This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Gahnique Bell. Find her on Instagram at @s14rbur81_g4l4xy. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
When they first announced that The Lion King was going to be remade into a live-action movie, I was pretty excited. I loved watching the movie growing up, and it is still one of my favorite Disney movies to this day. I had to see the live-action movie in person, so I brought tickets, and like many of the people there, I watched the movie to relive the magic I once felt when I watched the original film.
Unfortunately, the movie left me very disappointed. After that, more and more beloved animated films started to be reincarnated into soulless live-action adaptations. What everyone thought was a homage to the source turned out to be nothing but a cash grab. Now, people are tired of seeing remade movies of stories they love and are begging for something new and original to watch. Why is this such an issue? What makes everyone hate the remakes so much? Let’s dive into the reason why live-action remakes are a problem.
It Lacks Creativity
Animation has always been a unique medium that deserves more credit than people give it. Because of its use of colorful visuals, goofy humor, and wacky adventures, many adults brush it off as a genre for kids instead of its art form. What a lot of animated films and TV shows have that live action don’t is the ability to use their imagination. There are no limits when it comes to animation, so when films like The Lion King are remade into a live-action version, it brings about limitations. They’re not able to move the characters in a way or do certain actions without it making them look off or not “real enough”.
There’s only so much you can do with live-action, especially with something as visual as The Lion King. When I watched the movie in theaters, I was hoping it would bring something new to the existing franchise. Instead, the movie was just a step-by-step copy of the original The Lion King. No new songs. No new characters. No new scenes. The limits of the movie were too great to make the story more engaging to the audience. The colors were dull and washed out, the characters lacked emotion, and even though the CGI looks impressive there’s still something about it that lacks what 2D animation brings to the table. If the companies had put more of effort into making the movie more visual and interesting it would have done a lot better than it did when it originally came out.
It Brings Diversity And Cultural Representation Issues
Everybody wants to be represented accurately when it comes to their culture being shown in films and TV shows. It’s rewarding to see yourself on screen, knowing that there are other people like you in the world. However, One of the biggest problems with remakes is the representation of cultures in the casting. Many times, actors who are casted for live action remakes have no connection to the culture that the character has. “If actors are cast inaccurately or in roles that do not align with their cultural background” says Cherianne Yoon, a writer from The Campanile, “it reinforces the idea that ethnicities are interchangeable and undermines each experience and perspective”. There are also times when there is an uproar about different races being casted to play characters who were previously white, despite it not being a big factor to the story itself.
When the casting for the live action adaptaion series of Avatar: The Last Airbender was announced, many fans of the existing franchise complained about the cast being whitewashed and not accurately representing Asian and Native Americans that the characters are based off of. One specific controversy surrounds the actor Ian Ousley who played Sokka in the remake. Since Sokka is based on Inuit people, an actor of Native American descent would make sense to cast. Although not fully confirmed from Netflix, Ian claimed he was a descendant of a Native American tribe, at first said to be part of a Native American tribe, but then it was later revealed that he may not be part of the tribe. Another example involves the first Dreamworks live-action adaptation of How To Train Your Dragon. When the cast was announced, people immediately were upset that the actress who plays Astrid, Nico Parker, is black, despite Vikings historically being nomads and the movie is about dragons, so historical accuracy is redundant.
It Disrespects The Classics
By creating a live action version of an exciting story and doing nothing with it but copy the storyline is disrespectful to the original source. Films like Mulan, Beauty and The Beast, and Aladdin are loved and adored by many fans. For some people this is their first time hearing or seeing anything about this film, so if they see it and think badly of it it will possibly encourage them to not check out the movie the adaptation was based off of. It also makes the live action and the animated version of the movies compete for the spot of what is the better version. It causes a split within the fandom instead of bringing more people together. The Overlord from Anime Superhero says, ““These remakes dishonor the art of animation because they feel like an attempt to replace the original animated films”
It doesn’t seem to respect how long it takes for 2D animation to be made. Since the live adaptation relies heavily on CGI it is able to crank out more movies which can make the movie feel rushed at times. The excuses executives from companies give as a reason to make the live action in the first place and the way some of the remakes are marketed makes it look like the live action/CGI is better than 2D animation. This is another way to downplay animation instead of recognizing it for the incredible medium it is. Now, don’t get me wrong, some CGI and 3d animation looks amazing with mazing visuals but in other films, it can become very obvious that some of the CGI looks a little off at times.
What are your thoughts on live-action remakes? Do you wish remade movies would stop? Let us know in the comments below!
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