Live Action Remakes: The Laziest And Worst Trend In Hollywood

The title of this post basically does all of the heavy lifting for me in terms of what I wish to say and what my opinion is, but I can go on a VERY long rant about this sort of thing and I plan on doing so. So buckle up for a insane train of thought full of passion and not super thought out.

There has been a massive trend in recent Hollywood in regards to taking classic, successful movies that were animated and bastardising them into something not worth watching. Taking whatever made them special, and ruining it with a "realistic" and "adult" approach that really takes away from the entire core and meaning of the original. Continuing the stereotype that animated films are purely and solely for children, despite the fact that there are PLENTY of adult animations out there in the world of film and television. It is even more shown when awards shows have categories for best drama, comedy/musical, and so on...yet for animation it is just "animated film" and that's it. Animation is not a genre. It isn't a style. It is a artform.

Think of it like painting. How many different styles or techniques are there in painting? You have your Renaissance Eras, your Abstracts, Your Moderns and Post Moderns. Would you compare and contrast them to each other? Most likely not, as it is like comparing apples to steak in many cases. Something so far different that it isn't even possible to say which is better or worse, since they serve vastly different purposes.

Now, I do not wish to make this sound like live action adaptations are entirely new, because that just isn't true. Often seen as the first one of these is the Popeye film from 1980 starring Robin Williams, a role that nearly ended his career because the movie is quite bad. This was then followed up by live action Flintstones movies in 1994 and 2000, which both received even worse scores and ratings. Disney released 101 and 102 Dalmatians, which did well and were relatively well received. But do you see that gap? 5 live action adaptations of animated properties in 20 years, with a 14 year gap between them. That is unheard of these days.

In the 2000s, it expanded to roughly 11 (including Flintstones 2 and 102 Dalmatians) with Garfield , Alvin & The Chipmunks, and Scooby-Doo perhaps being the most well known of these. They all had their charm and fans, doing relatively well in box offices despite scores for them not being the best on review sites. Things were starting to pick up, but were still moving incredibly slow and gentle. It was obvious that they wanted to try and take a "faith to the source material" approach, or perhaps a quality and story over money type of approach. It didn't always serve them well, but it was easier to spot their intentions.

We then hit the 2010s, starting off with what many consider one of the worst movies of all time, Avatar The Last Airbender. But this was where the tides turned, for better or worse.

Alice In Wonderland, directed by my personal favorite director Tim Burton, grossed over 1 BILLION dollars at the box office. Movie studios, ESPECIALLY Disney, saw how much money this made and began to go crazy.

The Smurfs, Maleficent, Cinderella, Jungle Book, more and more Alvin sequels and franchises popping up all over the place. Coming out faster than most other franchises could dream. Every one of the movies would do well, even if the quality was dipping. It was difficult for fans to really appreciate if changes were made to the original source material. If any characters didn't look 100% the same, they would get upset. But it seemed like movie studios thought any publicity was good publicity.

Beauty & The Beast, coming out to rather savage reviews primarily due to the singing and music that was not translated perfectly from the original.

Classic Disney movies were designed to be perfectly matched to that of musical theater. When the emotion in a scene is too much for talking, the characters sing. The songs are constructed in specific ways to move the plot forward and to act as story progression, yet the live action remakes tended to try and stray away from that. Because, well...live action is for adults and animation is for children. We can't have characters sing, they have to act. Of course, Beauty & The Beast did it's best and had some powerhouses such as Josh Gadd and Luke Evans, who are genuine Broadway stars. But then you get Emma Watson, who is a great actor yet not known for her singing in the lead role. This even continues on into the likes of Dumbo and Mulan, where music was nearly cut entirely due to the fact that "we're going in a different direction" with the story and characters.

Disney continues to be the ones who dominate the world of live action remakes, with nearly every single film of theirs receiving the fresh coat of paint that does more to damage the legacy of the original than anything else. They hope for nostalgia over everything else to carry the films to success. Heck, even the likes of Moana which came out less than 10 years ago and already has a sequel, is getting a live action remake. Why? Because they care about money more than anything else.

When looking at an even more global view at this sort of thing, you come across the world of live action anime adaptations. I feel it is pretty well known that the live action Netflix movie based on the incredibly well paced and thought out series Death Note is atrocious. An absolute butchering of the source in a way that ruined the movie before it could even get started. Even more successful and higher quality versions such as the live action One Piece series and Avatar show on Netflix gives just enough people hope that it will be good...but shouldn't they be coming up with original ideas instead? Hollywood is a money business more than it is a film one. Money is superior to art in all of the minds of executives and studio heads. Why make something new and original that is a gamble, when you can just steal or borrow from the past in a move you know will be successful? It is becoming increasingly more and more driven by money, leading to many younger and newer filmmakers to not even want to pitch their own ideas. Attaching something to an already existing IP is all it takes. Using nostalgia and a name people are familiar with is what it takes. Even when you get original ideas that turn into great films like John Wick, it not only receives one or two sequels...but spin offs and streaming series as well.

But this article is about animation to live action. Why would Dreamworks take perhaps it's best series of films in How To Train Your Dragon, and turn it into a live action movie? Because animation is for children, seemingly according to them. Yet the original movies dealt with war, losing a parent, and growing up. And then we get into a strange thing with these movies. What should they change, if anything?

The trailer to the live action How To Train Your Dragon movie had multiple scenes that looked like they were shot for shot remakes to the original movies. Hiccup reaching out to touch Toothless, flying, everything. But...why? Why not just watch the original movie? If they are going to change nothing, then this movie doesn't need to exist. And if they change too much, then why didn't they just make a new franchise or not tie it to an IP? Money.

As long as ENOUGH of the adaptations do well, studios will continue to chase them. As long as the stigma of animation being childish and live action being adult persists, then they will continue to be made. Animation needs to be taken seriously and treated as its own viable form of art and expression, since often times animated movies are able to do significantly more creative things. The idea of realism doesn't need to apply, and incredibly unique and new shots, transitions, and pacing can be done. Look at the likes of Akira, Paprika, Into The Spider-Verse, and Monster's Inc were able to accomplish. Could you imagine any of those in live action? Sterol and boring while the originals are SO vibrant and creative and expressive in every possible way? It just goes to show that animation really is the form of true art being expressed and told in a way that it should be. In a way that can't really be corrupted, as it takes patience and attention to detail and creativity. And all of these movies tend to do incredibly well when it comes to awards and acclaim and ratings...but rarely do well with box offices. Because animated movies are seen as children's films. As family films. Not it's own style of film that can be appreciated by anyone and everyone.

This article isn't going to change anything. All I can really say is that if you enjoy animated films like I do, then you won't go out and support these emotionless, money focused adaptations that put animators out of business, corrupt their visions, and just make the animation industry struggle. Support films like Mitchells vs The Machines, Wild Robot, Bad Guys, and more original, great movies and their creators. Just incredible works of art.