As a college student, I’m starting to see many of my all-time favorite shows and movies from my childhood being remade. I feel like we, as a society, know that remakes are typically not that good. I am usually the first to oppose a remake or live-action version of something I hold close to my heart, but to be very honest, sometimes they are not that bad.
These shows and movies have only committed one crime: they are tacked onto a beloved franchise. We’ve been a little too quick to dismiss some of these live-action remakes. As someone who watches a lot of television and has seen some bad television, I can say there is so much worse out there than these remakes.
For instance, Netflix’s “Fate: The Winx Saga” was a live-action remake of the popular animated series “Winx Club.” The first time I watched this series I took every chance to express how awful it was, repeatedly saying things like, “In the original, they didn’t…” or “That’s not how they were in the original…” I realized I spent my entire time watching the new series, comparing it to the animated series.
So I sat down and rewatched it, pushing the original to the back of my mind. The end result? It wasn’t bad. It was your typical fantasy teen drama.
There was nothing wrong with it.
It’s the same with the live-action remakes of “Monster High.” They are good at being a Nickelodeon children’s film, and that’s all they have to be. I have also come to realize that sometimes with these remakes, I am not the target audience. A lot of these remakes are production companies trying to introduce a new generation to something old in a way they will appreciate it. As a child, I liked the animation and the style of much of the stuff that was on television, but now, kids don’t know how to appreciate that, so things are being adapted, playing on our generation’s nostalgia.
Many of these live-action remakes are made well and executed amazingly, and I enjoyed watching them. I just had to forget they were remakes.
I believe that is the only problem. They are structured just like any other film in their genre. They just get hate from the fans of the franchise they are placed under.
Everyone should stop judging remakes based on the original and look at them as stand-alone series because I truly think they aren’t that bad.
