The Moment I Realized Most Movie Remakes Just Don’t Get It

Okay, I just had this realization the other day while trying to watch the new live-action version of a classic animated film. You know the one. And it hit me: the problem isn’t that the CGI is bad, it’s that these remakes often completely miss the soul of the original. They’re so focused on the visuals and the spectacle that they forget what made us connect with the story in the first place.

Let me give you a specific example. I re-watched the original 1994 version of *The Lion King* and then the 2019 “live-action” one back-to-back. In the original, the “Circle of Life” sequence is pure emotion. The colors are vibrant, the characters are expressive, and the music swells in a way that gives you chills. It’s artistic. Now look at the new one. Technically, it’s a marvel. The animals look incredibly real. But that’s the problem! A realistic hyena doesn’t convey the same menace and personality that the stylized, cartoon hyenas did. The photorealism sucked the emotion right out of the characters’ faces. It felt like watching a nature documentary with a soundtrack, and I was completely disconnected.

It makes you wonder, what is the actual goal here? Is it to introduce a story to a new generation, or is it just a safe financial bet for the studio? I feel like it’s mostly the latter. They’re banking on our nostalgia to get us into theaters, but then they deliver something that’s visually impressive yet emotionally hollow. It’s like they’re giving us a perfectly crafted, museum-quality replica of the *Mona Lisa* but using printer ink. It looks right, but it just doesn’t feel right.

And it’s not just Disney. Think about the recent trend of taking beloved sitcoms and making gritty, dramatic reboots. Why does everything need to be dark and “realistic”? Some stories work because of their lightness and their humor. By trying to ground everything in a bleak reality, they strip away the very thing that made the property special. Remember the charm of *Friends*? Could you imagine a reboot today that tried to tackle “serious issues” with Monica and Chandler? It just wouldn’t be the same.

So here’s my question to you all: can you think of a single remake or reboot that actually improved on the original, or at least did something interesting and different with it? For me, the 2018 *A Star Is Born* with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is a rare example. It took the core story and made it feel fresh and raw and of its time, without losing the emotional heart. But those seem so few and far between. Am I just being a grumpy purist, or are we really in an era of creatively bankrupt retreads? What’s a remake that you think genuinely failed to understand the assignment?