The Rise and Fall of the Remake

I’ve always loved the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. I love it so much that I already have tickets to see the new park at Universal Studios this summer. However, when I learned the fantastical part of my childhood was getting a live action remake, I paused for a moment.

Maybe a few moments.

It’s no surprise that a movie as massive as How to Train Your Dragon is getting another spin. Though with three full length films, six short films, four series, and a whole host of books and games, it seems the market is a little saturated. Now, will I still find myself in theaters June 12th when the film releases? Of course. I too am a product of consumerist fan culture. I’ll certainly be watching with somewhat judging eyes though.

There have been several live action remakes that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. The first that comes to mind is Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland. I owned the film on DVD, adoring the hauntingly beautiful visuals and Alice’s peculiarity. I believe it to be a good remake, perhaps not entirely faithful to the original source, but good nonetheless. Peter Pan (2003), which I watched for the first time in college, was also a stunning remake with brilliant visuals and a killer soundtrack.

When Disney began their tirade of princess remakes, I jumped ship.

In the past few years, Disney has been remaking movies like their wallet depends on it – ignoring of course the revenue from theme parks, merchandise, news networks, and streaming services. Most of the films have been rather average. Replacing Robin Williams with Will Smith caused many Aladdin fans, honestly mostly Robin Williams fans, to groan. After all, who could replace such a legend?

Mulan had its fair share of controversies from filming at the alleged sight of human rights abuses to hiring a white director instead of one of Asian descent.

A recent addition to the group, Snow White, faced criticism from both sides of the aisle. Some fans critiqued the casting of Rachel Zegler, an actress of Colombian descent, for the titular role. Others were furious at the casting of Gal Gadot who previously served in the Israel Defense Forces.

It isn’t just princess movies getting the controversial live action treatment though.

Lilo & Stitch released in May of this year, marking the start of a remake and sequel summer. Soon after the film’s release, fans began leaving theaters with frowns and confusion as to what Disney had done with such a beloved story.

A fair warning, spoilers lie ahead.

Lilo & Stitch ends with Nani releasing Lilo into state custody and moving to California to study marine biology.

Now that doesn’t really fit the whole “ohana means family” thing, does it.

Viewers criticized this ending as a total departure from the original source material. In the original Lilo & Stitch, Nani doesn’t leave Hawaii at all. Paired with the cultural history of Hawaii as a colonized nation, and the forced assimilation that indigenous individuals faced in the United States, the new ending is sure to leave more than a few fans uneasy.

Betrayed of source material isn’t the only downfall of remakes, in fact, there’s a complete opposite critique: the death of originality.

As I’m writing this four of the five movies playing at my local theater are sequels or remakes. No matter how much I enjoy The Karate Kid, sitting through another version seems like a waste.

Remakes don’t offer anything new to the media. Sure, there might be some little changes, or a “new take” on the original source material – such as the dozens upon dozens of Romeo & Juliet adaptations. The same stories are constantly retold in a million different ways to the point where audiences already know the ending the moment they see the trailer.

Take I Know What You Did Last Summer that’s coming out in July. It’s practically a play by play of the original 1997 version, which was also an adaptation from a novel of the same name. The horror flick is also an example of the requel which combines elements of a remake and a sequel into one redundant mess. It’s a remake in the sense that the original story is remade with different actors, perhaps in a different time or place. It’s a sequel because it calls back to events from the original film, in the case of I Know What You Did Last Summer that also includes actors from the 1997 reprising their roles.

If nostalgia is what a director is going for, then a requel is a good option. But, do you really want to see Mission Impossible stretching on until Tom Cruise is in his eighties? I must admit, nostalgia baiting has gotten me dozens of times – I’ve watched every Spider-Man film, and I actually saw Karate Kid: Legends no matter how much I cringed at its existence.

Nostalgia is a powerful tool that Hollywood will continue to use until fans give it up. Given all the Marvel movies in the works though, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

So what about other moviegoers that are craving something fresh?

The most important thing we can do as consumers is to support original films when they do come out.

A24, one of my all time favorite independent film studios, has given viewers plenty of original films that have been box office successes and award season winners. They’re the geniuses behind Everything Everywhere All At Once which took home seven Oscars at the 2023 Academy Awards. It was a different kind of film, visually odd, but captivating. The story between mother and daughter wasn’t hard to connect with, and Ke Huy Quan’s lines still live on in the hearts of romantics everywhere.

Though I Saw The TV Glow didn’t have the same award blowout that Everything Everywhere All At Once did, it became a symbol of hope and representation for the queer community – especially the trans community. Nothing in the film is explicitly trans, the word transgender is never said, but the storyline, color grading, and cinematography allude to the transgender experience so perfectly that it was difficult to miss. In a time when queer rights are being threatened, having this original film was a breath of fresh air and a reminder to continue on no matter what.

Film is a form of art. Filmmakers utilize the medium to express their vision, message, and desires. Can a remake really do that? How can a filmmaker present a movie as their own when they couldn’t even come up with the premise themselves? The score may be newly composed and the director different, but a remake isn’t anything we haven’t seen before.

I challenge you to make the next movie you see an original. Not a remake. Not a sequel. Something completely new. Watch Sinners or Elio or wait for something to come along like The Smashing Machine.

Sometimes the one offs are the best films you’ve ever seen.