Regular readers will know that I have a thing about cover
bands, remakes and reimagineering. Is it better to have an original idea that
nobody else cares about or is it perfectly acceptable to take a well
established brand / song / work of art and put your own personal mark on it?
I'm still not sure how I feel about the entire subject - though I'm leaning
towards looking at each case on its individual merits - but I'd like to look at
a new variant on that theme.
When I was a kid there was very little that I liked more
than spaghetti hoops on toast, playing with my Hot Wheels cars and reading
Spider-Man comics. But one thing that always went straight to the top of my
excitement list was the release of a new animated Disney film. Or, in our case,
a relatively old animated Disney film as at the time English cinemas didn't
show them until at least six months after their American release. The vibrant
colours, the simple storylines of good conquering evil, the funny characters -
what kid could ask for more?
Those films (some of which were decades old rereleases even
when I saw them for the first time) still work their magic on today's children
but are most likely viewed at home on television systems not much smaller than
the silver screens on which the kids' grandparents originally watched them. They're
still fun but they are definitely films of a different era, made for a
different generation. The movies themselves haven't changed but the people
watching them have. I'm not getting into the pros and cons of whether this is a
good thing or not but it's undoubted that the average pre-teen today is most
definitely more self-aware, sarcastic, confident and worldly wise than their equivalents
from a few generations ago. Some of the more innocent portions of those fairy
tale movies don't necessarily meet with the same response now as they did in
those halcyon days of old.
That's why, unlike some, I'm not in the least troubled by
the reimagineered, darker and post-modern take of 'Alice in Wonderland' or the
'Sleeping Beauty' update, 'Maleficent'. The slapstick buffoonery of Glenn
Close's 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' was fun, and was intended to be just
that. These works stand on their own, for the viewer to take or leave, and
shouldn't leave any black mark against the memory of the wonderful animated classics. Some have been dismayed by
Disney 'changing' their original favourites by releasing these as if in some way Angelina
Jolie's Maleficent demeans Marc Davis's stunning artwork of the original dark
fairy. Of course it doesn't, any more than Dolly Parton or Pat Boone's covers
of 'Stairway to Heaven' in any way detract from the Led Zeppelin classic.
I wish Disney good luck with their upcoming live action
remakes of 'Cinderella', 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Jungle Book' (again).
There will be a market for them. I might even like them myself. Or I might not.
As with everything in life (as long as
it's legal), if you don't like it then you don't have to partake.
And if you're still unconvinced then you can always rewatch
the old videos / blu-rays / DVDs / home movies any time you wish. I certainly do,
quite regularly. A dream can still be a wish your heart makes - if you want it
to be.
© Shaun Finnie 2014
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