Jordan Patterson 

Staff Writer

There have been lots of creative properties to come out since the Lumière brothers first screened their 10 short films on Dec 25, 1895.

Filmmakers have found ways to move the camera in the most creative ways or find ways to put more emotion into a film using color or effects.

Another creative part of the film is the animation department. The animation department allows for so much creativity in regards to storytelling which can be seen in many TV shows, such as “Rick and Morty,” Anime, such as “One Piece,” and animated films, such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

The animated medium allows an already creative visual art of film and turns it into something truly amazing.

Animation allows the people behind the camera to essentially do what they want due to animation not being bound to the laws of reality and many creators have taken this to heart putting so much creativity, emotion, and meaning into their animated projects.

Yet, there has been a recent trend of people trying to take away from the animated medium in the form of live-action remakes.

If I had to guess the rise in live-action remakes stems from laziness and the explosion of popularity that superhero movies have experienced, with marvel movies making a billion dollars on average.

However, the reason Marvel movies do so well is that they have filmmakers who not only care about but love the source material and don’t try to remake it but adapt for a new audience.

These projects take everything that made their animated counterparts special and throws it out the window, but not even in a way that puts a spin on the original. More like they made a chicken sandwich with no chicken.

For instance, the “Lion King” remake couldn’t capture the emotion of the original movie due to the fact that it’s hard for an audience to feel the emotions of a real lion. The CGI was great, but it worked against the creators due to the fact that the more realistic it looks- and nobody wants to see bad CGI- the harder it is to make it grounded and relatable.

We all know what these remakes are for, but even if you want to argue that this is a good thing for these movies by making them newer or more realistic, that’s just not true.

These properties are being remade in the first place because they were so successful, but remaking them or making them look more realistic doesn’t actually make them better.

This isn’t just a problem coming from Disney either. Anime live-action remakes are some of the worst films ever and most of them are coming from Netflix, make of that what you will.

“Fullmetal Alchemist,” “Death Note,” “Dragonball,” “Attack on Titan,” and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” are not just some of the best anime out there, but some of the best stories in fiction altogether.

Their remakes not only stray from the source material, but are poorly edited, shot, and written. These remakes, whether it’s Disney or an anime remake, try to pull people in with feelings of nostalgia by remaking their favorite properties and allowing them to be re-experienced.

These movies typically aren’t made because the people creating them actually care about trying to remake it, it’s because they’re just like every other pointless sequel or remake in Hollywood; They’re solely for the purpose of making money.

That’s what makes them so bad. There’s no love and care, no attention to detail, no creativity, no heart, no life put into these films. They’re just a way to make easy money. They use CGI because it’s cheap and simple.

They don’t try to adapt it in a different way because that wouldn’t make people feel nostalgic. Instead, they would rather make soulless remakes that will never be nearly as good as the original properties we love so much and we’ll be lucky if they start being any good at all.  

Email Jordan at:

jpatters13@live.esu.edu