Animation is a wonderful medium that has endless possibilities for creativity and storytelling. There have been plenty of movies, tv shows, music videos, and video games that utilize animation and have developed a strong following in there respective mediums. That said, when ever Hollywood makes a film based on an animated property, it’s typically met with groans from animation fans. This has always baffled me, as the films that have been adapted from animated properties are no different from films adapted from books or real people. Yet there’s this mentality that Hollywood producers and filmmakers don’t respect animation as a medium and that’s really not the case. Yes, there are people who mistakenly refer to animation as a genre (looking at you, Dwayne Johnson), but the people who make films based on animated properties clearly show respect to the source material and try to make a cohesive and fun film based on it. In this post, I’m going to go through the history of live action cartoon adaptations and why the most egregious complaints don’t hold as much water as you think.
The first live action film based on a cartoon was Popeye in 1980, starring the late great Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall. This film is not only faithful to the classic Popeye cartoons, but it also tells a solid story of Popeye trying to win over Olive Oyl whilst butting heads with Bluto. This film embraces the goofy nature of the cartoon and Robin Williams gives an excellent performance as he always did. The same can also be said for films such as The Flintstones (1994), Inspector Gadget (1999) and George of the Jungle (1997). The most common complaint about these films is that they’re predictable, and that’s a fair assessment. My rebuttal to that though is that it’s the execution of their standard premise that makes them unique. And now is a good time to talk about The Last Airbender.
Now, I understand where people are coming from when they say they despise this film. As a film, it’s most egregious crime was cramming in too much story in an hour and 43 minute run time. I understand what M. Night Shyamalan was going for, but the film needed more time to flesh out it’s story and characters. “No, the film shouldn’t have been made in the first place,” I here you cry out, but it was inevitably going to happen because the show was so popular. I mean, all the actors did a good job in their respective rolls, the effect and costume design was well done, and there were moments that made me chuckle. I say this is among the few live action cartoon adaptations that didn’t quite hit the mark, along side films like Yogi Bear (2010), The Smurfs (2011) and A Fairly Oddmovie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner. But, enough about that noise, let’s talk about the live action Disney remakes.
Disney has been on a role with these re-imaginings of their animated works. With the exception of Alice Through the Looking Glass and most recently Dumbo, all have their films have made bank at the box office. 2017′s Beauty and the Beast made $1.2 billion, making it the highest grossing musical film of all time. And yet with each passing film, fans of the original animated films complain more and more that these films don’t respect the originals simply by existing. I’m sorry, but that is such a ludicrous reason to dislike these films. If Disney had no respect for their old animated films, they wouldn’t make these remakes in the first place. Not only that, but these films don’t replace the originals in anyway shape or form. Another ludicrous argument for people not liking these films is because “Disney only cares about money.” 👏It’s 👏a👏business. In case it wasn’t clear, remakes of old properties make for good business; not just for Disney, but for every major studio in Hollywood. The Departed, Evil Dead, King Kong, Godzilla, The Mummy, the list goes on. Not only do they make money, but they also offer filmmakers a chance to tell their version of the story.
This all boils down to my final point about live action films based on cartoons: you don’t have to see them. To quote a controversial critic, “the cruelest form of attention you can give any form of entertainment is NO attention.” By complaining about these live action adaptations of your favorite animated shows/movies, you’re subconsciously promoting them. This is why I no longer have a Top 10 Blacklisted Cartoons on my blog: if I don’t like or have no interest in seeing a particular cartoon, I won’t watch or even talk about it. Instead of complaining about the next live action adaptation of an animated property, why not talk about films you’re actually looking forward to and plan on seeing? Wouldn’t that be more productive and rewarding? I hope this encourages people to have be a little more optimistic in this cynical landscape.
No comments:
Post a Comment