Welcome to the Another Reboot

I recently finished watching the first four seasons of the original Sailor Moon anime. The one from the 90s that was recently re-dubbed with an excellent voice cast (don’t hate me for liking dubs, it depends on how well they’re done whether or not I’ll watch them). So, while I wait for the fifth and final season of the of the original show to be dubbed, I decided to check out the reboot version: “Sailor Moon Crystal”.

The first episode is a nearly prefect replica of the original series’s first episode, right down to the dialogue. Updates have of course been made. The animation is a lot cleaner and smoother, the 90s soundtrack and opening theme has been done away with, and the story moves a lot faster than the previous series. I think they even use the same voice cast that they for the re-dubbing.

All in all, a solid first episode.

However, if I had one complaint, as petty as it might be, it’s that the style is too pretty. Usagi is supposed to be fourteen in the series. She definitely doesn’t look fourteen. She looks like a mid-twenty something with way too much eye makeup. It’s a little distracting to be honest.

Original on the left. Reboot on the right.

Actually all the characters, even the boys, have been given a serious glow-up from the 90s version. I know animation and drawing styles change, but holy crap is it weird to go from seeing characters looking childish and with a little puppy fat (the original had their faces a more circular shape) to the sharp, doe-eyes that’s the new series’s style. It almost falls into the uncanny valley.

It’ll take some getting used to that’s for certain.

But that’s how these things go. Remakes, sequels, and reboots all require changes to draw in a new audience. Though I’ll definitely miss the 90s pop soundtrack of the original, the new soundtrack isn’t bad. At least the voice acting is still on point.

It’s not like Sailor Moon is the first show from my childhood to get a reboot or remake. There are tons of versions of Scooby Doo with a lot of different art styles (some better than others) and Bugs Bunny has gone from shorts, to full 30 minute TV shows, to a super hero reboot, to getting the baby treatment that the early 90s loved (remember “A Pup Named Scooby Doo” or the seriously awesome “Muppet Babies”?).

Once a show, story, or character has reached a level of iconic that even people who’ve never seen the original concept can recognize it, I should just expect to see a reboot or remake. Personally I prefer the reboot to the remake.

I know I’ve written about this before in my blog posts about “Child’s Play”, “Suspiria”, and “The Haunting of Hill House” (see here and here). But when a show or movie gets redone, I sometimes feel like sharing my thoughts on the changes. And if my only complaint is the different art style, then the new series likely improved everywhere else on the original.

I actually like the updates made to the Sailor Moon story that I’ve seen so far. It’s more streamlined and cuts down a lot of the filler from the originals. We get to meet all the main characters at lot faster. Plus they updated the ages of a few of the characters so their relationships aren’t quite as..cringe.

None of this nonsense.

I just can’t get over how unnatural the characters look. I mean this isn’t the first anime to have characters look different or jarring from how I expect. “XXX-Holic” has an art style which gives all the characters oddly proportioned limbs (manga does this too) and “Black Butler” characters really like wearing extremely patterned clothing.

I’ll either get used to the changes or I’ll stop watching the show. But if I want to share Sailor Moon with the next generation, then updates and reboots need to be done to keep the character and story in the pop culture consciousness. That’s why a lot of kids know The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Optimus Prime. And their character designs have changed a lot since their original airings in the 80s.

Plus it's cool to hear lines like "we'll live like Jack and Sally" or "Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon/Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes" in the songs I listen to. Okay maybe the Barenaked Ladies didn't need to go that far in "One Week".

Do you have a show or movie that had a reboot or remake that you’ve loved or hated. Maybe there was one you saw and were fairly indifferent to. Just because a new piece of the cannon has been created, doesn’t erase the other incarnation(s). I mean I still re-watch the old Star Trek episodes and movies on occasion.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Remake

I somehow got talked into seeing the new Child's Play today with a couple of my friends. Was it good? Yes. Was it scary? Not really. Did I scream like a small child because I can't handle gore and jump scares? Of course.

If my friends are to be believed I helped to enhance the movie going experience.

Also I don't mean that this movie isn't scary in that it won't make you jump in your seat. I mean that it's not scary because it's just not still creeping me out after seeing the movie. That's how I judge whether or not a movie is scary, if I'm still freaking out about it after the credits roll.

It's honestly been a while since I was left feeling like my skin was crawling after a horror movie or TV show. Much as I like The Haunting of Hill House, Jaws, or The VVICH, I don't often find them all that scary.

I do think they are all really good movies and TV shows. Just like I think Child's Play (the original and this remake) are good movies, just not very scary ones.

In fact, and this might be an unpopular opinion, I think this new version of Child's Play is slightly better than the original.

I'm not sure if it's the updates that were made to the story, the changes that were made, or if I just need to go back and review the original again to compare the dialogue, but the remake was a lot more engaging for me. Also Mark Hamill is amazing. Like I could tell it was him, but it wasn't his Joker or his Luke Skywalker voice. Spot on casting right there. (And he liked my tweet!)

Reasons I liked the movie aside (because I swear this isn't a review), it's very rare for me to enjoy a remade movie. It's an extremely fine art that Child's Play did well and most other remakes do not.

Much as I love Disney and enjoyed the remake of Beauty and the Beast, I still felt the original animated 1991 version was better. I even went how right after seeing it in theaters and rewatched the original. Carrie? 1976 film all the way. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory versus Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka wins hands down. There's just something a little more heart warming to that movie.

And the less said about the Psycho remake the better.

