As we all know, Disney has recently been creating rebooted live-action versions of their classic movies. What is your opinion on Disney’s live-action reboots- or reboots in general? What, in your eyes, makes a good or a bad reboot? Spoiler: I rant about a reboot I like. An example of a well-done reboot is the rebooted DuckTales (2017). Although I never watched the original 1987 DuckTales, I watched the first episode of the reboot and was hooked. It’s my understanding that the creators are well-aware of the original and hide little easter eggs, such as one character being voiced by the original voice actor for the triplets, including a doll of Webby’s original design in one episode. On that topic, the characters were all given “reboots” without drifting too far off their original personalities (except for one character, who really needed a completely new personality). Huey, Dewey, and Louie now all have their own separate personalities. Huey is the smart, older brother figure, Dewey is the adventurous, risk-taking middle child, and Louie is the mischievous, business-oriented youngest child. Webby is given a big reboot. She is changed from bratty and whiny to bold and fun-loving, while still retaining her “sisterly” qualities. She is also more central to the main plot, and is treated like a sister by the triplets. Finally, the plot itself has been rebooted to be about the adventures of the McDuck family, finding their long-lost mother Della Duck, defeating the evil Magica DeSpell, and most importantly, family. All in all, DuckTakes 2017 is an example of a reboot done well, because of the way it is able to update to modern times without straying behind the original intent. While the characters have been given some drastic reboots, the central theme to the show remains the same: how family always sticks together. I recommend watching this show if you haven’t already.
Reboots, the last refuge of those lacking in creativity, right behind turning a single successful movie into an awful multi-part franchise. Let me tell you, I would hate to be a kid growing up in these modern times. I despair for the youth of today who are subjected to low quality material stripped of everything that made it high quality when their parents were children. Maybe this is just nostalgia talking, but...well, the live action Disney movies are the Western equivalent of live action anime...which Western directors are treading on anyway with some truly awful adaptations of Japanese classics. It's nightmare fuel. ...yeah, Disney have fallen very far to me. Honestly I would say the last good movie they made was The Emperor's New Groove. Back in 2000. This is not to say that all of their movies since then have been diabolical, but the quality has been steadily declining since then...and it hit rock bottom with Cars. I will never forgive them for making that abominable franchise. Or the Star Wars sequels that are somehow WORSE than the prequels. Anyways. Before I go off on a rant... What makes a good reboot, to me, is something that achieves a delicate balance of staying faithful to the original material, but not being being afraid to be its own thing. Take the same characters and reinvent them - this is something that comics do all the time with What If? scenarios and soft reboots of core characters...or the entire franchise, in the case of All New All Different Marvel and The New 52, respectively. A good reboot can also take existing material and expand on it and make it BETTER than it was - the best example of that I can think of is Boom's Power Rangers comics. Those are literally morphenomenal (ahem) in that they in no way interfere with existing canon but build on it tremendously, and it actually feels like a lost arc of the original show, even though it's a reboot of a comic book series. Seriously, Shattered Grid was something else, and even before that it captured that 90s charm the original show had. But X-Men Evolution is a great example of a good reboot in a TV series: it wasn't as good as the 90s series, but it was an amazing show on its own merits and that it wasn't afraid to ignore the comics and do its own thing - and do it well, this is a key thing that the MCU movies now should really learn - was great. It was basically a teen drama version of the X-Men but it wasn't afraid to own that and spit in the face of the long-established comic book canon, with interesting takes on characters...although it did mess up the last arc something awful by trying to introduce Apocalypse in four episodes. Come on, guys. You were doing well before that. The 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon was similarly fantastic, and so was the TMNT cartoon of the same era...right up to that awful Fast Forward season.
Well, there's a lot of variables. First, if you reuse characters like in Bakugan Battle Planet, then make sure the character is recognizable by the people who watched the original. For example, Dan Kuzo looks too different in Battle Planet. Second, don't have any characters that share a name with a previous character, like Shun from Bakugan Battle Planet. In the original, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Shun had black hair and used Ventus Bakugan. He was basically a ninja. In Battle Planet, he was a blonde rich kid who uses Aquas Bakugan like Marucho (I forget how to spell his name). If a character shares a name with another from the original, at least make sure they're similar enough, otherwise the name should be completely different. That being said, if you're going to do a reboot that starts basically from scratch, like Beyblade Metal Fusion or Beyblade Burst, I guess you have a little more room for originality. Just don't overuse any words. Seriously, in Metal Fusion and its continuations, I've cringed at the number of times the word "pal" was used during the scenes where the characters are competing, but that might just be "the horrible English Dub". I do have to admit, dubs are sometimes just as bad as reboots can be. Either way, when doing a reboot, the writers should at least make sure it lives up to the original. If it falls short, they clearly did something wrong. Also, if you're going to do a reboot, don't do multiple reboots of the same thing. I think that was one of my problems with the Batman movies, including Batman Vs Superman. Although, I'm not sure how many times they've actually did a reboot of the Batman movies. After all, the only thing worse than a bad reboot is doing unnecessary or excessive reboots. One of the bad parts about BVS was, after all, having to go through Batman's origin story again, which I admit did serve some purpose. But serioursly, come on. Just about everyone who watched it already knew the story behind Batman.
I actually really enjoy reboots. Even though people complain about them just being cash grabs, they usually contain new things, or portray things in a different way, which adds to the movie or show as a whole. I'm not saying I love all reboots (I found the new Pete's Dragon movie to be really boring, and I'm disappointed that it wasn't a musical like the original), but I for one really enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast reboot, and am looking forward to the new Aladdin movie. I've never really understood people's complaints about reboots. They're not ruining the original, they're not taking anything from you, and guess what? It's not just our generation that has seen reboots (Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers have been rebooted so many times, it's not even funny). If you don't want to watch a reboot, don't, but don't make people who do want to enjoy them feel like uncultured idiots for having a different preference than you.
