Message in a Bottle 14
I’ve been thinking a lot about remakes. You know, reboots, live action versions of animated films, screen adaptations …
Yes, the How to Train Your Dragon live action triggered the most of it, but I’ve been pondering the subject for some time.
Please. PLEASE. Remember that this is of course my opinion.
In some ways, I think it has a lot to do with the treasures of our childhoods. When I haven’t seen the original, the remake usually doesn’t bother me. But does it spark any magic?
If I had seen Avatar the Last Airbender as a kid I probably would have some bigger feelings about the new live action, but I didn’t. I didn’t watch the animated show until I was already in my twenties.
Some things need to take a chill on reboots and some things just don’t know how to end.
Marvel ended (quite literally for me) with End Game. It was perfect. It was true to everything we had come to love. Out of EVERYTHING that has been made after, (movies and tv shows) only two of those were incredible— Spider-Man No Way Home and Guardians Vol. 3, both two of my very favorite movies. And both seem like the bittersweet epilogue, the perfect ending to two stories that hadn’t quite been wrapped up yet. Yes, I know Spider-Man is getting more movies, but in my opinion, it could just stay the trilogy.
You guys know I loved Loki, but that ending gave me the creeps and honestly felt disgraceful to all that came before in the show.
And Star Wars??? What the HECK are they doing? Besides Andor. Respectfully and unquestioningly excuse Andor from this ridicule. But that raises questions of its own. How? How can one show be so perfect, so riveting, moving, and original, when the rest of the franchise is all but drowning in hit or miss moments?
I couldn’t tell ya’.
The original will always be the best. And sometimes a screen adaption works. As flawed as some might say the Narnia movies are, as unfinished as they are, if someone told me a new version was being made, I’d have a conniption. You’re gonna tell me someone other than Georgie Henley is gonna try to be Lucy? Pff! Try and fail.
And don’t even whisper the idea of a Lord of the Rings remake in my presence.
Hook will always be the best Peter Pan movie made.
Nothing will ever top the original Jumanji or Jurassic Park.
The originals will always be the best, because original ideas matter.
So why does it seem like we're stuck on a loony merry-go-round with these remakes, spin-offs, and adaptations? If we all crave original content, why are the live actions running the show, as they actively rip the magic from our pleasantly hazy childhoods. The edges of our dreams are worn soft by a vignette of pixie dust, but now they’re bulldozed by an over use of CGI and uninspired rip-offs.
Have we lost our creative spark? Are we incapable of original thought?
No.
The dreamers still exist. There’s an army out there, scattered, a perfect smattering to cover the whole earth, every nation, every language. But our voices are small. Compared to the franchises already built, we’re nearly mute.
The already established have earned a place and hold a death grip on culture, rightfully so in some ways. It was, after all, the original content that stole our hearts, that moved us to tears, and introduced us to characters that, after all these years, feel like dear, dear friends.
The problem is nobody knows when to stop while they’re ahead, so to speak. The original passion is lost and it turns into a money game. They keep reaching with greedy hands, turning what was beautiful into something lacking, something devoid of the original spark.
And why should they stop? Disney, Marvel, Star Wars … it’s their content, they can keep making money … who’s gonna stop them.
Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
See, as I continue to rant and complain and then ask questions like that, it all starts to sound a bit silly, trifle even in a world with so many “bigger” problems. But I believe in the importance of letting something end.
In life, everything ends whether we like it or not. Our childhoods, the present year, businesses rise and fall, friendships come and go, seasons end to start another, eventually our bodies fail too. Even the world as we know it has an expiration date.
I think sometimes we don’t like to think about endings. Maybe you’re reading this and shaking your head, because you love the reboots and spin-offs. Maybe they make you feel like what you love so much isn’t actually over. But that’s the beauty of art. Even after it ends, we get to come back to it again and again as many times as we want. We get to return. Relive the moments of our life that the particular piece of media shared with us.
I’m a little different when it comes to endings. I tend to obsess over them … when they’re done right. There isn’t a whole lot on this earth that compares to the feeling I get from a good ending. A giddy feeling tickles my ribs as I hold the last few pages of a book. I look forward to the last few words read. They hold a place of importance to me, even more than the first words.
Endings make way for more beginnings.
As creators, I think it’s healthy to finish, to set aside, and move on. To say goodbye, more or less. To find a new adventure.
Visual artists don’t get a choice on this. Could you imagine if a painting was up in a museum and the artist kept coming by every few weeks, taking the glass down and adding a few more strokes to the canvas?
And as consumers, I think a lot of the same. A good ending teaches us things about moving on, about reaching peace and contentment in our journeys. To me when a spin-off or a remake comes along, it rips at those seams so tenderly stitched, it disrespects, in a way, the space that the original filled, in history and our lives.
I don’t know. It’s all so hard to say, except that I’m a strange girl who likes endings and likes them to stay final.
Writers that like to give tips will tell you there’s nothing more important than your story’s first line. It’s what hooks your readers, sets the tone for the rest of the book.
Always seems like a lot of pressure to me.
I prefer the last lines.
Fair winds, following seas, and God bless,
—Ellie