In Focus

The live action adaptation of animated movies and television series seems to be becoming more and more popular. Some are great, some are not. 

Recently, Netflix came out with their live adaptation of Avatar The Last Airbender. I personally loved it. They stuck to the source material and didn’t try to rewrite the whole thing. Unlike the movie adaptation that was done years ago that I thought was horrible. Who changes how a main character’s name is said after it is well established? That, among other things, is why I did not care for the movie adaptation. 

As far as some anime adaptations I’ve seen, such as Bleach and Death Note, they were okay, but nothing spectacular. I was actually surprised by JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, it was quite good! And the recent live action One Piece I thought was great! But how many seasons will this one go on for, as the anime has over 1000 episodes and counting? 

Let’s not forget the Disney movies. Aladdin was one of my favorite movies as a kid. But now the live action just didn’t do it for me. Peter Pan was another favorite, and I have yet to watch the live action of that one. Hook was outstanding...granted it wasn’t a remake but a continuance. So far I haven’t been too impressed with these live action remakes except for Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The movies that expand the original universe I feel are much better, like Maleficent. 

I feel like studios are running out of original ideas, so let’s take something that is a classic, and turn it into a messy live action remake. I know they are not going to stop anytime soon, but I can only hope these adaptations would at least live up to the original movie.