2020: An exploitation of nostalgia
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In the past decade, there has been an increasing trend in film and TV remakes. Hollywood did it with Lion King, Aladdin, and even shows like Invader Zim. Needless to say, this trend is taking advantage of our nostalgia and using it for profit. But honestly, the quality varies.
“You’re going to end up disappointed because most great movies are great for a reason. And the remake lacks the vision. It depends,” Mr. Phillip Cole, a history teacher, said.
“You’re going to end up disappointed because most great movies are great for a reason. And the remake lacks the vision.”
Remakes are generally known for being bad, but, God almighty, they make a ton of money. The film The Lion King’s 2019 remake, for example, made 1.6 billion dollars worldwide and is the second highest-grossing film this year behind Avengers: Endgame, according to boxofficemojo.com.
But the scummy thing about this whole idea is that companies have found a massive market in exploiting the nostalgia of their viewers. Most of these movies would not make nearly as much profit if they didn’t already have a recognizable name and blast out a celebrity cast: for example, any Disney remake, like the most recent Lion King. A majority of the marketing comes from the celebrities and who is going to do which voiceovers.
Companies such as Disney, who created a lot of childhood classics, remake films once their audience is older—giving them a new twist for their old audience.
In reality, few people really want a new Dumbo movie or a new Karate Kid. I think there wouldn’t be a problem if they added to the story (like making a sequel to it) as demonstrated in Blade Runner 2049, but when studios have the gall to give us the same movie but re-skinned in live-action, or they take a big franchise and try to add to it, they ultimately make it worse.
In my opinion, even the newest Star Wars trilogy falls into the same boat as these other remakes because once they merchandised it and gave the first movie, Star
Wars: The Force Awakens, the same story as New Hope and The Last Jedi, they lost the ability to call it a continuation of the classic series. But they made tons of money; the latest trilogy made over 3.3 billion worldwide.
But, why? The Last Jedi reviewed terribly. Instead, what these new Star Wars films have shown is that Disney, and other remakes, do not care about their audience, but more about the amount of money they make. I would go as far as to say that these movies are a detriment to mainstream film because all it enables is the making of the same movie over and over, never progressing.
Every day now, we see old franchises coming back, even with little things like bringing an old show to a streaming platform, like Victorious, a show people our age used to watch that’s being added to Netflix. Slowly, we will eventually see things that we grew up with being remade; in film, in video games, on TV, we will see the stuff we grew up with either destroyed or forgotten. I think, as smart consumers, we should fight against that.
I understand why people would want to see these movies. Most recently, the trailer for SCOOB came out, and back in the day that was my jam. I sat around every day watching Scooby-Doo. When I saw the trailer every part of me wanted to see this movie, but I know that it is being made for the purpose of exploiting my nostalgia.
I feel like this trend needs to change. Disney just released a whole list of movies they are going to make from 2019-2022 and about a good quarter of those are remakes, such as a new Indiana Jones and an “Untitled Remake.” Not only do we deserve better films, but we shouldn’t accept the same regurgitated garbage. Studios are only remaking movies that were already good, and no matter what, we are going to be disappointed with the end result. In the survey, 89.4% of SJHS students said they want original concepts. So there is hope, but right now, this trend of remakes makes me worried about the future of mainstream movies. We should have fun stories that are new and explore new ideas, instead of having the same thing made over and over.