I feel that a fundamental issue of modern Hollywood, at least in terms of the big studios is an inability to embrace new ideas or let go of older ones. We have gotten more sequels, reboots, and spin-offs of recognizable and long-established films and franchises. I feel that returning to older material can work out if the creatives involved can find something new or interesting in making a new work with said material. However, recent efforts focus more on nostalgia and recreating old elements without much context or meaning outside of “remember this”. Of all these efforts, the most egregious in my opinion are remakes of animated films.
Recently, we’ve seen both Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic 3 come out around the same time. Observing the online reaction to both got me thinking about the trend of animated remakes. With the former, most people were exhausted at the idea of more photo-realistic films and that this existed at all in general since it only seemed to be made to stretch out the successful 2019 remake. Even if it has made some money, the fact that it opened far lower than the first remake shows how much of that film’s success was driven by the public nostalgia of the original and that continuing to dig into that will bear weaker fruit. On the opposite side, people have been genuinely surprised about Sonic 3 in the sense that it has embraced a lot of what live-action adaptations of media traditionally remove. Rather than trying to either pump out cheap nostalgia or shave off things from the source material to appear “marketable”, Sonic 3 embraces the Sonic games far more in terms of story and set pieces. The fact that I’ve seen more positive buzz from both audience members and even professional critics over the latter than the former tells me that these types of remakes are both weak as films on their own and worn out their welcome culturally.
Live-action remakes of animated bother me because they are the fundamental opposite of animation. The general public in America and studios, in general, continue to dismiss animation as only a form of entertainment for kids rather than a medium that can express a wide array of things. What animation can show is only limited by the skill of an artist and the time and money provided. A live-action remake of one of these films is made on the precedence of assuming that the general public would take these stories more seriously if they were in live-action. However, because they are in live action, they also have to tend to the limitations of the shift in medium. This wouldn’t be a problem if these remakes bothered to do something radically different, but there lies the next problem.
More than any type of film, these remakes are transparently made not to express anything new, experiment with old material, or even make something fun, but to make a faded photocopy of a previous work and treat it like it is something new. Films like the 2019 Aladdin and the 2017 Beauty and the Beast mostly stay true to the original films in terms of structure and script. This is an issue because they are taking already well-made and beloved films and just recreating them again but in a different form that doesn’t take advantage of what animation can do. I feel that it’s the totality of how pointless these films are as to why I dislike them so much. If they were at least interested in their badness, I would at least feel that something came up of it. Something like say Maleficent, while not good, at least was doing something different and new with what it was doing. As of late though, so many of these films have either focused on following the original beat for beat or changing a few elements for the sake of it. They are just the same films as the original, but fundamentally worse both because they try to recreate the original in a medium that it wasn’t intended for and because they don’t add anything to it outside of filler or ugly photorealistic CGI. What is improved in The Little Mermaid by making Sebastian a creepy-looking real crab? What is improved in Beauty and the Beast by changing and adding pointless elements to a film that arguably has a perfect story and structure to begin with? What is improved by taking The Lion King, a film that arguably more than any other Disney film thrives on making the unreal real through animation, and throwing it into the style of the real world that limits every element the original had. The How to Train Your Dragon remake also got me thinking about the same thing since it seems to be just the same film but in live-action. That film is one of the best examples of how the medium of animation can create beautiful and striking imagery like nothing else. As a result, this remake just feels like making the same movie again but in live-action for no real good reason. It feels like something that devalues the artistry of the original and will only offer a pale imitation.
If people say they like these films, I would simply say to just watch the originals. Not really out of any negative reasons, but simply because the originals are better. The whole discourse about Snow White is a good example of how I feel. Ignoring all the toxic criticism done in bad faith over the film, my issue is divorced from all of that and is simply that I feel that remaking a film like Snow White, one intended to prove animation could be a storytelling art form, into live-action for the sake of it is representative of how Disney and other studios just don’t care about or understand animation. If the argument is that these films give representation to other groups, well, I simply feel that the best case for representation is to make original works and stories possibly by those being represented. But Disney won’t make original works because it’s easier and more calculated to just remake old stuff. I have no issue with casting choices like Rachel Zegler being Snow White or Halle Bailey being Ariel. None of the arguments against these castings honestly matter in my eyes. My issue is that I feel kids deserve richer and more personable media to see themselves in than just dull hand-me-downs of older media.
I tend to try and be open and not downplay people enjoying other films. I didn’t watch Deadpool and Wolverine this year because I have been very exhausted and burnt out at both Ryan Reynolds snarky schtick and the fixation on meta humor and nostalgia in recent superhero films. However, if someone enjoyed it, I won’t put them down as long as they carry their opinions with a balanced perception. With these live-action remakes, however, I really can’t understand why people want these things simply because I feel they offer nothing that wasn’t better before. Draping everything in realism limits these fantastical stories and they tend to simply repeat the story beats and dialogue of the older films. What is added is either superfluous or hollow and to be honest, none of these films will ever have the impact the originals had. If you are going to remake something, do something worthwhile with it rather than just reminding people of better work. If someone said they were remaking Back to the Future, people would be livid. But for some reason or another, general audiences don’t seem to care that these Disney and animation remakes keep happening. I only want better work to be made and seen and don’t feel these are anything truly worthwhile artistically. Not out of anger mind you, but simply out of a desire to see better work. In an age where studios have been hyper-fixated on brands and franchises while limiting the voices of creators more and more, I feel that the sentiment of wanting better is not unfounded.
