The difference is that those were sequels, whereas this is a remake. Would you want The Lord of the Rings remade? It’s been about the same amount of time. Maybe that’s a bad example though because they’re trying to milk that franchise too and fans are pretty meh on it.
Honestly I don’t want anything remade. It was made, and it was good enough. Time to move on. It reminds me of an interview with Danny Elfman, some young guy was trying to be flattering by asking “do you plan on releasing a remaster of that album?” In his head he was asking “are you gonna cash in on your lasting popularity?” But instead the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees in an instant and Elfman responded, “what wrong with the master?” Wish I could remember what interview that was.
Fan or not, you can see his point, though. Any remake immediately puts the original on trial, and must be able to make the case for itself. We don’t need generational remakes of every mythos with any cultural efficacy, any more than a good album needs a remaster.
I generally agree with you, with one caveat. When a visual version of a book does not treat its source material with respect, and it’s a source material I love, then I’m okay with trying again. Some could make the case for HP falling into this category, I guess. But I’m thinking more along the lines of Disney’s Black Cauldron, an unholy mashup of the first two books of a series I adore, that not only disrespected its source material but straight up changed basically all of it. I would love to see a faithful adaptation some day but I suspect I never will, so I’ll keep rereading it every ten years or so instead.
Remaking things that were originally visual media, though? Or remaking anything in the same format it appeared in originally? I tend to agree with you. Extend the story instead if you must; skip the rehash. And we’ve seen the trap that these mega-franchises get into when they can’t escape what they see as the gravitational pull of the original.
I’ve been meaning to read that series. I was always drawn to that movie, I loved how dark and compelling that world was but even as a kid I felt the story itself had issues. I didn’t even find out it was based on a book until a couple years ago.
The difference is that those were sequels, whereas this is a remake. Would you want The Lord of the Rings remade? It’s been about the same amount of time. Maybe that’s a bad example though because they’re trying to milk that franchise too and fans are pretty meh on it.
Good point.
Honestly I don’t want anything remade. It was made, and it was good enough. Time to move on. It reminds me of an interview with Danny Elfman, some young guy was trying to be flattering by asking “do you plan on releasing a remaster of that album?” In his head he was asking “are you gonna cash in on your lasting popularity?” But instead the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees in an instant and Elfman responded, “what wrong with the master?” Wish I could remember what interview that was.
Fan or not, you can see his point, though. Any remake immediately puts the original on trial, and must be able to make the case for itself. We don’t need generational remakes of every mythos with any cultural efficacy, any more than a good album needs a remaster.
I generally agree with you, with one caveat. When a visual version of a book does not treat its source material with respect, and it’s a source material I love, then I’m okay with trying again. Some could make the case for HP falling into this category, I guess. But I’m thinking more along the lines of Disney’s Black Cauldron, an unholy mashup of the first two books of a series I adore, that not only disrespected its source material but straight up changed basically all of it. I would love to see a faithful adaptation some day but I suspect I never will, so I’ll keep rereading it every ten years or so instead.
Remaking things that were originally visual media, though? Or remaking anything in the same format it appeared in originally? I tend to agree with you. Extend the story instead if you must; skip the rehash. And we’ve seen the trap that these mega-franchises get into when they can’t escape what they see as the gravitational pull of the original.
I’ve been meaning to read that series. I was always drawn to that movie, I loved how dark and compelling that world was but even as a kid I felt the story itself had issues. I didn’t even find out it was based on a book until a couple years ago.