On Nov. 19, 2024, the trailer for the latest “How To Train Your Dragon” film was released. Instead of another animated sequel, this new film will be a remake of the first one, but in live action. It’s too early to judge the movie, of course. Perhaps it will provide a new, unique take on the original story. But if it doesn’t, why make it?
It comes at a time when live action remakes of animated stories are a commonality. Disney has a whole legion of them based on their most beloved films. As a matter of fact, their remakes of “Snow White” and “Lilo and Stitch” are slated to come out in the next six months. Or consider the cartoon “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which has been remade twice.
“The film industry has always been interested in remakes and sequels,” EMU cinema studies professor Deron Overpeck said. “It provides built-in audience awareness and audience interest."
It should be noted that adapting animation is unique. When adapting a different medium, the story must be changed to fit film and TV. Books must go from prose to visuals, video games lose their interactive storytelling, plays trade live immersion for realism. But these animated stories were already films and TV series, as such less translation is required. Though they often do make story changes, these changes aren’t technically necessary.
Instead, the primary change is going from imaginative imagery to realistic imagery. This was best demonstrated by the 2019 “The Lion King,” a film that was still animated, just hyperrealistic 3D animation instead of a 2D cartoon. Although technically impressive, the characters were less emotive and the cinematography more drab. For a live action example, the 2024 “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was accurate to the cartoon visually, but it came off as garish.
This is not to say these remakes never make interesting design choices. Consider Cinderella and Jasmine’s new gowns, which didn’t recreate their originals. Instead Cinderella’s was more a loose emulation of the original, while Jasmine’s was entirely new. Accurate animated designs don’t always translate well into a realistic setting, so it’s best to get creative.
“ If you choose a piece of content that's chosen itself to purposely not be realistic, and try to make that realistic, it gets that uncanny effect," EMU part-time lecturer in animation and gaming David Bautista said.
In regards to story, these changes are also often a downgrade. Both iterations of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” remake the story while making some peculiar choices. This led to an overall less complex, more rushed story. A few of Disney’s remakes such as “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” did the reverse, over-bloating their stories, bogging them down with unnecessary and distracting new additions.
Bautista used the 2020 “Mulan” as an example, citing Li Shang’s equivalent in the remake being more sympathetic to Mulan.
“ What did the character learn then?" Bautista said. "We need more characters who started wrong, and they give an example of, like, there’s a hope to be corrected, there’s hope to be redeemed," Bautista said.
Of course, not all changes are bad. For example, the 2019 “Aladdin” gave Jasmine a more sensitive, less sexualized wardrobe. Or consider the 2023 “The Little Mermaid” which casted Halle Bailey as Ariel, providing Black girls more representation.
With this said, these issues of representation could also be improved in the animated stories. Films such as “Moana,” “Encanto,” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” have provided well rounded, diverse characters in animation.
Overpeck compared Disney’s live action remakes to the Disney vault.
“Disney used to release versions of its films on VHS and DVD and Blu-ray for like a few months and then pull them off the market,” Overpeck said. “The reason why they did this was they figured that every eight years there would be a new generation of viewers … Disney has always been in this mindset of ‘put a new version of old material out every few years to encourage or to cultivate new generations of audiences.'"
This logic seems to apply to “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “How To Train Your Dragon,” which are 20 and 15 years old respectively. Though it should be noted “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (2024) was more mature than the original in regards to content, though less mature in regards to themes.
On maturity, there is a problem American animation faces: it’s viewed as only for children. Bautista explained that when animation began in the U.S., it’s most successful films were for children. He compared it to Japan, which doesn’t have the same stigma.
“Animation development was not hindered by the same stigma, hence not only has it progressed rapidly in technology and production practices, but it has been accepted as a medium to portray content ranging from children's stories to serious and political topics," Bautista said.
Of course, this stigma is ridiculous. Animation is an art form and it should be treated with more respect. There’s a vast array of great Japanese animation for all ages. In American animation, there were popular shows such as “Arcane” that told mature stories while taking full advantage of the medium. Even in children’s media, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was so well done it can be enjoyed by any age. Or consider Pixar, a studio known for its emotional depth.
Despite their problems, remakes have been incredibly popular. According to Box Office Mojo, “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Jungle Book” remakes all appear in the top 100 highest grossing films of all time. As a matter of fact, “The Lion King” remake is the tenth highest grossing film ever. For comparison, the only animated counterpart that appeared is the 1994 “Lion King” at number 57. It’s not just Disney that’s successful either. According to Deadline, Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” has been renewed for two more seasons.
"When I teach a course about genre and then when I also cover genre in my introductory cinema studies class, I point out that one of the reasons that we go to to see these genre films–why we go to see horror film, the musical, what have you, is that they give us what we want. No matter how much we say we want something new and fresh and original, we don't, or at least when we go to genre films. We want the comfort of that," Overpeck said.
According to Overpeck, we are taught this habit. “We're all trained as consumers. I was trained as a consumer. You were trained as a consumer. This kind of consumption is not natural in the sense that it's not genetic or inherent to any of us. You know, it's something that we have over time, become trained in doing," Overpeck said.
Although this consumerism has certainly led to lazy regurgitation of stories, adaptation itself is not cursed. The aforementioned “Arcane” was based on the video game “League of Legends.” Or consider the recent success of “Wicked,” a film that expanded on the musical.
On what makes a good video game adaptation, Bautista said, “ It's an honor to the spirit of the game, not a parody, not a way to make fun because it's a children's thing.”
Similar logic could be applied to any adaptation. Good adaptations don’t simply retell a story; they honor and understand it. But when live action is viewed as the more adult, more refined artform than animation, and when the stories are retellings instead of reimaginings, how far could such an adaptation go in honoring the original? What reason is there to watch the live action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or “Beauty and the Beast” when they were just worse versions of the originals? Just rewatch the originals!
It’s disrespectful to animation to take its stories and regurgitate them in a live action format. Americans should respect animation as an artform more to fight its stigma and acknowledge the craft and skill it takes.
Coming back to “How To Train Your Dragon“ and other upcoming adaptions, perhaps they will be good. But if they’re only good because their source materials were good, what will be the point beyond spitting on animation?
Frank Remski is a film and theater reviewer for The Eastern Echo. He is majoring in media studies and journalism and minoring in public relations. He has worked for The Echo since summer of 2023 and has written both news stories and opinion pieces.
