Please reboot bad stories

[TristanJensen]

I feel like this needs to be said. Good stories do not need reboots if the original was good and keeps its value over time. It can be done and done either good or badly but is not necessary... In my totally biased opinion, you do you Internet.
That being said I strongly feel we need to push forward on not remaking good movies and stories, but fixing the ones that were good in theory but bad in practice. Those are the ones that have the most to offer since once you get rid of what people hated and clean it up it should have the potential to being something great and captivate an audience in a way a reboot of superman or batman (or a fight between them) just can't do. A bad story reboot can really only go up in quality if it really really sucks.
I mean take Disney for example, have you READ any of Hans Christan Andersons work? Some of that stuff was messed up, like in the little Mirmaid her loosing her voice forever and dying a painful death (note: I'm not saying these are "bad" stories, just not very kid friendly).
They simply took out the parts people didn't like and added stuff they did and turned a frankly horrifying story into something that still holds up today (I mean, no reboots so far, right?)

What do you think about this? IDK, just popped into my head now

[zelkats]

There's actually a 1975 Japanese anime film of The Little Mermaid and it follows closely to the original story, with the tragic ending and all XD

I think Disney wanted something to capture people's attention by using titles of famous classics, but changed them to make them family-friendly at that time so that they will sell well (happy endings were big hits).

I no longer care about people changing and tweaking original stories, legends and mythology because it's been happening so often. (I see so many versions of Hades and Persepone's story, and I'm like, getting a bit tired of it tbh LOL).

[keii4ii]

Are we talking about the author rebooting their own work, or someone taking someone else's story (like Disney did with Little Mermaid) and giving it a new spin? I assume you're talking about both, but there is a very important distinction to be made.

(I actually prefer the original mermaid story to Disney's version, but hey XD)

[mariusthered]

if you take away all bad writing and bad movies how are people going to be shown bad examples?

without light and shadow are major parts of art, not just in the drawing of it.

[TristanJensen]

I never said take away the bad stuff all together. Just trying to fix it. You can easily use the original and reboot as a comparison to help others (like say a movie had a lead character everyone hated because they had no like able qualities, you could fix that and then show how it improves the story or something along those lines)

[TristanJensen]

Mainly the second one. I only used the example of Disney and the little mirmaid since it cut out the part of getting rights to a movie to remake it in the first place (even if the answer may be kind of obvious ($$$))
And I couldn't think of anything else for an example off the top of my head

[mariusthered]

yes you could. but sometimes watching and reading bad stuff has it's own enjoyment . for example the other day i took the time to watch the original version of "the day the earth stood still." it's in black n white and some of the acting is horrid, but it's a classic and by watching it and seeing what was kept in the newer version I was able to see improvements on how they had changed the story to reflect the political situation to both time periods.

and besides i will tell you that going over back stuff you have done to just fix stuff is a very boring job.

[demthorshie]

I see what you're trying to say. And pertaining to the Hans Christian Anderson version of The Little Mermaid, I actually saw that one first before the Disney version came out and even still prefer it over the Disney remake to this day. I get wat you're saying when you don't want reboots for things that are already good, I pretty much agree. I actually enjoy watching some really terrible films and can't imagine them being remade. I call these 'the good-bad films". I don't mind a remake of all "the bad-bad films" that are worth a damn getting remade though. xD

[keii4ii]

I don't know if the word "reboot" applies to people taking really old public domain stories and giving them their own spin? Remake might be a better word here, with it being broader in meaning. Maybe it's just me. But when I hear reboot in any comic-related context, the first thing I think of is the bazillion superhero reboots (pertaining to meaning #1); the second thing is webcomic authors rebooting their own work due to the lack of confidence (also meaning #1).

Back to meaning #2 though, sometimes a good story can be remade just fine. I really enjoyed BBC's Sherlock, for example.

[AnnaLandin]

Remake might be a better word here, with it being broader in meaning.

Reinterpretation, maybe?

I am all for using old fairytales and public domain stories and reinterpreting them - the various reinterpretations of Sherlock Holmes is an excellent example; BBC's Sherlock and Elementary both share an inspirational origin, but are very, very different takes on the source material - and both are valid takes.

