By Ada Kessler

Recently, it seems that every month a new live action movie is announced or playing in theaters. From How to Train Your Dragon to Moana to Lilo & Stitch, it seems that the live action remake obsession is unending.

Live action remakes are not necessarily a bad thing. They can revitalize an old classic & adaptation of books or musicals to alert more people to their presence. However, most current live action remakes don’t fall into these categories.

There have been an increasing number of live action remakes of movies that already exist. For example, all of the movies previously mentioned were originally animated movies from the 2000s-2010s. These movies are not the exception, but they are the norm for live action movies today, and it is senseless.

Recreating animated movies under 20 years old into live action movies is frivolous. These movies are nowhere near old enough to elicit a remake— and even if they were, these live action movies do not enhance the movies. They simply take an already existing movie and transfer it into a different, often less exciting form.

There are many effects, characters, and scenes from animated movies that only work because of the animation. Live action remakes fail to capture the magic of these aspects and often end up using CGI or other animation to recreate it. Not only is this redundant, but it disregards the hard work of the original animators and it quite often looks bad.

There are numerous more reasons why live action remakes don’t work, but one lies at the heart of the problem. Live action remakes are greedy. So often, they don’t care about the original movie or having a good, relevant story to tell. They are made to make money and that’s all. 

Audiences will get sick of these countless remakes of animated movies if they aren’t already; people want something fresh. That is what studios should be focusing on, new movies with an interesting plot and unique characteristics, not these half baked live action remakes that are only made for a quick buck.