• spez [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    For a live action remake of a cartoon, no less. Why would anybody watch this or the aladdin or lion king remake? The cartoons were so good. It seems like they are meant to appeal to millennial nostalgia, but I fucking hate having my nostalgia used against me like that

    Don't get me wrong, I'm all about seeing Chinese actors in Chinese roles, and I think the kid from aladdin was actually from Agarabah, but maybe we could do some new stories set in those places instead of rehashing the same old movies again and again?

    • CoralMarks [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I think Mulan definitely could work better as live action, compared to Lion King, that was very weird.

      My favorite Disney OG cartoon is still Robin Hood I have to say, I love it so much. Just one of the best movies ever IMO.
      Edit: Also ideologically the best one, take from the rich give to the poor. I don't think they'll remake this one for some time.

      • spez [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Great movie. Plus I'm convinced that reusing the animation from the jungle book is praxis somehow.

        Actually, the most messed up part of that movie is when you realize that Sir Hiss has fur all over his body https://images.app.goo.gl/YNATbAFgNqWqTGWa7

        I Just hate how cynical it all is. I mean, they're not remaking these movies because they think they can tell the story better or with a new twist. They are remaking them because people with kids will gladly pay $30 to share some of their childhood memories with their own children.

        Has human creativity really stifled so much under the thumb of capitalism that the only acceptable kind of movies to make anymore are either sequels to star wars and marvel or Disney remakes?

        • CoralMarks [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Yeah jungle book is great as well, I think in general the old OG cartoons are pretty based(not you Aladdin)

          Oh god I will never unsee this, typical spez ruining things tss tss tss

          Edit:

          I Just hate how cynical it all is. I mean, they’re not remaking these movies because they think they can tell the story better or with a new twist. They are remaking them because people with kids will gladly pay $30 to share some of their childhood memories with their own children.

          Yeah its just a moneygrab, they already own the story, they just need to slightly adjust it and rendering gets cheaper by the day. So yeah, fuck Disney.

    • AngusMcAnus [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      It's don't believe that it's (just) nostalgia, I think it's something far more insidious, and I doubt that Disney is doing it consciously: Neoliberalism (or postmodernism or whatever) has robbed us of our cultural capacity to create the New. Like Fredric Jameson prophecized back in the 80s, late capitalisms culture is characterized by repetition and pastiche, with old forms and old content being recycled, the only new stuff we get is technology. Mark Fisher argued that the movie Children of Men is also about a society like ours, where the catastrophe that made almost everyone infertile is a metaphor for the inevitable end point of our own slow decline of collective imaginative and creative ability. That's why all those Marvel films suck so much ass - they're obviously competently made, the actors are good, the music is alright etc. - but at the bottom, they're really only rehashes of stories that came out as comics like fifty years ago, only the technology is now better so we get cgi animated Hulk instead of some dumbass in a green onesie jumping around a set made out of cardboard or something.

      • spectre [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        They need to keep reusing content so that they can push out the copyright expiry date (won't expire if they're actively using it), same reason mickey mouse has been used everywhere. A little more boring than what you said, but it's not inaccurate cause it's the same result either way. If I was a lib I'd definitely fight to curtail copyright for that reason.

    • Ericthescruffy [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I would generally agree....but this is the first of those remakes since the Jungle Book i'm kind of interested just because it seems vastly different from the original More of a Wushu/war epic then the typical disney paradigm. They even (wisely) cut out the comic relief eddie murphy sidekick who was nothing but a cynical attempt to recreate the magic of the Genie and Robin williams anyway.

      Also...while I have mixed feelings on China, them casting a pro communist party actress triggered a ton of people and that owns...so yeah...I'm kinda interested in watching it.