by Maren Franklin
Over the past decade the film industry has made many live action remakes of popular cartoons, shows, and other movies. Though the film industry may have been making classic remakes since the 90’s, the trend of these remake movies really seemed to become popular in 2015, with Disney’s remake of their classic movie Cinderella. Disney in particular has been pumping out the princess remakes to much popularity, however the backlash really started in 2023 with the release of the live action, The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey as Ariel. When it was released to the public that Disney had cast a black woman as the character, there were arguments and backlash all over the internet both to the company and to Halle. There were a very large number of people who did not support the casting as the character from the original 1989 version is white. Super fans of Disney complained that the remake won’t “be the same '' and that the remakes' characters should look the same as the cartoon.
I can understand wanting a cartoon you loved a lot as a kid to be remade just as it was, but the thing with live action remakes is that there is always some part of the story that changes to make it fit. Though this happened with The Little Mermaid 2023 there was not nearly as many comments on the change of the plot rather than the change of the main characters skin tone, which in this movie, doesn’t even have an effect on the plot. Even the remakes of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast had some plot changes, yet they were so loved by the public. It's obvious that The Little Mermaid only received so much backlash because of race, but within the hate there was also support for this choice, especially when the movie came out. There is only one black Disney princess, so the black community were extremely supportive and glad to get some representation in a popular classic movie. An article on Vanity Fair by Paul Chi, discusses the racist backlash and explains that the movie also had a positive effect for younger black girls. There have been numerous videos of little girls being excited to see an Ariel that looks like them which is not only heartwarming but important in their self-growth.
Something very similar happened with both of the Avatar: The Last Airbender remakes, the 2012 movie and the 2024 show. Avatar: The Last Airbender or ATLA is an American tv show with predominantly Asian characters and some that are Inuit. The issue with the 2010 movie remake was like the opposite of what happened with The Little Mermaid, in that almost the whole cast was white. Again, the backlash from the remake was due to race but this time about a lack of representation for minorities. Of course, there was a lot of hate on the plot changes and acting too, people thought the effects looked bad and the movie couldn’t capture the whole story properly.
For the 2024 Netflix remake, the directors spent a long time finding a cast that is the same race and ethnicity as the characters in the show. Yet even with the positive reactions, there was still a lot of backlash. But this time they cast characters with the same race? Yea well apparently that’s not good enough for the ATLA super fans. One article on The Daily Beast by Amanda Yen, explains that fans are complaining not about the race of the characters but now their looks. Basically, a good amount of the characters were not “hot enough”. There were a lot of videos making fun of a lot of the actors' looks and comparing them to the show. There are also many post’s about who fans would have rather seen play their favorite characters.
I’ve personally seen a lot of hate on such random things about the show and as a fan of the original cartoon myself, I admit there were some things I didn’t love that were changed. What some people can’t seem to understand though, is that live action remakes are almost never the same as the original because they can’t be. I know for ATLA 2024 they had to squish 20 episodes from season 1 into 8 longer episodes, because of this they had to change timing around for the show and some plot points which was not appreciated by fans. The 2024 ATLA is one of the most expensive shows in Netflix history, even beating Stranger Things. With a reportedly $120 million dollar budget the show's effects, costumes, and sets were amazing. Yet because the show felt so rushed, fans still hated on it.
One video I saw on TikTok that is captioned “One of my BIGGEST problems with ATLA Live Action” talks about how they believed that it was so rushed because they were trying to cater to the original fans by pushing so much “lore” into each episode which made it feel overstuffed. The issue that these people are not seeing is that in the original show, it all takes place over a little less than 1 year. With the first season being a third of that time, of course that had to put all they can of the original first season into the new one.
Another thing fans must consider about the live action show is that they are using child actors, who obviously will grow up over the years it takes for the production to film just one season. The main character of the cartoon is 12 years old throughout the whole series, well 112 technically (If you know, you know). Gordon Cormier who was cast as the main character, Aang, was only 11 when filming started and was already 14 by the time it was released. The filming for season 2, which was confirmed, will take a few years which in time Gordon will undoubtedly go through puberty in that time. So, unless they are going to find another actor just like him or use some CGI and special effects, they are going to have to extend the timeline. This has already been confirmed and of course people are mad.
So, what I’m getting from this trend of backlash is that super fans want live action remakes, but they want them to be exactly the same as the original with representations for minorities but not so much that it changes the main characters. Okay…..
But why are super fans of these shows and movies so particular and protective about their characters and the story? An article by Dave Tomaine titled “Is there Really Any Value in Live Action Remakes?” in Paste Magazine explains why fan’s may feel this way and why production companies can’t fulfill their hopes for the show/movie remakes. Tomaine states,
“At the heart of so many of these original animated properties is the gift of time. Attachment to characters develops because you live their lives with them. You see them on their off days, you see their smallest struggles, you see how those elements build into the grander story. It’s the small quiet moments that add gravity to the more explosive segments that comics and anime become known for. An issue with bringing these to a live-action setting is that there is just not enough time or budget to give these quiet moments their due.”
This explanation from Tomaine supports what I was earlier stating about the new ATLA series and why fans are getting so mad at the series even with the correct race being cast. The 20-episode first season of ATLA has much more simple substance thrown in there that allow the watcher to get to know the character’s. Shoving just the main plot points into 8 hour-long episodes is not going to give you the same feeling of familiarity with the characters which is why I believe fans are so upset. Yes, they want to see all of the important plot points but also, they want to see their favorite characters act like their favorite characters. But again, timing and budget just won’t allow this for many remakes, which is why super fans need to learn to appreciate what they get and open their minds to the reasoning why their favorite shows, books, comic, or movies may be changed a bit weather it’s the plot or simply the skin color of a character.