I won’t be going to watch the remake of The Little Mermaid, but not for the reason you might think.
The Little Mermaid is the latest in a long line of live-action remakes of Disney’s classic animated movies. And they are showing no signs of slowing down, with Lilo & Stich coming out next year and Moana on the horizon. And that only came out in… wow, 2016! I feel old. But still!
My problem is not that the movies exist. And it’s not that I personally didn’t enjoy them, because that’s fine too (someday, I hope to be proven wrong and be blown away by one of these things). My problem is… well, it’s a lot more complicated than that!
Background
Like a lot of people, I subscribed to Disney+ when it launched during Lockdown. After holding off for a while, I decided to watch the live-action remakes of The Jungle Book, Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast and Mulan. I didn’t go to see them in the cinema because I grew up with the originals, and I was convinced the remakes wouldn’t live up to them.
And I was right!
OK, to be fair, they’re actually pretty good. The fact that they’re just “pretty good” when they’re supposed to be updates of beloved classics is probably part of the problem. But there was… something else that bothered me. And recently, I realised what it was.
Times have changed
Now, I can understand why they remade some of their older movies. The new Dumbo and Cinderella are, presumably, less racist/sexist than their predecessors. Fair enough. Those films are over 60 years old, and times have changed. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not the sort of person who thinks they should be banned. I understand that they are the product of their time, and I will gladly explain this to my son when I show them to him (and I will show them to him). But most other films don’t have those kinds of problems.
On Adaptations
And if they are going to make them, I understand that change is necessary, and not just to update them for more evolved sensibilities. Most writers/directors will want to put their own spin on the story, modernise it, improve the weaker parts and generally tell the story in different ways. And that’s all fine, too. I don’t mind them making tweaks and changes. I understand that no movie is perfect, and there are better (or at least different) ways of doing things. I fully support that (and may write a separate blog about it!). That’s still not the problem…
So, what IS the Problem?
There just seems to be a certain ‘magic’ that is lost when you’re trying to tell these stories with realistic characters. The Jungle Book and The Lion King are better than they have any right to be. If they were new releases, they would be pretty great. But as someone who grew up watching the animated classics, I can’t help but compare. And they don’t compare well. The Lion King, in particular, loses most of its charm and character by having ‘realistic’ animals that can’t sing or emote properly. Aladdin was the same; by making Abu and Iago ‘realistic’, they stripped away what made their 2D counterparts so great.
It’s not just the animal sidekicks that suffer. The entire film becomes less colourful and fun as a result. And that’s without adding things that drag the tone down. Yeah, what beloved fairytale Beauty and the Beast really needed was an additional scene starring Belle’s mother and The Black Death!
Mulan didn’t have this problem. They’ve removed the animal sidekicks completely, but at least they tried to make it truer to the legend it was based on. However, it rubbed me up the wrong way because it fundamentally changed the story. In the animated film, she succeeds because she is strong, determined and hard-working. In the remake, she succeeds because ‘she has magic’. They basically turned it into a superhero story, and, as such, they lost some of what made it great.
Who are they for?
Ultimately, I’m just not sure who these remakes are for. And yes, I realise that as an adult man, I’m probably not the target audience. But what IS the target audience?
When I was a kid – the age you’re “supposed” to watch Disney films – I had no interest in live-action, even if it was a Disney movie. My son is the same. So if they aren’t for kids, who are they for? It can’t be for the nostalgic adults. We don’t like them because we’re nostalgic for the originals and they’ve changed stuff!
I can only assume they make Disney a buttload of cash, but none of them are in the top-grossing films list. And it’s a pretty damning indictment of us as an audience that we pay to see these things when other new, original movies that could become classics get ignored. It is also an indictment of the lack of creativity, imagination and willingness to take risks in Hollywood!
So, if they’re not for kids, and they’re not for the adults who grew up with the originals, who are they for? And why are they making them? It feels like they shouldn’t be making them until someone can give a satisfying answer to that question. And we, as an audience, should stop enabling them by going to see them!
Final Thoughts
So no, I won’t be going to the cinema and paying to see The Little Mermaid. Even if the reviews are better than normal, I already know that it will have the same problems as all of the others; it will be full of terrible CGI, ‘realistic’ but charmless animals, and it just won’t be as fun as the original. I will probably give it a go when it drops on Disney+, but I’m not using one of my precious nights out as a father to go see it. I don’t see the point and, frankly, I don’t want to encourage them!