When will Live Actions give it a rest?
Written by Jeremy "Kokugatsu" Griffin
We live in a day and age where every anime and cartoon under the sun is being remade as some form of live-action, and honestly, it needs to either come to a stop or give more time to develop properly. Animation has always been a great medium source to out-do the limitations that real people can do and it allows a full free flow of imagination. Unlike other blogs I’ve written, this one will be solely opinion based, so if my opinion feels heavily biased, please leave your own feelings in the comments below to continue the discussion. Now let’s break it down further.
CHANGING THE STORY
The biggest issues with Live-Actions today is that, even with the advancements in technology and the continual growth of AI, many producers and companies fail to be able to make a 1v1 copy of the original, so they rely on changing the story-line often. Too often has this happened. At the time of writing this, the LA of Lilo and Stitch (a fantastic Disney cartoon that spanned 4 movies, a long-running TV series and 2 other animation adaptations) is now under fire because critics have claimed they removed the main villain of the movie/series and turned an important character who helps save the day at the very end of the first movies and is a renowned respected character, into the new villain. Who makes a change like that and expects it to be okay? Disney is the renowned expert of presenting a movie/show as 1 thing, then pulling our legs and presenting a plot-twist that leaves fans extremely upset. Marvel was in it’s prime during the Infinity Saga, and those story changes, people were perfectly fine with the story changes because we accepted it being an alternative universe and the story flowed, but Lilo and Stitch is not an alternate universe kind of series. This makes me nervous because we started to praise the trailers/teasers for the realistic look and the 1v1 comparison in lines and delivery. We even accepted the fact that Jumba and Pleakley would be in human form most of the movie to save on the animation budget, but if this change is real, this is a huge slap in the face of the fans of the series.
SOME ACTORS ARE NOT FIT FOR THE ROLE
Looking like the character is not everything. We live in a world where costumes, make-up and CGI has heavily surpassed the stage to make it too difficult to make believable look-a-likes. But there are many cases where we do not even need a character to look exactly like the person in the animation. The main goal is if the person can truly tap into the feel of the character. Let’s be honest, we all love Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, but major fans of the animated shows and comics all know that he is not an exact look-a-like. He is entirely too tall and, dare say I, nowhere near hairy enough. Even Deadpool vs Wolverine picked on this several times in the movie. They even make Jackman shave his body for one of the climax scenes and the comic accurate Wolverine doesn’t shave. Another prime example is Henry Cavill, who is very short to play Superman and Geralt of Rivia. He has to walk on near stilts to make these roles work for him. All this being said, they are fantastic actors and pull the character in fantastic ways, but a lot of these new LA’s pull actors that just cannot get into the role. Other prime examples being Nat Wolff not being a good Light Yagami (mostly terrible writing to blame, but we did not like his portrayal what-so-ever), but LaKeith Stanfield, who looks absolutely nothing like “L,” played the role fantastically in the LA Death Note that we refuse to acknowledge…..Netflix…..
DO YOU EVEN TRY TO LISTEN TO THE FANS
When it comes down to it, fans are the biggest money makes and nostalgia is the best exploitation tactic that producers have to make money. The roaring 80s, 90s and early 00s was a major staple in animation and video games. Most games and shows now are near carbon copies or various versions that borrow from older content. Almost nothing is “brand new” now-a-days as many ideas have already come before, but just done in a slightly different or more “unique” way. But when you hit nostalgia, it has to hit the fans to keep them coming back. I mentioned earlier about the Marvel franchise, but I would even come closer talking about the Transformer franchise which has gained, then lost, then regained fans all over again throughout the movie hype. Now we praise the Sonic Franchise for actually listening to the fans and changing that horrible sonic character design. Even though the story doesn’t follow any video game or Archie comic story line, the franchise did fantastic in picking Jim Carey who embodies Robotnik well, though not looking exactly like the Egg-Head, and choosing voice actors who truly embody the characters: Keanu Reeves - Shadow, Ben Schwartz - Sonic, Idris Elba - Knuckles and Colleen O’Shaughnessey - Tails. The story line is easy to follow with easter-eggs and cameos that make fans excited for the next movie.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO A LIVE-ACTION, BUT IF YOU CANNOT LEAVE IT ALONE
Sonic is one LA that is successfully doing it, and there are others as well, like the LA of the Fallout video game franchise is doing well by having a new story line that takes place before the actual game. The Live action of the Rurouni Kenshin anime did surprisingly well, even though they took away the anime special effects and made it a straight midieval Japanese-style story. Many however, are absolute failures with Halo making fans extremely pissed and many people still trying to defend the Netflix LA The Last Airbender. Changing the story and characters DOES NOT WORK! It needs to stop so we can get back to enjoying shows are the original writers intended. We have so many remakes and redos of things, we need fresh now ideas flowing. But if you want to do a Live Action, be a fan of the franchise. I have no hope for this new God of War franchise when you have the main writer “not able to play the games because he is isn’t a gamer and couldn’t get into the story.” Then he should not be writing any story for the game. This project is not for you.
As I said earlier, these are merely my own thoughts and opinions, what do you guys have to say on this?
