Minecraft. Lilo & Stitch. How to Train Your Dragon. These nostalgic childhood movies and games are going to be brought to life this spring in theaters.
For a few years now, movie studios have been producing live action versions of famous animated movies and games like Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokemon. With the announcement of these live actions, critique also followed as people wondered whether the CGI, casting, and acting could effectively pay homage to the originals.
The announcement of a Minecraft movie has been a frequent topic in the conversations of people who grew up playing the game. “I have heard of the new live action. I haven’t been able to NOT because of all these promos and ads,” says 18 year old Nico.
Some people have been worrying about whether or not the CGI can accurately capture the expressiveness and playfulness of their favorite childhood characters. “If the main character loses his charm, the movie may feel less like a childhood movie and more like a cash grab,” states 16 year old Sohayla, as she talks about her expectations for the How To Train Your Dragon movie.
Sixteen year old Vedell states that he thinks live actions are unnecessary unless it meets a few conditions. He says, “I don’t think exact live action remakes are necessary unless some part of the original is taken and used to expand, e.g using the story and world of Sleeping Beauty to create Maleficent was one of the few live actions I’ve enjoyed.” He believes that expanding on the original story is more entertaining that just recreating a movie we have already seen before.
Sohayla also agrees that expanding these movies is something studios should be focusing on. She mentions the Lion King movies and says,“The Lion King felt lifeless and added celebrities to sell the film. Ultimately, a good live action should justify its existence by bringing something new and adding new twists to old stories.”
The only thing we have to judge these movies are trailers, we won’t know whether or not these movies will meet our expectations just based on the trailers, they could turn out great but we won’t know until it’s in the theaters.