That said, the swell of remakes in Hollywood is getting a bit old. Perhaps it's time to, I don't know, let go of the 80s? Because while some of these remakes/reboots are fun, and result in old tired concepts being given a new and entertaining spin, a LOT of it does not, and you can hear the "money money money money" chant underneath the soundtrack as you watch.

I personally don't feel like bad stories need to be rebooted so much as learned from. Look at them, pay attention to where they went wrong, learn from that, and go forward making better stories.

[TristanJensen]

I personally don't feel like bad stories need to be rebooted so much as learned from. Look at them, pay attention to where they went wrong, learn from that, and go forward making better stories.

Yeah, that makes way more sense than what I was thinking
(I should probably start writing these forum topics when I'm fully awake and not 3 am. like i did here XD)

[hushicho]

It's a sound point, but "good" and "bad" are fairly relative terms; I don't care for some stories -- and feel they're overrated and generally poor -- yet they're stories that plenty of people have embraced and completely gloss over the problems I see in them.

I personally think that it is usually far better for people to try and have their own ideas than to "reboot" or "reimagine" an already extant story. You can even work off an existing idea that you like, but take it in a different direction. There are just too many of these "reboots" in media these days, and it usually just ends up looking like "we had no ideas" instead of "we had an exciting idea of how to bring something new to this concept".

[VermillionWorks]

They simply took out the parts people didn't like and added stuff they did and turned a frankly horrifying story into something that still holds up today (I mean, no reboots so far, right?)

I heard they're probably going to reboot it later (or possibly do another villain POV movie like Maleficent with that), just like Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book. It's just Disney's favorite thing to do now.

I don't really know how the Disney reboots are...different takes on old Anderson/Grimm/whatever fairy tales is one thing (I actually love Snow White: A Tale of Terror and Ever After), but I just have no desire to see another take from Disney in live action form. I was satisfied the first time and don't need them to do it again. I see no real 'nostalgia factor' to that for some reason, it just feels pointless to me. (Just my opinion though!)

(I actually prefer the original mermaid story to Disney's version, but hey XD)

I actually wouldn't mind a movie version of that....from someone other than Disney. Disney's Little Mermaid is fine and one of my favorites from them, but the real fairy tale has a bit more of a proper message behind it, darker or not.

I'm also tired of remake movies in general, especially for stuff that was already great to begin with and didn't really need it, but I don't see it stopping anytime soon, people always go to see them.

[indagold]

you do realize that if you reboot something terrible most people kinda associate it with being terrible to begin with and most likely would not care about it being any better if it's an original piece of work. If it's a remake that was bad and is rebooted people would probably care more.

[dglisson]

So are you saying something like what they did with Battlestar Galactica, where they took a promising but ultimately shallow sci-fi show from the 70s and rebooted it into an awesome deep character show? Or even like with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Joss Whedon took his old screenplay that had been rewritten into oblivion and made into a stupid movie, and rebooted it into an awesome TV show that was closer to his original idea?

[zelkats]

I'm also tired of remake movies in general, especially for stuff that was already great to begin with and didn't really need it, but I don't see it stopping anytime soon, people always go to see them.

Mmm, yeah.. While I'm stoked about the upcoming Beauty and The Beast live action because it's a remake of my favourite Disney movie, I can't help but roll my eyes a little and see that Disney is taking advantage of our nostalgia for the munnies, again. I half expect them to remake everything again when the future is here and holograms become the new cinema, lol.

[TristanJensen]

Basically, yeah.

filler

[sorrelma]

i would really love to see reboost/reinterpretations/deconstructions of some of the horrible macho action movies from the 80s and 90s. some of those films are so badly written but i think there's really a lot of room for development of the characters without butchering the original vision(however misguided that vision is)

i crave deconstruction of the repressed male action hero trope like no other

aside from that personal thing, i absolutely agree that there is a lot of value in taking ideas with lots of potential but poor execution and redoing them with better writing, better technology and resources, etc. i don't think "good stories" need to be retold every 20 - 30 years but it happens anyway

[TheVoidchildProject]

i would really love to see reboost/reinterpretations/deconstructions of some of the horrible macho action movies from the 80s and 90s. some of those films are so badly written

I'm going to assume you're not talking about the -92 classic "Demolition Man". Cause that's a great movie now and then... What? It is! =X

And incidentally it does poke fun of and deconstruct the 80-90's macho action to some extent (while also falling into the tropes of that era of course).