Have you seen the remake of The Little Mermaid to know whether it abandons the nostalgia? As a huge fan of the 1989 film, I found the new version a very satisfying tribute to it, right down to the Jodi Benson cameo. Could you cite specific ways in which this particular remake is any less nostalgic than its forerunners?
I’ve been struggling to find the right words to answer this, I haven’t seen the Little Mermaid yet, waiting for D+, but that’s largely a result of the previous remakes.
The first several remakes either retold the original story more or less faithful to the original (Cinderella, Jungle Book, B&TB) or they completely changed the story and looked at it from a new perspective (Cruella, Maleficent), the last few remakes (Pinocchio, Mulan, Peter Pan and Wendy) have taken the story we know and retold it as the same story but also making major changes, it’s not enough to be an interesting new story but it’s enough it doesn’t feel like the original story either, they’re kind of Frankenstein stories that are half original story and half new story, as a result they kind of feel nostalgic but they also don’t feel nostalgic.
Mulan is probably the best example, in the original she is a normal daughter who does a selfless act to save her father, we watch her grow and learn how to be a warrior, in the end she earns the respect of the soldiers around her through perseverance, in the remake she was never weak and never needed to overcome barriers, she was essentially a superhuman from childhood and she dominated at everything she did, the story lost its heart because her overcoming the odds and becoming a great warrior was the essence of the story, at least that’s always been my take on the story. It felt similar but it didn’t feel nostalgic, it felt like they ruined it.
I didn’t even make it to the end of Peter Pan and Wendy because it was similar but at the same time it didn’t even feel like the same story and I couldn’t sit through it. Ironically Hook is one of my all time favorite movies, which highlights how telling a new story based on a known story can be incredibly successful. I suffered through and finished Pinocchio but was left disappointed at the end and feeling like I’d wasted my time.
Disney is fighting an uphill battle because they’ve conditioned me to expect their new remakes to be Frankensteins that don’t feel enough like the originals to be truly nostalgic but also don’t feel unique enough to feel truly new either. Until they can change that perception there’s no need for me to give them my hard earned money at the theater rather than waiting for D+.
