Be still and just let me REMAKE you!
It’s
really no big news, as it has been out there for a while, but it
struck me to read that now Disney is systematically planning to do
live-action remakes of pretty much all its classic animated films.
Well, remakes, re-imaginings, spin-offs... call them whatever you
want. It was already in the air, as Disney has already produced
Maleficent, Cinderella and now Beauty and the Beast, and people
seemed to have enjoyed them. I do admit, I haven’t seen any of
those, so I should just SHUT THE FRACK UP MAN, YOU DUNNO WHATCHA
TALKING ABOUT! Yeah, yeah... Look, I just want to talk about this
trend, this phenomenon, and I really don’t want to condemn any of
these film or the ones that will come, as some will probably be good,
if not excellent. It’s just that all this has me all puzzled!
Let
me be even broader: everyone seems to be doing remakes of everything!
The remake of the cult anime Ghost in The Shell, Power Rangers
(what?!), The Mummy, Death Note (expect a bitter post on that), The
Matrix (SERIOUSLY?!) and so on. If you’d allow me (yes, you do
allow me) to be even broader, producing follow-ups is even more
popular than a remake: Trainspotting 2 (really didn’t see that
coming), Blade Runner 2049 (smart title, but it’s Blade Runner 2,
good luck with that), Fast and Furious I-have-lost-count. The list is
truly endless. Moreover, there are even hybrids of the two! For
example, as far as I know from rumors and trailers, Alien: Covenant
could be a sort of Prometheus 2 (the character of David is there),
Alien 5 (indeed, it is the fifth film with a xenomorph, and no, I
don’t talk about Alien Vs Predators 1 and 2) or even a remake of
Alien 3, as everyone seems to hate that movie (it’s imperfect for
obvious reasons, but I quite like it). And what to make of Star Wars:
The Force Awakens? Yeah, it’s a follow up in the series but... the
sense of déjà vu during the viewing was very strong!
And
mentioning Star Wars opens a big can of sand worms: the big D has
promised us a new SW film pretty much every year, alternating the
ones belonging to the main saga and the spin-offs - like the good,
but in the end useless - Rogue One (see, I liked that!). And now
Disney owns Marvel, and Marvel Studios are putting out the staggering
number of two big-budget films a year! And, obviously, Disney owns
all of the classic films, and... go back and see the beginning of
this post. It seems like it’s impossible to see an end to all this
remaking, rebooting and sequeling (that’s a verb, trust me….).
Is
Disney the Empire of Dreams or the Evil Empire of Ready-Made Dreams?
I wouldn’t be so drastic, as it is obvious that Disney is composed
of many teams, which are each composed of many, many creative minds
at work. So, I don’t think that creativity will be killed, even if
those people will have to work inside defined boundaries. However, it
does make me uncomfortable to think that just one company owns all of
the franchises which which I grew up. If they really wanted to, there
may be a chance for Disney to insert very specific values in their
films and gently influence our lives... but enough about a Disney
Conspiracy Theory!
In
conclusion to my first, rambling post on this blog (hi there!), let
me write this: the trend described above is not a new thing. For
example, Universal Studios did lots of sequels to its classic monster
movies, rebooted some franchises and even did some horror comedies!
Here, however, I’m talking about horror genre, which is kinda its
own thing... damn, I’ll have to write another post on the genre!
Anyway, the re-doing trend in film is an old thing and it’s stupid
to say, “in the old days, everything was new”. Well, bullpoop
(this is a safe for work blog).
It has always been there. The problem nowadays is that a very high
number of big budget films are remakes and the like, and their
state-of-the-art marketing campaigns are always putting them on the
spotlight. I also suspect that, due to the current economical
situation, big companies want to play it safe, thus producing films
that people are going to like for sure. But I really don’t know a
thing about business and marketing, so I’ll just be quiet for now.
One
last thing: watch the ‘new’ re-made films with a critical eye
and, if possible, enjoy them, but don’t forget the classics!
Ciao
e a presto, vostro
Vinny
Panini
