Every so often, some faults of the entertainment industry become more evident to people, depending on what’s happening. Right now, there are many remakes in theaters and TV, making this trend a new “target” of everyone’s displeasure. How to Train Your Dragon is a strict retelling of the original animation in live-action format, while Lilo & Stitch deviates too much from the source material. On TV, fans didn’t like how different Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is from her gaming counterpart in The Last of Us, too. Remakes have never been unanimous among audiences and critics, but they’re an undeniable trend in the industry, so what’s happening? Are we simply too demanding, or are they getting worse?
Remakes Won’t Always Please Viewers
Perhaps we are too demanding, yes. It’s not a comfortable idea when we see ourselves not as an audience, but as consumers of new versions of products that were promised to satisfy us as much as the original, we’re very much entitled to be dissatisfied. However, there are many things that factor into how we feel about remakes nowadays, and most of them are beyond our control. It’s an industry trend, so the decisions behind making one or not will be taken by studio executives most of the time, not artists, and there’s nothing we can do.
10 Essential Movie Remakes, Ranked
These movies give remakes a good name.
This is reason enough for us to make our peace with the fact that remakes are never going to be the payoff we want. It’s impossible, because the novelty factor is a big part of what makes most of the original works so special. A remake, by definition, isn’t anything new, and will tamper with your connection to the original material, regardless of how strong, so, whenever we enter the theater to watch a remake of your favorite story, this is something we need to understand. What is now onscreen is not the same as what we saw as youngsters, but something different.
Studio executives don’t look at those movies like us; instead, they see IP that they bring to newer audiences. The original How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch both came out over fifteen years ago. Most of the audience that saw it in theaters then now have their own kids, and that’s the point. You can introduce your kids to these movies at home, but having a new version in theaters will always have more impact and make more money. So all those remakes are not for us, and are not about our connection to that IP, but forming new ones with a newer audience.
Remakes Are Often Different for a Variety of Reasons
When Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Award for his Pinocchio in 2023, he famously said that animation “is a medium.” Of course, he’s absolutely correct, and this is another factor in why we usually don’t deal well with remakes: they are telling beloved stories that worked in one medium, but now in a completely different one. Live-action is as much a medium as animation, and we are all entitled to our preferences, but you can’t translate art into different media without impacting how it’s perceived.
The Last of Us definitely suffers the most, in this sense. As good as the series is, it’ll hardly be as good as the video game, because not being behind the controller doing the things that Ellie does takes away much of the emotion. So it has to make up for this in different ways, like adjusting character behavior, introducing different storylines, shifting perspectives, etc. How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch also suffer the impact of being translated into different media, but in different ways. Live-action poses countless challenges to production, often taking away from the “fairy tale” feeling that animation imprints on the originals, The Last of Us included.
Another important thing to consider is the very zeitgeist. Lilo & Stitch, for example, touches on themes of identity that reach much further now than it did when the original came out, so that should naturally be incorporated. How to Train Your Dragon, let’s face it, was already perfect, so why change the story at all? In that sense, we’re actually thankful they brought Dean DeBlois, who directed the animated originals, to helm the live-action; it’s the only way to ensure it remains perfect in a different medium. The same can be said of Neil Druckmann‘s involvement in The Last of Us — no wonder the episode he directed is the best in Season 2.
So What Really Makes a Good Remake?
All that said, the industry has been making some great remakes since the beginning, but live-action remakes are still something rather new, thanks to improvements in CGI and VFX. There are hits, like Speed Racer and Beauty and the Beast, but there are huge misses, too, like Snow White and Ghost In the Shell, meaning that there isn’t a proper formula. Ideally, remakes like this should only be done whenever there’s either a fresh take on the original story or when the time for it is right, especially considering the zeitgeist. The more respect and reverence displayed for the originals, the better.
However, studios don’t work with ideals. They know that there is an audience for live-action remakes, from die-hard fans of the originals, to newer audiences discovering the IP for the first time. Given how much they usually make at the box office, it doesn’t look like this trend will wind down any time soon, but they shouldn’t be made just because studios have the IP and want to make money. Disney is learning that the hard way. Instead, pay closer attention and listen to the audience and the fans, instead of suddenly remaking it just to make money, because that’s more disrespectful than lucrative.
How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch are in theaters right now. The Last of Us is available to stream on Max.
