#Give me less “The Third Remake of A Star is Born” and more “La La Lands”

[artist-issues]

When you remake something and make changes, you’re basically saying that you either want to say something different than what the original said because what it had to say was stupid—

—or what the original said wasn’t already said perfectly, and you could say it better.

I’ll give you an example. Donald Glover, who voiced Simba in the remake of the Lion King, openly said that the message of the new Lion King was different than the old one. And that’s easy to see. The old message was something like “Remember who you are: Don’t run from your responsibility.” The new message is “Don’t be ashamed of who you are.” They communicated that change with subtle smaller changes, because although most of that movie was a less appealing shot-for-shot remake, Simba said little things like “I’m not like you,” instead of saying, “I’m not who I used to be,” to Mufasa’s ghost. Or he replied to Scar’s bullying, “I’m nothing,” rather than the emphasis being placed on him insisting that he’s “not a murderer.”

That’s saying, “yeah the old message was great but we’re going to take the award-winning songs and characters and story and make it say something else.”

Which is like trying to use a recipe for brownies to describe your chicken salad. You might as well just make an original movie, so the characters and pacing and music all fit that message more appealingly.

Here’s a different example.

The new Live Action Little Mermaid has lots of thematic references to understanding and finding one’s own voice, which, on the surface, sound like they’re exactly what the original animated classic was saying.

But they make little changes, like having Ariel make the decision to go to the surface for the first time just before she meets Eric, or big changes, like having her be the one to kill Ursula. The problem is, both of those story elements in the first film were used to drive the main message home: “True love is understanding and sacrifice.” So when you change those elements, but claim you’re still saying the same thing, all you mean is “What you said was good, but watch me say it better.”

That would be fine, if it actually worked. But it doesn’t. The Lion King (2019) is worse than the original because it’s characters are bland and lean more toward annoying or weak than they did in the original, thanks to small changes. Now Simba doesn’t look like the irresponsible runaway who needs to remember that he’s the son of a king and has responsibility. Now he just looks like a sad boi with trauma. Now Ariel doesn’t look like a real, relatable teenager who recklessly goes for the things she’s passionate about. Now she just looks like every other near-perfect heroine who’s circumstances determine her struggles instead of her own character flaws determining her struggles.

I’m tired, but I’m appreciating the originals.