That isn't to say that remakes can't work. I freaking loved It: Chapter 1. Again, did I find it scary...no. It was entertaining as all get out though (especially that random dancing scene, I was hysterically laughing). I also like the 1953 version of House of  Wax, which is in fact a remake of an earlier version from 1933 and was also remade (terribly) in 2005.

I  even occasionally like gender-bent remakes (where they switch a main character or characters' gender) such as His Girl Friday which is a remake and adaptation of The Front Page. These types of remakes are even rarer to work and designate with audiences or just be good in general.

Also a remake is different from a reboot. Batman  and Superman are rebooted fairly often, each with varying degrees of success. I like both the Dark Knight and the 1989 Batman, however there is very little connecting the two. Reboots are giving a franchise a face lift without actually being the original. A remake is just trying to be the original.

(I know that reboots and remakes are very similar in concept, but I think of them as two different types of movies.)

So why do so few remakes work?

Honestly - it's because most of the time the studios are hoping you'll see the movie on name recognition alone. They hardly ever try to do anything new or refreshing in the story. Often times, the remake is just the old movie with modern tropes thrown in for fun.

A good remake pays homage to the original and makes itself something new.

The original Suspiria is a technicolor trip. It's entertaining and at times scary (though not much), but the story isn't really there. The new Suspiria that came out last autumn is also a trip, but it's much more focused on the story (maybe a little too much) and political climate of 1970s Berlin. One is a fairy tail and one is a beautiful, yet twisted period piece. I like both movies for very different reasons and because they are so different, I couldn't even begin to tell you which is better.

For the record there are movies I am not opposed being remade. There are some stories I feel can be expanded upon in visual media (*cough* Harry Potter *cough*). I do have a select few movies that are so very much part of the time that they came out, I would hate it if they were remade (rebooting is not impossible - Star Trek was fine, but definitely not remade). Movies like:

• Indiana Jones (all three originals)
• The Crow
• Star Wars
• Labyrinth - with the possible exception of Tom Hiddleston as Jareth 
• Back to the Future
• Lord of the Rings 
• Princess Mononoke
• Akira (no live action remakes Hollywood please)
• Jaws
• Metropolis 

This isn't a comprehensive list, just the movies I can think of off the top of my head. The reasons I don't want them remade have more to do with how well I think the story works. There isn't as much I want to see explored anymore from the above listed. Now, inspired by movies and spin-offs are okay...if done well (only the first Hobbit movie was to my liking), but those stories are done. If I want a new Indiana Jones, I want a new character, not a new actor playing a beloved character.

And some animated movies really don't need live action remakes. Occasionally they work. I was very happy with Detective Pikachu (that's not a remake, but it was a medium transfer from animated to live). I was not impressed with Death Note and I'm still pretending Ghost in the Shell never happened. Beauty and the Beast wasn't bad, but the new things didn't work and the ones they tried to "fix" didn't really need fixing to begin with.

Okay maybe that whole cursing an 11 year old kid nonsense needed to be explained, but that's neither here nor there.

Do you guys have any movies you would never want to see remade? Let me know.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Iconic Part 2: The Cartoon Icons of my Childhood

When I asked on Twitter what people found to be "iconic", the one response I got was about classic cartoons. I then did a Google search for "iconic cartoons" and every image that popped up I recognized. From Homer Simpson and SpongeBob SquarePants to Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Scooby Doo, there was a wide variety of cartoon characters that seemed to fit Google's definition of iconic.

My childhood afternoons in a nut shell...

But I guess that's what it means for something to be "iconic". It's an image that represents something and I can easily picture an image of Scooby or Bugs representing some of my favorite cartoons as a kid. In fact, I bet if you showed any child in the United States a picture of Scooby, Mickey, or Bugs, they'd be able to identify them. These characters seem timeless and appeal to a wide variety of people.

Heck, every few years there seems to be a new incarnation of these iconic characters. I think I've seen at least 6 different versions of Scooby Doo (including A Pup Named Scooby Doo and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo) and Disney has been making new shorts with Mickey for a few years now.

Which leads me to a new question. How do we know when a character from our childhood becomes iconic?

Is it when we start seeing reboots being made (such as the new Ducktales or Powerpuff Girls)? Is it when they jump from the small screen and get their own movie made (like the three Rugrats or Transformer movies)? Is it just because they still have a huge fan base that won't go away even after nearly a decade being off the air (the original Teen Titans show - I don't know what this "Go!" nonsense is). Or is it when the children who grew up with these characters have become adults with children themselves and want to share their happy memories with their kids?

It's probably a combination of all these things. I know I wouldn't have any idea who Rocky and Bullwinkle are if my mom hadn't loved the show so much. I wouldn't have found a love of mysteries without my dad introducing me to Scooby Doo.

We're starting to see a resurgence of cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s being remade or having a reboot. A lot of people my age are really excited to see these characters come back and some of the new shows are really good, maybe even better than the original (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is so much better than the 80s version and it doesn't feel like they are just trying to sell toys). Though not all of the reboots have been successful, it's still so much fun to see fans react to hearing that their favorite shows might get a modern update.

I wonder what cartoons will be considered iconic in the future. Will we see a Phineas and Ferb or Gravity Falls reboot in 20 years? Will we ever get a live action Steven Universe movie?

Iconic cartoons often fill us with nostalgia. They bring back fond memories of happy, carefree times. And we want to share those happy feelings with those we are closest to.

What are some of your iconic childhood cartoon characters? Let me know in the comments or on my Facebook.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.