don't tell" than the original. Hearing that it's tickling his nose GETS me for sure, but it feels like it's added because there's less going on in the actual scene. It all plays out from the inside. The instant we're in his mouth, we never really leave
But again, i'm just pretty biased -u-
I just think the scene itself isn't as good as the original scene. Maybe not even that great as a stand-alone scene in general xP
The original intention to make it like an opera, having his SNEEZe be a BIG deal. The agony and suffering of FIGHTING the tickle, purely for the whale's own ego. The music swelling in the background, everything about it. I suppose it's hard to top xP